Disaster planning

[bunn]

If Great Cthulhu devours the Houses of Parliament during, say the State Opening of Parliament, and removes at a stroke all Members of Parliament, all members of the House of Lords, the Privy Council, the Monarch and all the senior Royals...

Who is left in charge?

Comments

[torkell]

Perhaps the MP who's being held hostage (against the Queen's safe return from Parliament) at Buckingham Palace?

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about that MP; and not all lords are present either, so parliament would continue even if the Commons was incapable of deliberating.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Probably not at peak efficiency, however.

[matgb]

One surviving MP? Can vote through anything they like for a bit. Ah, except stuff that needs a seconder.

[po8crg.livejournal.com]

Quorum is 40, isn't it?

Admittedly, it only matters if someone asks for quorum to be counted, and only an MP can do that.

More importantly, you need six MPs to have a division (speaker, four tellers and one to actually vote) but you can pass things by acclaim, of course.

No, the real problem is that the one MP would have to become Speaker and therefore would have to be neutral on everything.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! It might take him some time to work out who would be needed to appoint him acting prime minister.

Although, he is not very far away, so we'd be relying on Great Cthulhu staying in the river and not getting out to stomp about.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

so we'd be relying on Great Cthulhu staying in the river

A. Can the Great Cthulhu fit in the Thames?

B. If yes, how did he get past the Thames Barrier and under all the bridges?

If we're very lucky, he's working from out-of-date maps of the Thames, and finds his evil apocalypse thwarted by modern flood defences.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

He will go through anything that his beak will go through, of course.

I have researched this matter! On Youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6L82iJ_NTI

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Ewww!

Or maybe Wow!

It looks like quite a slow process, though. I imagine Cthulhu would be rather vulnerable while he's doing his glooping. An alert military could exploit this.