FOR committed Brexiters, the situation is simple.
The UK Government’s job is to implement the decision of last year’s referendum. The courts have said that needs parliamentary approval, so a bare bill consisting of one substantive line is being rushed through the House of Commons.
But it is not so simple in the view of many others and not just those who would rather have seen a Remain vote in June 2016.
There is certainly something galling about the paltry two days’ discussion and three days in committee granted to a piece of legislation which will have a more profound effect on many aspects of life in Britain than any law for a generation. Somehow the rhetoric of those who support an EU exit has brought us to a flawed conclusions that parliamentary democracy is entirely trumped by the referendum’s outcome.
A significant poll in favour of leaving the EU – though far from a landslide – has established that Brexit is the will of the British people. Therefore – the argument appears to go – anything but the swiftest possible implementation of that verdict is in some way a betrayal. Hence the headlines in some quarters labelling the judges who decided Parliament must be sovereign as “enemies of the people”, not to mention the death threats and other abuse directed at Gina Miller who instigated court action against the Government over Article 50.
However, we still live in a parliamentary democracy and it is reasonable that our elected representatives should be expected to take a little more active interest than simply rubber-stamping a referendum outcome which leaves many major questions unanswered.
There is clearly a balance to be struck between allowing Parliament to debate the complexities and implications of this momentous decision and allowing the Brexit process to be endlessly frustrated.
The Scottish Parliament seems unlikely to be able to obstruct the procedure to any great degree, much as some MSPs may wish to. Denied the chance to consider a legislative consent motion over the UK Government’s European Union (notification of withdrawal) Bill, by the recent Supreme Court ruling, Holyrood will nevertheless have a say over the subsequent Great Repeal Bill, according to Scottish Secretary David Mundell. That bill, which will repeal the law which took Britain into Europe in the first place, will clearly affect devolved matters. Denying it legislative consent in Scotland could provoke a constitutional crisis.
But that does not address any of the immediate issues, such as membership of the customs union, access to the single market, or the democratic deficit for Scots who voted by a clear majority to remain.
The UK Government’s Brexit bill will go through, especially after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn placed his MPs under a three-line whip to back it. With potential rebels having backed down, Mr Corbyn appears to have summoned enough authority to secure this stance. But it leaves the large SNP contingent at Westminster with an important role as the only significant representation for those who opposed Brexit, or those who want answers to the many doubts and queries over what it will mean.
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