It seems that when the history of the Brexit saga is finally written today maybe seen as the day we finally walked through the looking glass and declared that we are no longer in Kansas (too many mixed metaphors I think). Today all those MPs who didn’t want Brexit declared that they do – sort of and all those Brexiters who claimed that they want to leave the EU so that Parliament could be sovereign have been fuming when judges had the temerity of actually agreeing with them and said that Parliament is sovereign indeed, even over the wishes of the executive.
Just to recap – a non binding referendum was narrowly won by the Leave side which the Conservative government said they would be bound by the result. That Conservative government then collapsed and was reformed under a new leader who reiterated the election manifesto – Brexit means Brexit. Just to prove this she refused to allow Parliament to have any say on how things were to be organised – claiming an ancient prerogative to allow her to start the leave process herself. Then things started to go wrong and Parliament started to demand that she explain what she was hoping to get out of the negotiations – which seemed to upset the Government with the thought of having to explain themselves to the British people. Finally, the whole approach of the Government was declared illegal leaving many Brexiters muttering darkly about the judiciary trying to undermine the will of the people by informing the people’s representatives that actually as far as the constitution is concerned it is up to MP’s and possibly Lords to decided what the will of the people was not the executive.
So we are back at square one. Nobody really knows which way is up or down and won’t do so until after the Supreme Court rules on the case probably sometime in January next year. (I Believe that this could then be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights – but that would be taking a joke just a little bit too far…wouldn’t it?) Oh and finally just to add another layer to the confusion the Scottish Government are looking at ways that they can join in the fun – as if things weren’t messed up enough already!
Actually I do have some sympathy with the Brexiters, there’s something I didn’t think I would write, because there are an awful lot of remain MPs using weasel words because they don’t want to upset their constituents who voted for Brexit. So they are now for Brexit and support the result of the referendum, sort of, as long it serves their own political expediency. At least the Brexiters are sticking to their long held views, the same could not be said about so many other MPs at the moment.
Not too long ago I wrote a blog about the strange set of circumstances that might bring Jeremy Corbyn to power. Over the past few days the likelihood of all those strange sets of circumstances coming together has somewhat increased.
I think the Brexiters should calm down and accept the ruling of the court whose job it is to try and determine what is legal and what is not. If it is Parliament’s role to permit Article 50 to be activated then this, like the referendum, has to be accepted. I think that the Remain MPs should also be more honest and explain what their true views are as this at least is the easiest thing to explain to their constituents. Finally, I think the Government should hang their collective heads in shame. They are trying railroad one of the most important decisions this country has to make without any consideration of what Parliament’s wishes might be. The only thing that the British people voted for back in June was to leave the European Union. Everything else should be talked about and consulted upon – if that takes time then that is how it should be and I suspect we might have a better solution at the end which the British people might feel best reflects their views and needs. How you determine that is anybody’s guess – no wait we already have a method in place – it is called Parliament which, after today, has once more been proven to be sovereign (Appeal Pending).
As my good friend keeps telling…’…You couldn’t make this up…’
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