Trouble in Kuwait: A parliament that really matters AMONG all the monarchies of the Gulf, Kuwait has easily the most powerful parliament - up to the point where it collides directly with the interests of the ruling Al Sabah family. This has led with increasing frequency to its summary dissolution. On June 20th it happened again - for the fifth time in six years. But the reaction was a lot more robust than before. Many Kuwaitis are fed up with voting for another bunch of candidates who are unlikely to survive long enough in office to get anything done. A week after the latest dissolution 30,000-odd Kuwaitis protested in the capital city. Opposition leaders called for parliament's reinstatement, a constitutional monarchy and full democracy. No such things exist anywhere else in the Gulf. On paper it was a court, not the ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, that ordered the latest dissolution. But the court had probably been leant on, because the emir had just suspended parliament for a month after members of it had threatened to haul in the interior minister for questioning on some embarrassing matters to do with corruption; a similar prospect prompted several ministerial resignations in the past. Moreover, because the court's edict meant that the parliament elected in February was annulled, the previous one, elected in November with fewer Islamists and more members in favour of the emir's appointed government would have to be reinstated. Kuwait's opposition combines Islamists, emboldened by events in Egypt and elsewhere, and a clutch of stalwart liberal nationalists, such as Ahmed Saadoun, the veteran speaker of the just-dissolved parliament. He had loudly criticised plans for a union between the Gulf monarchies, saying that countries should unite only when they enjoyed comparable political systems, including "the right to popular participation in decision-making." A theory doing the rounds of Kuwait's coffee shops and Twitter-sphere is that the Saudis persuaded the emir to dispense with his tiresome parliament. In the United Arab Emirates a handful of activists were jailed for five months last year for petitioning for an elected parliament. Kuwait's is the only fully elected parliament in the Gulf and the only one with the right to question not only ministers but also the prime minister, who has always been a member of the Al Sabah family. Yet it is hamstrung by its diminishing life-expectancy, accusations of electoral corruption, political and tribal divisions, and a tendency to use its limited powers to block the government's economic projects. By and large, Kuwaitis are proud of their tradition of political participation and robust public debate. But they are increasingly annoyed by the instability resulting from endless tussles between the parliament and governments appointed by the emir. And secular-minded Kuwaitis are worried by the intentions of Islamist MPs. In May the Islamist-influenced parliament endorsed a bill - which the emir refused to sign - to bring in capital punishment for blasphemy. That may have contributed to the death sentence on parliament itself.