Brexit.

[armaghniac]

Good result for remainers in Richmond bye election with Lib Dems overturning a huge Tory majority.Pressure increasing on May to call a General Election

70% of the Richmond constituency voted remain last June so it's not a huge shock

Perhaps. It does lead to an interesting situation, many of the Tories represent S.E England constituencies not so different from Richmond. But many Labour MPs represent Leave constituencies. If people feel their seats are at risk it really confuses the planning from a party perspective.

[seafoid]

Good result for remainers in Richmond bye election with Lib Dems overturning a huge Tory majority.Pressure increasing on May to call a General Election

70% of the Richmond constituency voted remain last June so it's not a huge shock

Perhaps. It does lead to an interesting situation, many of the Tories represent S.E England constituencies not so different from Richmond. But many Labour MPs represent Leave constituencies. If people feel their seats are at risk it really confuses the planning from a party perspective.

Brexit is so messy because there is a policy with popular support but no political structure behind it. The UK Gov didn't prepare anything because they thought the vote would be a piece of cake.
Labour don't know what to do either.

The DUP supported Leave without thinking it might drive a united Ireland.

The Euros keep taunting May that she doesn't know what she wants and she doesn't. Because no work was done examining Brexit politically before the vote happened. Any choices made now will hurt lots of people and benefit others. The political damage is immense. 

It is a textbook example of how not to do things. God only knows how they will get out of it.

Farage promised voters the world and the best May can do might be a choc ice.Expectations are off the charts.

Meanwhile there are 5 creme eggs instead of 6 in packs now.
It's senior hurling in Ballingarry. 

[seafoid]

Now they are debating Brexit in the UK Supreme Court


The Government insists it doesn't have to go via Parliament but

1 Cameron didn't leave any instructions about how to implement Brexit
2 there is no written constitution
3 there is Nothing in writing about the royal prerogative

Jesus H Christ

" Threatening and abusing people because they are exercising their fundamental right to go to court undermines the rule of law. Anyone who communicates such threats or abuse should be aware that there are legal powers designed to ensure that access to the courts is available to everybody"

https://www.supremecourt.uk/docs/draft-transcript-monday-161205-am.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/05/supreme-court-brexit-case-whose-prerogative-is-it-anyway

[seafoid]

 Matthew Holehouse @mattholehouse
Hansard extract presented to Supreme Court by Pannick QC. David Lidington told Commons EU Referendum Bill did not define what happens next.


So very English

[heganboy]

Have to say this case is fascinating.

Delighted to see we have a few QCs who are reading the board for their prep notes. Would be funny if the people of the occupied wee six get to decide the fate of the UK within the EU.
Constitutional law, eh? Who'd have thunk it?

David Scoffield QC, who represents politicians and civil rights groups across Northern Ireland's divided community, told the court that leaving the EU would involve "driving a wedge" between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.

He agreed with arguments presented by other claimants that ministers could not trigger Brexit on the basis of residual prerogative powers and that parliamentary authority would be required. The government's assertion of its powers "are cavalier – with both a large 'C' and a small 'c'," Scoffield said, referring back to the English civil war and 17th century battles between parliament and the crown.

But he then went on to argue that the Good Friday agreement and the 1998 legislative settlement of the Troubles had created additional rights for the people of Northern Ireland, many aspects of which, like the north-south ministerial council, stipulated close cooperation within the EU between governments in Belfast and Dublin

"The agreement expressly said that the UK and Ireland would develop close cooperation as partners operating within the EU," Scoffield said. "It required the implementation of EU programmes on an all-Ireland and cross-border basis."

Numerous bodies have a "clear operational remit" to work together across the island. "The [Good Friday] agreement makes it clear that the elements hang together and are interlocking," Scoffield added. Even control over international relationships with the Irish Republic has been transferred to the Northern Ireland assembly.

Ronan Lavery QC – who represents Raymond McCord, a campaigner for victims' rights in Northern Ireland whose son was killed by loyalist paramilitaries – went further, telling the supreme court that Good Friday agreement transferred sovereignty out of parliament's hands.



