A50 case - government loses.

[Workingman]

The High Court has ruled that the PM cannot trigger Brexit without putting it to an MPs' vote in the House of Commons. The Government instantly announced it would appeal the decision with a further hearing expected next month.

I did warn that this could happen and I predict that the Supreme Court will take the same view. That would then lead, ironically, to an appeal at the European Court of Justice.

Where all this will end is anybody's guess. Corbyn, Sturgeon and Fallon all want the government to lay its negotiation cards on the table, which is madness. Farage, on the other hand, fears more delay and more blocking. He has not gone so far as to say it, but he hints that MPs might vote it, and the referendum result, down.

[Suff]

Well I never the UK High court made a ruling and the government appealed. Where have I heard that before.

The UK government would be better avoiding an appeal and just going straight to the EU courts. Who would take great joy in telling the UK courts that they have no jurisdiction over EU competencies.

Now it all depends on how much chutzpah May has. Because if she triggers A50 (let us not forget she has the “right” in EU law and can do it on her own), then there is nothing the UK courts can do about it except to hold her in contempt. Something the full power of the UK government would be brought to bear against and the courts might remember they “interpret” laws passed by parliament.

In the meantime and as I predicted, the £ has suddenly surged. Because of this decision? Not really. Because the BOE has started the long journey of backtracking on its political posturing that it did in the lead up to the referendum and immediately after.

What did they do?

Held rates. No news there.
Revised their predictions for UK inflation for 2017. They would have been insane not to and nobody would have believed them if they did not.
Revised their prediction for UK GDP growth. Well in the light of current PMI indexes, ONS stats on actual growth and the general state of the economy in relation to the EU and the world at large, only the US is in the same place as the UK right now. Even Germany is stalled.
Given indications that inflation is going to rise and stay high until at least 2019.

What they did not say

Anything at all about quantitative easing.

Wrapped all together, that means the bank is stepping away from any more easing, either in rates or in printing money and will, in 2017, start moving to a tightening bias.

The £ is responding to that news and will continue to respond. As for triggering A50, they have priced that in and will continue to price it in until the government says they won’t trigger A50 without a vote or another referendum.

Interestingly this opens up a whole new avenue. May could totally upset the apple cart by calling a snap election on the basis that the current MP’s were elected on an EU IN bias and that the people need to express their will at the polls in a Brexit scenario.

Labour would be crushed, the Lib Dems might pick up a bit and UKIP would be quite a wild card.

The field is open and the game is still to unfold. Those MP’s who launched this attack on the government to try and stop Brexit may feel the axe on their neck shortly. I’m beginning to become quite interested in the possibilities.

[cromwell]

This is exactly what I expected to happen. Get a couple of judges onside and take it to the courts.

The establishment does not want us to leave the EU and they will pull every trick in the book, dirty or not, to keep us in.

What REALLY annoys me are MP's like Keir Starmer and Nicky Morgan who say "Of course the democratic will of the British people must be respected, BUT.."
Respecting the democratic resultof the referendum is the last thing people like that intend to do. They intend to delay, delay and delay, hope to win the next General election and then say that the result of the general election overrides the referendum. And they think everyone is too stupid to see it.

Let's have another election right now, and get two faced, lying, elitist liberal lefties out of parliament.

[Workingman]

On 21 September 2016 in response to a petition for a snap election the government said:

The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act means no Government can call a snap general election. The partisan description of the Government in this petition is wrong.

So a snap election looks to be out.

But step up the Scottish cross-bench peer who wrote A50, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard. He is its author so he should know something about it.

He said the country "might want to think again" when Brexit terms become clearer.

He explained: "It is not irrevocable.

"You can change your mind while the process is going on.

"During that period, if a country were to decide actually we don't want to leave after all, everybody would be very cross about it being a waste of time.

"They might try to extract a political price but legally they couldn't insist that you leave."

Is this the end game these people actually want? When he says the "country" who does he mean: is it Ministers, Parliament or, us, the people?

I am also wondering whether May's announcement of A50 being triggered by the end of next March was done deliberately in order to allow for this unnecessary and unhelpful "debate" to take place. None of the major political parties or the EU want Brexit and all these shenanigans are just delaying any sort of decision.

I fear this could be leading us to another vote, a sort of back door Brexitref2, only we get to vote to accept or reject the terms of the negotiations.

[medsec222]

I feel aggravated and have had to turn down the sound on the television. Nicole Sturgeon with her bobbing head has not helped

[Workingman]

Meds, you are not the only one.

I voted Remain and it has got me wound up as well. I have been reading comments on the web and the anger from Leavers makes me fear for the campaigners and the judges.

It is now being mooted that an Act of Parliament could be rushed through should the government lose in the Supreme Court. That sounds a bit like MPs getting a vote on A50, which is what all this cr@p has been about. OK, it is a different kind of vote, but with minimal differences.

Either way it looks like Brexiters will not be getting the Hard Brexit they thought they were voting for.

[Suff]

Of course they could just vote on an election. As the Tories have an overall majority and as they stand to gain hand and foot, it would probably pass.

In that scenario I would not like to be a Remain Labour Voter with a constituency anywhere north of the Watford Gap.

[Workingman]

Voting on an election, hmmm, interesting.

Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011

Early elections can be held only:

*if a motion for an early general election is agreed either by at least two-thirds of the whole House or without division; or
*if a motion of no confidence is passed and no alternative government is confirmed by the Commons within 14 days.

I cannot see any opposition party tabling a motion for an early general election, and I cannot see two-thirds of MPs, 434 of them, voting for one even if it was tabled by the government. Even if all the other parties except Labour joined with the Tories the vote would still fail. That will never happen as all parties know that as things stand the Tories would get a much larger majority. That also makes it unlikely that a motion of no confidence would be tabled.

It is far better for them to leave the Tories holding the poisoned chalice that Brexit has become as it could do the Tories untold damage for the future.

[AliasAggers]

What annoys me immensely is that the Government has to take notice of these supercilious unelected ex-solicitors.
How is it that they have the power to tell our elected Government what to do?
It isn't as though they were brilliant at their own chosen jobs. Why doesn't the Prime Minister tell them to mind their own bloody business? They certainly want sorting out.
This country is supposed do be a democracy, so why are these Judges poking their noses in?

[TheOstrich]

This country is supposed do be a democracy, so why are these Judges poking their noses in?

Because we are a "parliamentary" democracy, and it is the elected MPs who are supposed to have "the last say", not the people. Of course, the unelected Lords will also have their say ....

Civil unrest is not beyond the bounds of possibility if Brexit is thwarted, I fear.