Tuesday 19 July 2016

The Finished Article

Speaking for David Davis as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Jason Coppel QC has told the High Court that Article 50 will not be triggered this year.

So, never, then.

Article 50 was either invoked on the day after the referendum, as advocated by the Leader of the Opposition on that day, or it never will be. It never will be. 

No Commons vote, and no second referendum, neither of which could compel anything, anyway.

Just carry on doing nothing, and nothing will be what carries on happening. 

The consequences of the referendum are many and various. There will be many and various more to come. 

But they do not include the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. And they never will.

No one seems to care apart from the people who took to the same sites last year to predict that someone called Nigel Farage was going to become Prime Minister. 

There is no sign of Article 50, and in any case no possibility that there would ever be enough MPs to repeal the European Communities Act.

Meaning that no Government would ever attempt to do it. But then, no Government would ever want to do it.

The referendum has made all sorts of points about this country. It will shape policy for decades to come, mostly in a northward and leftward economic direction.

But "Britain is not leaving the EU" is simply a statement of fact. Britain is not leaving the EU.

Those who wanted the referendum, got the referendum.

It has made no difference to what they naively thought that it was about. But that was never the point.

They just wanted there to be a referendum. And there has been.

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