That was Gina Miller’s evocative phrase for the power of the Crown when she was interviewed on Radio 4 before the hearing in her case, R (on the application of Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2016] EWHC 2768.
An ancient secretive royal prerogative sounds like the personal privilege of a despot like King John. Have we failed over the past thousand years, perhaps from mere absent-mindedness, to complete the constitutional transition to responsible government, because we have not altogether abolished the power of the Crown? The purpose of this note is to argue that the answer is ‘no’, and that there are reasons of constitutional principle for the British government’s executive power. Those reasons give a positive justification for the authority of the Crown in 2016. That justification undermines the interpretation of the European Communities Act 1972 on which the Divisional Court’s decision in
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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