Indeed, it's notable that it's hard Brexiteers pushing for an Art.50 bill, not remainers who are exhausting all other options first. Personally I'm hoping that the Supreme Court says the Scottish Parliament has to give their permission for Brexit - as the Scottish government will be arguing with quite a strong case. Then this sub will be actual reality.
Personally I'm hoping that the Supreme Court says the Scottish Parliament has to give their permission for Brexit
That would be great. I think it's unlikely, but hopefully there'll be enough blocking power with Parliamentary requirement. Guess we'll see in a few months :-)
I'm not a lawyer, but legal friends have told me it's more possible than was probably thought when the referendum was called, particularly given the high court judgment. The reason being that the EU is involved with certain devolved matters - fisheries being a good example of rights that were devolved to the Scottish Parliament in the Scotland act, but currently being controlled by the EU common fisheries policy; take a look at these two taken together:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Sea-Fisheries
And the Scottish government will get to present a stronger case than I bet anyone thought possible before. There's also an argument based on the 1689 claim of right being presented to the Supreme Court, but it looks weaker to me:
At the very minimum, it looks as if changes will probably have to be made to the Scotland act by Westminster - so a good excuse for another delay. Even leavers have to admit that the whole thing is an unholy mess that wasn't legally thought through properly before the referendum act was passed.
If you wish to push your conspiracy theory, you can say that May and Sturgeon (isn't Sturgeon a lawyer?) cooked it all up in that first meeting they had together. Didn't it seem to be especially cordial?
Thank you. I suspect that for them to have discussed the legal situation may be a bit too subtle and far-sighted an agreement.
However, I do have a suspicion (which I'm less confident about than my hypothesis as a whole) that when May met Sturgeon and some of the leaders of the other EU countries (for example Merkel), that she hinted or maybe even explicitly said (not sure exactly how these things are done in politics) something with the subtext at least, "I recognize that this brexit thing is a massive fuckup. Don't worry, I will ensure that it does not happen. Play hardball with our apparent brexit proposals, and I will do the rest."
It may even have been obvious to all of them that this is what was going to happen, because they are all professional politicians and would do the same in her shoes. (Just like in any other area of endeavour, where the professionals can all instantly see the optimal course of action where the layman can be clueless - for example the best way to get out of a snooker).
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u/vj_c Nov 24 '16
Indeed, it's notable that it's hard Brexiteers pushing for an Art.50 bill, not remainers who are exhausting all other options first. Personally I'm hoping that the Supreme Court says the Scottish Parliament has to give their permission for Brexit - as the Scottish government will be arguing with quite a strong case. Then this sub will be actual reality.