"It would be unconstitutional for the UK to withdraw from the EU without the consent of the people of Northern Ireland," Lavery said. "Being part of the EU was part of the [1998] constitutional settlement. There has been a transfer of sovereignty under the Good Friday agreement and the Northern Ireland Act. The people of Northern Ireland now have sovereignty over any constitutional change rather than parliament. The notion that parliament is supreme or has primacy has gone."

Triggering article 50 without the agreement of the Stormont assembly, Lavery said, undermines the principle of "consent and self-determination" expressed by the Northern Ireland Act

[armaghniac]

"It would be unconstitutional for the UK to withdraw from the EU without the consent of the people of Northern Ireland," Lavery said. "Being part of the EU was part of the [1998] constitutional settlement. There has been a transfer of sovereignty under the Good Friday agreement and the Northern Ireland Act. The people of Northern Ireland now have sovereignty over any constitutional change rather than parliament. The notion that parliament is supreme or has primacy has gone."

We may believe this, but it isn't clear that the actual text says this, unfortunately.

[Keyser soze]

This is the critical economic issue surrounding Brexit. Britain losing it's traditional position as one of the top 3 financial centres of the world economy and a gateway to European finance markets, as will inevitably happen under any type of Brexit, will have a catastrophic effect on it's economy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38245646

[armaghniac]

This is the critical economic issue surrounding Brexit. Britain losing it's traditional position as one of the top 3 financial centres of the world economy and a gateway to European finance markets, as will inevitably happen under any type of Brexit, will have a catastrophic effect on it's economy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38245646

You would expect that some Tories would be connected to finance and so perhaps aware of this. However, your average Brexit voter would regard a decline in London bankers as a benefit of Brexit, without perhaps considering that the present model of the UK is to tax these people to fund spending elsewhere.

[seafoid]

This is the critical economic issue surrounding Brexit. Britain losing it's traditional position as one of the top 3 financial centres of the world economy and a gateway to European finance markets, as will inevitably happen under any type of Brexit, will have a catastrophic effect on it's economy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38245646

The UK is having a nervous breakdown.
I bought the Torygraph yesterday. It's fantasy. Might as well have been reading the Daily Sport

[No wides]

This is the critical economic issue surrounding Brexit. Britain losing it's traditional position as one of the top 3 financial centres of the world economy and a gateway to European finance markets, as will inevitably happen under any type of Brexit, will have a catastrophic effect on it's economy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38245646

The UK is having a nervous breakdown.
I bought the Torygraph yesterday. It's fantasy. Might as well have been reading the Daily Sport

Unlike your opinions. 

[Keyser soze]

This is the critical economic issue surrounding Brexit. Britain losing it's traditional position as one of the top 3 financial centres of the world economy and a gateway to European finance markets, as will inevitably happen under any type of Brexit, will have a catastrophic effect on it's economy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38245646

You would expect that some Tories would be connected to finance and so perhaps aware of this. However, your average Brexit voter would regard a decline in London bankers as a benefit of Brexit, without perhaps considering that the present model of the UK is to tax these people to fund spending elsewhere.

There will be a massive bonanza in this for the Dublin markets if there is anything other than the softest of Brexits.

[seafoid]

Leaving the EU may be a good idea. Or it may not.

Brexit needs a coherent political movement that wins an election and has a programme that is designed to deliver at least cost. Not a one night stand.

Boris Johnson is SO Brexit. The attention the UK needs is much more serious.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhD3aG8J3pE

[armaghniac]

Part of Lord Bingham's ruling in 2003 was this:

11. The 1998 Act does not set out all the constitutional provisions applicable to Northern Ireland, but it is in effect a constitution.

This may be true, but which bit of the 1998 states that you cannot leave the EU?

[seafoid]

20% of people in NI have a single passport which is the Irish passport.

[Link]

20% of people in NI have a single passport which is the Irish passport.

source?