General Chat

Dont panic Brexiteers. Boris has promised. that Brexit will be. a Titanic success.

Oh well, not to worry, none of us really believed in it anyway. The EU is like a huge octopus, once in its tentacles you'll never escape no matter how hard you try. Let's hope it doesn't completely suck the life out of us!! Mind you, I doubt anyone would care!

Members of parliament are not delegates a point which is often forgotten by the Labour Party and now it seems by kippers of one sort and another. They are elected to represent their constituency in parliament "according to their best judgement". That may or may not line up with the demands of their constituency party or the government's current program. Winston S Churchill was an excellent example.

Nearly all progress on social matters has been achieved by MPs in parliament being prepared to face down their constituents.

Parliament has held power in this country for over a thousand years. Long may it do so.

A brexit which loosened the political ties between the EU and the UK would pass through parliament albeit far more slowly and with far more caveats than T May would like. OTOH parliament might very well balk at a "hard brexit" wchih threatened to tank the economy.

The £ is up sharply.

Assuming it goes to a vote in the HoC, the MPs need to remember they represent their constituents. Since data appears to exist for the proportion who voted in or out, their personal vote should reflect that.

Is that a pig flying past the window?

Plebiscites demonstrating the "will of the people" have a long history as tools of dictators and would be dictators. It is not very hard to find examples.

England OTOH has a long history of democracy and rule by law. This was forged in the crucible of the Civil War 1640 and the legislative outcome in 1688.

The executive cannot use the royal prerogative to override statutory rights granted through Act of Parliament. Or in a more idiomatic way only Parliament can take away what Parliament has given. That is because Parliament is sovereign not "the will of the people" via a referendum still less the monarch as the shades of Charles 1 will tell.

So news, for some, you are living in a parliamentary democracy.
Get used to it.

Of course the govt will appeal to the Supreme Court. It will lose there too and most likely get some stinging rebukes from the bench as a bonus.

Parliament will now take up its normal rights and duties which is to hold the executive to account on how to implements brexit which will be a long way from the rubber stamp envisaged by the govt. And of course if negotiations fail then Parliament will have the right to end brexit in the current shape and form.

It will be interesting how this plays out....

Seems the democracy of Parliament outweighs the democratic will of the people.

Whatever your view on Brexit is this view seems so wrong.