WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

THE Queen has agreed to end the current parliamentary session in just over a week’s time.

That means the House of Commons will be prorogued, or suspended at some point between September 9 and 12 and October 14.

MPs will still be MPs but there’ll be no debates in the Commons, no laws being brought forward.

While, under normal circumstances, it is normal for Parliament to be prorogued every autumn – the current parliamentary session, which began in June 2017, is the longest in almost 400 years – Johnson’s decision is a little irregular.

And given that whenever he’s been asked, he’s failed to rule out proroguing Parliament as a means of getting a hard Brexit through, there’s a little scepticism about his insistence that this is business as normal.

COULD THE QUEEN HAVE SAID NO?

THE decision to prorogue Parliament was taken in the Balmoral library by the monarch on the advice of the Privy Council. However, it was never anything more than a formality, it’s thought the last time a monarch refused to request for prorogation was centuries ago.

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While many MPs are privy counsellors, the only ones who get to go to meetings with the Queen are senior ministers, led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is the lord president of the council.

HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?

YOUR typical prorogation is very short, rarely lasting longer than two weeks. The next prorogue will last closer to five weeks.

Though it should be pointed out that MPs traditionally take a three-week recess during September and early October, when the Li Dems, Labour and the Tories hold their conference.

CAN MPS STOP IT?

MAYBE. They’re certainly going to try.

A group of 70 parliamentarians are appealing to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to overturn the order. They think they’re in with a chance of success, but the Government’s lawyers are also very confident. That court case could be heard today or tomorrow.

MPs might have more luck stopping a No-Deal Brexit.

The opposition parties met on Tuesday night and agreed to prioritise a legislative approach to stopping a hard Brexit.

This will curtail the time they have to do that.

They can still ratify the withdrawal agreement that exists, the one negotiated by Theresa May and rejected by the Commons three times already, though the chances of that happening are slim.

They can also revoke Article 50 and effectively bring Brexit to a halt. The chances of this happening are also very slim.

The nuclear option is a vote of no confidence which would almost certainly lead to a General Election. If the opposition do manage to call and win a vote of no confidence in the Government, they could try to form their own government of national unity. But that would mean the opposition being united behind one caretaker prime minister, and that, again, seems unlikely.

That could mean an election, but the timing of that vote would be in the hands of Johnson and he would likely wait until after the October 31 Brexit deadline.