In preventing a parliamentary vote on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal agreement, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow has turned this Parliament into a joke. Only an election can resolve the dysfunction.

The problem is quite simple. The British government is seeking Parliament’s assent to a deal to leave the European Union at the end of this month. But while Johnson’s deal could scrape by with a majority in the Commons, a parliamentary majority opposes a “no deal” Brexit and has already voted to make Johnson request an extension from the EU rather than let such a thing happen.