As soon as Boris Johnson became the United Kingdom’s prime minister last month, he appointed a new so-called war cabinet and tasked it with getting serious—and, more importantly, being seen to get serious—about preparing for the crisis that would ensue from a no-deal Brexit. It’s a crisis that he has the power to avoid at the stroke of his pen. But he has vowed to take the U.K. out of the European Union on Oct. 31 “do or die,” “no ifs or buts,” with or without a deal.
The problem, for Johnson, is that British voters have never had the opportunity to vote on what kind of Brexit they want. Moreover, most members of Parliament oppose a no-deal Brexit. And yet Johnson claims to speak for, and to serve, the British people, pitting them against the House of Commons that represents them.
