Supreme Court: serving or subverting democracy?

In conclusion, I offer a few thoughts on some of the individual players in this Supreme Court saga.

One, in particular, has covered himself in shame. By joining a case against a government of his own party, former Prime Minister Sir John Major exhibited a striking level of hypocrisy. He used prorogation for political ends during his own premiership.

Apparently, Sir John believes that the right to seek political advantage is acceptable for every premier other than Boris Johnson.

Mr Johnson was a Brussels-based journalist at the time Sir John occupied Downing Street. His Eurosceptic missives irritated the then prime minister, who is now, it appears, more than a little motivated by a desire for vengeance.

The activity of businesswoman Gina Miller is also worthy of note.

Late in 2016, Ms Miller launched a court case against the government of Theresa May. The High Court ruled in her favour, saying that Mrs May could not launch Article 50 without first taking the matter to parliament.

If that outcome had aided the progress of Brexit, Ms Miller's contribution may have been remembered, by many more people, as a constructive one.

However, that verdict was not enough for this activist. She wasn't concerned with the courtesies or legalities of parliamentary procedure - and she isn't today.

The 2016 referendum result did not go the way Gina Miller had hoped, so she single-handedly decided that Brexit must be blocked, if not in the cabinet room, then in the parliament and the courts.

Her resilience is to be admired, especially in the face of threats she received on social media. But her assumptions are askew.

She believes - as do some former political leaders - that Brits who voted to leave the EU are either too callow or ill-informed to know what is best for them. So, they must be forced either to vote again on the matter, or to abandon their goals altogether.

A second referendum is now the central plank of party policy for the Liberal Democrats - even though its members, like the majority of the House of Commons, voted in 2017 to kick-start Article 50, the formal process of divorce from the EU.