Hello and welcome to The Spectator podcast. I'm Lara Prendergast. This week we're joined by some of our writers to hear about their favourite beaches as we take a look at the British seaside. But before then, there's of course some Brexit chat as we ask whether Parliament can even stop a no-deal Brexit in the autumn.

And at the end, we look at whether Desert Island Discs has lost the plot.

As September gets closer, MPs are plotting their way to prevent no-deal Brexit.

Already this week, the ideas that have been floated include persuading the Queen to kick Boris Johnson out of number 10

and cancelling September recess, which is normally reserved for party conference season.

But will any of these measures actually work?

Jane Forsyth is sceptical to say the least in this week's political column,

and he writes that number 10 is aiming for a November the first election, one for your diary.

He war games the next few months with Katie Balls and Catherine Haddon, a procedural expert

and Whitehall historian from the Institute for Government.

James, in your politics column this week, you write about how the conventions that govern

this country are fast evaporating. What do you mean by that?

If you go back, the referendums are

not in keeping with, I think our system of government, I think it's fair to say. And that has created

a tension all along since 2016 between this referendum result and the whole concept of parliamentary

sovereignty. That, I think, was then compounded by the 2017 election where Theresa May

basically went to try and get a parliament that lined up with the referendum result and spectacularly

misfired. And I think we have seen a whole bunch of conventions go out the window. You know,

you had John Burko, a Speaker of House Commons, overturning procedural rules to limit Theresa May's

room for manoeuvre.

You had a humble address use to force the government's full legal advice on the withdrawal agreement when there's normally a convention that that is confidential.

And you had Parliament impinging, I think, on the executive's crown prerogative powers

...