Zap, you’re frozen

Colleague Wherry has been faithfully documenting some of the lamer justifications Tory MPs have been offering for their government’s decision to shutter Parliament for two months rather than obey Parliament’s demand to surrender the Afghan-prisoner documents: we need the time away from Parliament to come up with an economic plan; we can be just as productive working in our constituencies; and — my personal favourite — let’s all watch the Olympics!

This last is so mind-numbingly stupid, so staggeringly beside the point, that I can only assume it is part of some sort of fiendish plot. I think it is intended to act as a kind of electromagnetic pulse, aimed at knocking out the entire country’s brain waves and making it impossible for anyone to think straight. It is not just totally devoid of sense: it is an assault on the very concept of sense — like that old joke about the surrealists. (How many surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb? A fish.) It is as if the Conservatives were bent on proroguing, not just Parliament, but intelligent discussion of any kind.