Following yesterday’s news that The Queen agreed to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s request to prorogue (suspend) Parliament for five weeks, thousands of people gathered outside Downing Street and in city squares across the country last night in protest.
On online petition demanding that parliament is not prorogued has attracted 1,213,057 (and rising) signatures, with 2,172 of those coming from the Isle of Wight.
Opposition protests
Conservative Isle of Wight MP, Robert Seely, made his views known yesterday – to a mixed response – and this Saturday opposition parties on the Isle of Wight are planning protests in Newport.
Islanders For Europe protest
Islanders For Europe will be gathering from 11am in St Thomas’s Square, “as a demonstration to defend Parliament’s sovereign role within our democracy”.
A spokesperson for the non-party political Islanders For Europe said,
“This suspension of Parliament is a constitutional outrage. Boris Johnson’s defensive and arbitrary actions illustrate the increasing fragility of the argument for No Deal.
“Polls have consistently shown that there is no public majority support for a damaging No Deal Brexit. In fact – many people have changed their minds now the benefits of our EU membership are much better known.
“Democracy did not end with one vote in 2016. Our Prime Minister has shown that this government is afraid of continuing democratic votes – and we know there are many thousands of Islanders who will fight this coup all the way.”
Labour Party protest
From midday, the Isle of Wight branch of The Labour Party will be also be organising a “protest against Johnson’s attack on parliamentary democracy”.
They’ll also be gathering in St Thomas’s Square.
Island Labour Party Chair, Julian Critchley, said:
“What Johnson is doing, with the disgraceful and shameful support of Bob Seely, is an attack on our democracy unprecedented in modern times.
“As citizens it is our duty to fight this outrage. Too often, people quote the phrase that ‘all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’, without then doing anything. It’s time for all of us who believe in our democracy to take a stand and let Johnson, Seely and the rest of those who would remove our democratic rights, that we will not stand by and do nothing.”
YouGov poll
A YouGov poll found that the public oppose suspending Parliament by almost 2-1, 47% to 27%
Article edit
The article originally stated the 11am protest was being organised by the Green Party, this was my mistake, it is being organised by Islanders for Europe. The information was sent to us by a member of the Green Party, hence the mix-up.
Image: Trending Topics 2019 under CC BY 2.0
