News that Queen Elizabeth II was on her deathbed interrupted a government in the process of tackling an emergency. Literally so, in the sense that information was passed to Liz Truss in the chamber of the Commons. The prime minister had just announced plans to freeze energy prices – a vast and expensive state intervention. Almost immediately, parliament, along with the rest of Britain’s constitutional apparatus, switched into mourning gear. Politics gave way to the pageantry of succession.
Britain has already lost a summer of government to a Conservative leadership election in which only a tiny fraction of the national electorate could vote. Boris Johnson squandered his valedictory period as prime minister on holidays and burnishing a largely fictitious legacy. The Tories turned their back on the country while problems heaped up in the neglected Downing Street. To suggest that parliament might only sit for seven or eight “working” days between 21 July, when it broke for the summer recess, and its planned return on 17 October – almost a quarter of a year – was extraordinarily remiss.
