Sir,
Here’s a small but important legal point that needs to be made today:
In the light of some dangerous comments made over the weekend and this morning, by the usual culprits in politics and the media, an important legal point must be made now. This concerns the possibility of the UK revoking its Article 50 Notification.
Such a thing is of course impossible under the terms of Article 50, which does not provide for any such revocation, and indeed requires the unanimous consent of all the EU nations even to extend the Article 50 period.
However, on 4 December 2018 the ECJ ruled, entirely unlawfully, that such a revocation was indeed possible, and that the decision so to do “is for the member state alone to take, in accordance with its constitutional requirements”.
This ruling openly contradicts all the fundamental tenets of the EU Treaties, but as there is no appeal from ECJ judgments, it is free to act as illegally as it likes, and its rulings are unchallengeable rules of EU law. As such of course, these rulings trump any internal law of the UK.
A specific comment I heard on UK BBC Radio 4 is what prompted me to pen this note, and this related to the possibility of the PM revoking the Notification. I was horrified that anyone could imagine that this could be done! The key words in the ECJ judgement are “in accordance with its constitutional requirements”. Gina Miller was kind enough to clarify these requirements for us in the case she brought against the UK Government in January 2017. The court ruled that in order to give the Notification, an Act of Parliament was needed. Accordingly, that Notification cannot be revoked unless that revocation has been authorised by an Act of Parliament.
This is not merely a dry legal point of academic significance only, because the subject matter is hugely important, as the step would openly defy the majority vote of 17.4 million voters. There would be an immediate and urgent legal case brought by a small army of claimants on a representative basis if an unlawful attempt was made to revoke the Notification.
This important point must be publicised far and wide today!
Respectfully, Septimus Octavius
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Sir,
Here is my take on Mrs May’s “chat from the sofa” video-clip (see e.g. here):
There is a logical disconnect in what she says.
She is not stupid, and she has clever advisers, so this has to be a deliberate attempt to pull the wool over her listeners’ eyes. She says that Parliament has rejected her deal (the only one accepted by the EU) three times, and is unlikely to accept it now. She then says “Parliament is legislating to block no deal”, leaving only two alternatives – either we leave with a deal, or we do not leave at all, ie we stay in the EU.
But the reality is that Parliament cannot “legislate to block no deal”. It is like King Canute sitting on the shore, trying to command the tide not to come in.
We can only stay in the EU now if Parliament legislates to over-ride and revoke the referendum result, but it dare not do that, it dare not openly defy the expressed will of the people. So, under Article 50 of the Treaty, which trumps UK law while we are still inside the EU, the position is that unless there IS a deal, then we are OUT with No Deal, on Friday night.
Of course she is trying to get Labour to support her rotten deal. It will leave the UK as a voteless vassal state, a colony of Brussels. Well, the last colony governed from Brussels was the Belgian Congo. Not a happy prospect. Let us just hope that she fails.
Respectfully, Torquil Dick-Erikson
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Sir,
Some suggest that Tory members should not give up. But that Party has been home to spin and deception from Heath through to May. Cameron made no secret of his ambition to be heir to Blair, the ace of spin.
Sadly their party has been increasingly driven by big party donors, who have little interest in what the people want, or in the emasculation of Parliament. Many of them never wanted to leave the E.U.
They and a majority of (remainer) MPs have driven themselves to destruction. 200 of them gave her a vote of confidence and for them the Party will soon be over. With their Marxist ally, they will likely be consigned to the wilderness for a generation – because they have become the bete noir of 17.4m sovereign people. They connived with the E.U. to bring an end to our nation state and they must pay the price.
Could this imply that Corbyn and May are soft in the head? Surely not!
Respectfully, Roger Arthur
All this talk that ‘they can’t do this’ or it is against the constitution to do ‘that’ is wishful thinking when the law and law makers have been politicised. What applies for Gina Miller does not apply to Brexiteers. They can interpret the law however they want. The only lethal weapon we have to destroy these treacherous low-life people is the ballot box. This is their Achilles heel and we must keep out on those streets and keep those leaflets dropping through the letterboxes especially now during the local elections.
Custtomers have been waiting 3 years for delivery. Project fear pales into insignifiicance.
remaining in the EU beyond Brexit date costs us money.
SO two choices. Pass a money bill= government only= or charge the daily costs to the Remainers
– the only one option left by the EU ie WTO terms was first excluded by the atturdy general in the logic attributed to Lady HAW HAW
Just a nitpicking comment on Torquil’s letter: Poor old King Canute, he always gets blamed for the reverse of what he actually did! Canute was a Christian King and he was therefore offended by his courtiers grovelling (a word in fashion at the moment), saying he was so marvellous that he could even stop the tide turning. He ordered his throne to be taken down to the sea’s edge, then ordered the tide to stop turning, which of course it didn’t, and thereby showed that no man, even a King, could turn a tide — only God could do that.
