General Discussion
Judges' logic is utter jibberish, clearly they ruled based purely on self interest.
The IN/OUT EU referendum was an act of Parliament, they have had they say. The MPs voted 6 to 1 in favour of the referendum.
The United Kingdom voted to leave the EU by a massive majority. The United Kingdom will leave the EU.
MPs have no say in the matter, there is no such thing as hard or soft Brexit, it is simply OUT.
Among those who actually voted, 52% said leave, 48% said stay.
Democracy - yes. 'Massive' majority - hardly?
Triumphalism by the Tory press - 100% Mention of the (over 16 million) losers - zilche
I thought the Leavers were all for the sovereignty of parliament and for British law to be interpreted by, and decided upon, by British judges.
So as they've got both via this decision I really don't know what they are moaning about.
In fact, some might say this judgement is a great example of 'taking back control'.
@ShyTalk 47, the out majority was 1,269,501, which is a huge number, fact!
@Lynne, wonderful, perhaps you should be an mp.
@shytalk47 - Harold Wilson once famously said "one vote is enough in a referendum", I would say 1,269,501 is more than ample for the Brexiters to claim legitimate victory.
Paul and Burnside ; Yes, democracy in practice. But after many decades of bitter bellyaching I thought the 'Leavers' might have scored a real, significant percentage they could be proud of. Under 4% is ample to mandate our representatives, but a pretty close call after all their efforts. Who, then, am I to judge? - by marriage I ended up with a French mother-in-law!
I don't think anyone is querying the outcome of the referendum.
But the question posed in it was words along the lines of "Should the UK be in the EU or not?".
To which 52% of those who voted said No, whilst 48% said Yes.
So, in the scheme of things and given the number of votes cast one might say that the nation is divided (or perhaps I should say the nations comprising the UK are divided what with N.Ireland and Scotland voting on the whole to remain and England and Wales voting on the whole to leave)
But nowhere, but nowhere on that ballot paper was there any question about what form our exiting from the EU should take.
That is another question altogether and one which I for one believe parliament should have a say about.
Hi Lynne i respect your point of view but it does omit one thing when Ted Heath took us into Europe the ballot paper only allowed
the vote on joining the Common Market not the federal state of Europe and every detail it would cover.In fact it may be wiser to
say we were mislead and so our entry was invalid.
Issues pertaining to 'Europe' have been the subject of parliamentary debate since we joined back in 1975.
This for example concerning the Maastrict Treaty.
"In the United Kingdom, an opt-out from the treaty's social provisions was opposed in Parliament by the opposition Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs and the treaty itself by the Maastricht Rebels within the governing Conservative Party. The number of rebels exceeded the Conservative majority in the House of Commons, and thus the government of John Major came close to losing the confidence of the House.[10] In accordance with British constitutional convention, specifically that of parliamentary sovereignty, ratification in the UK was not subject to approval by referendum."
This is an extract from an article written by the Labour MP Yvette Cooper.
"Parliament won’t block Brexit, but it does have to execute it. The courts have concluded that because Parliament passed the law to join the EU in 1972, Parliament has to pass the law for us to leave. So this is a court judgement about process not outcome because the outcome (triggering Article 50) won’t change. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/yvette-cooper/article-50-high-court_b_12811676.html
Anybody else catch one Nigel Farage on the tv this morning concede that the referendum was of an advisory nature only?
Just sayin...........
Since the referendum we have been told many times that it was only advisory, legally this seems to be correct, which then begs the question why did the government put the following statement on its propaganda leaflet:
This is your decision. The Government will implement what you decide.
Just sayin...