Evening Standard comment: As the Queen calls by, Parliament is in control; Victims of Syrian horror; Pizza Express survives

Her Majesty’s horses have been made to trot from Buckingham Palace to Westminster in vain.

Today’s Queen’s Speech doesn’t matter.

Nor does next month’s Budget, which the Chancellor now says he will be giving on November 6.

Everyone must know it, including the Prime Minister, the Queen, and probably even the horses pulling the coaches in the rain today.

Why? Because Parliament is in control, not ministers. The Government can announce new laws on immigration, how the railways are run or boast about the environment and the NHS — but it doesn’t have the numbers in the House of Commons to win votes to make all this happen.

The Government can set out new spending plans or taxes — but it doesn’t have the numbers to be sure it can pass them.

Boris Johnson wants a general election to fix this but he doesn’t have the numbers to get one of those either unless Labour decides to give in and allow one.

Everything that will happen in the next few weeks flows from this simple fact of hard parliamentary numbers.

That’s why the current Prime Minister, just like the last one, finds himself caught in a storyline which we have heard before, only this time the numbers are worse for him and the reality is tougher.

Government sources brief that a Brexit deadline is absolute and cannot be broken — even if it means leaving with no deal. Then the Commons takes control, and says no.

Government sources brief that it’s found a way around the Irish border issue and is close to a deal. It turns out that it hasn’t, yet, and any solution might involve a compromise which the Commons would not accept. What starts out looking strong ends up looking weak.

It’s only a few days since everyone claimed Dominic Cummings was in control at Number 10, amid bullish boasts from a source assumed to be him that “the negotiations will probably end this week” and we would walk away. They didn’t, of course.

But it is the Government that’s had to give ground to keep them going, not the EU.

It’s only a few days too since ministers talked about being able to find a way around the law passed by MPs to block a no-deal exit on October 31. That has fallen away, too.

Parliamentary power means the Government will have to do a deal or seek an extension — and possibly both.

So what will Parliament do next? Thanks to the Benn Act blocking no deal, the Government has had to try to negotiate a deal.

If the Prime Minister doesn’t come back with one that Parliament can agree to, Brexit will be delayed. And after that he’ll still have to negotiate, because Parliament will still stand firm against no deal.

He’ll want an election as a way out of the logjam. But Parliament doesn’t.

And right now, it’s Parliament that’s getting its way.

Victims of Syrian horror

The horror of what’s happening in Kurdish-held areas of Syria on the border with Turkey has many dimensions.

The impact on civilians there is grotesque.

The consequences of Turkey’s invasion for the Western alliance are serious.

President Trump’s decision to move US forces out of the way of Turkish troops has wrecked a policy being followed by US allies including Britain.

It’s a catastrophic mess but it has one immediate effect which our Government must face: what to do with British citizens who fought for Islamic State and their children?

Many were held in squalid camps by the border, whose guards have fled.

What will their fate be? Amid the chaos, the children are innocent victims.

Pizza Express survives

Is the Pizza Panic over?

Last week reports that Pizza Express was heading for the rocks sent nostalgic diners rushing though the doors.

Now the chain says most of its restaurants are profitable and it won’t shut.

The doughballs are safe!

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Queen opens new session of Parliament in crunch week for Brexit - LIVE