Sonya to think I’ve been deceived my whole life by the cultural Marxists of the day on King Canute! Thank you so much.
Under the Bill of Rights 1689, membership of the EU is illegal in the first place but our quisling successive governments have ridden roughshod over that. The Lisbon Treaty basically abolishes all the countries which have signed up to it and our deceitful politicians are colluding in driving the final in. So much for “There’ll always be an England”.
OH, WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE, WHEN FIRST WE TRY TO DECEIVE !
Surely we all cottoned on to the peculiarity of all Parties in the Commons, being for Remain in the EU, at referendum time ! Only UKIP, outside of the Commons, were for Leaving the EU, and UKIP won !
Since then, DECEPTION HAS BEEN WRIT LARGE UPON OUR NATION’S HISTORY ! Deception became sheer stupidity with a PM, who said one thing but did something quite different, and this Nation has now had enough of this utter bilge !
Thanks to Freedom of Information, Heath’s letters have become public, and it is impossible now to disagree that our entry into Europe was by deception. So much for Heath, and so much for our membership of the EU !
The web is now so tangled, that we are headed into a breach of Law. This also shows us what ‘Law’ means within the EU, and it is fact that The Supreme Court is just a joke and a political lever. Personally I have total contempt for EU and its Law !
Our Parliament was chucked into utter division and confusion when the People ‘Went Off Script’, and has magnified the total division that exists between the People and their Executive Body. Proof is now apparent, that political Parties have no right at all to be against a change to our vote system of FPTP, and a correct PR system HAS TO BE BROUGHT IN !
Thank you for clarifying that.
There is another significant technical point overlooked by many.
Given any Brexit extension has to be unanimously agreed by the other 27 EU Members, it would only take one of them to say No for us to be immediately out – in which case the UK Parliament’s Dis-Honourable CONfraudulent & Labour MP’s, blatantly breaching Manifesto & personal Election Address promises to action Brexit by 29th March with/without a Deal, can whistle all they like but to no avail.
President Macron & other unpopular EU leaders would do well to remember how Margaret Thatcher metamorphosed from being the most unpopular PM in UK history to the historical 1983 General Election landslide win following the Falklands War, So if, as they claim, they – as has the UK – have made preparations for a WTO/No Deal Brexit, they say Non/Nein, they’ll unleash similar nationalism and thereby increase their own popularity. Du courage M. Macron!!!
David, I have emailed Mr. Victor Orban in Hungary to politely ask him to vote down May’s request for the first delay to Brexit. Unlike our own politicians, he responded promptly and in his response he explained that, as there was a formal request from the UK, he did not feel able to comply with my request for him to exercise his veto power.
It seems I assessed his attitude wrongly because I thought (wrongly) that he might just be sympathetic with our attempts to break free from the EU.
At least, however, he had the decency to promptly respond to my email, which is more than I can say for my local MP who completely ignores my emails !
Friday Night will just be kicked down the street again until a later Friday night! Nothing new. We need just one good friend in Europe to refuse any further extension to Mrs May’s request, THEN we should be out of the EU.
I have thought long and hard about this can kicking with the hope that another nation(?) will just say no, nay, non etc..
In the cold light of day, the common market is desperate for our money, but are swaggering around pretending they ‘just don’t care’.
WHEN push comes to shove, they will never kill the British Golden Goose but instead keep us on life support, while they gather the Golden Eggs.
The constitutional Implications of Mays extension are very serious, the longer it goes on the worse it gets.
We are told that when it comes to Brexit MPs can change the official pre referendum advice after the referendum event to exclude “no deal”. In short MPs have the final say on the type of Brexit on offer.
In the next breath we are told that “the people need the final say” via a second referendum (Liz Kendal Daily Politics a few days ago)
If the people have the final say we should have left on March 29th.. we certainly should be Leaving this week. Because the people voted to Leave and according to supporters of a second referendum “the people’s decision is final”.
If MPs and officials have “the final say”.. Then MPs and officials are involved in a coup d’etat and have usurped power. As the late Tony Benn argued “the people grant politicians their power via the ballot box it is not theirs by right.” In order for politicians to exercise power in a democratic system they have to be granted those powers by the electorate, in short the powers belong to us, and we only grant it to politicians temporarily. MPs asked the electorate to make the decision on EU membership
If Article 50 is revoked or a second referendum is enacted before the result of the first referendum has been implimented then this directly goes against the basic principles of a democratic political system.
If power rests with “the people” then MPs are duty bound to Leave. If power no longer rests with the people, MPs can do as they please as they have assumed absolute power, we are in an elective dictatorship.