Article 50 is Trending — This is why
Hugo from the Digital Content team talks Brexit, Article 50, and why students should know about it.
Article 50 is the bit in the Lisbon Treaty that says when a member country wants to leave the European Union they need to say “I am using Article 50” and that starts the process.
Today, our High Court decided that Theresa May must go to Parliament and let MP’s vote on whether to trigger Article 50. This is a loss for Mrs May as she wanted to use the Royal Prerogative (the power of the Queen to make decisions channeled through the Prime Minister) to trigger the Brexit process.
Today’s ruling is just as much a victory for Brexiters as for Remainers.
Today’s ruling means that when the decision to trigger Article 50 is reached, the government will need to inform the House of Commons of their strategy, ideal outcomes and outline their plan for withdrawal and future negotiations.
This looks like a good thing…right?
We will have a clearer idea of what kind of Brexit the Government are planning. they’ll need that information because they will then have to vote to trigger or not trigger Article 50. And if the government win such a vote, that will be it. End of story — we’ll be leaving the EU.
They think its all over!
Though, as with a lot of things recently; this isn’t the end of things. The government will appeal, although given the wording of the decision today they will have to think of something very clever to overturn it.
The judges looked at when the Royal Prerogative can be used and whether it could be used to trigger Article 50. What they found was that there was nothing in Legislation concerning the EU nor in the Referendum Bill (the piece of law that outlined how the referendum was to take place) that allowed for the prerogative to be used. Since prerogative can’t really be used to change law and Article 50 would, in effect, change UK law.
Those pesky Judges
Many Brexiteers see today’s ruling as a betrayal, as an affirmation of the fixed interests of politics against the common person. Some are even calling for death penalty for the lawyers aguing against the government for “treason”…Twitter is rife with expletives. They need to calm down.
This is all Dave’s fault
In reality, the decision is a result of the failure of David Cameron to account for all outcomes in the Referendum Bill. His poor planning has led us to this uncertain and highly emotionally charged point.
This is not a victory for Remainers. Parliament is made up of MPs, MPs whose constituents across a lot of the country voted for Brexit. If a vote does go to parliament on triggering Article 50, the vote could still go in favour of Brexit.
Into the Crystal Ball
The run up to any vote on Article 50 will put parliament in even more turmoil. May’s government will be anxious to secure the vote by any means. They will be at the mercy of potentially a lot of small interest groups.
The Government majority is slim, though they will probably have the support of a number of Labour MPs. I can’t see any SNP voting with the government (on this or any other subject). Northern Ireland probably wont vote in favour. So it will be a slim majority, and potentially the final knife for the Labour party — but that’s another topic.
Predictions please!
And yet if the vote (if it happens) goes against Theresa May and her government, if the MPs vote to remain in the EU, then wow, all bets are off. There’ll probably a snap general election as May’s mandate rests on removing us from Europe. The public will punish their MPs either for voting with or against the government. Who knows where we’ll be…
Whatever happens, today is looking like a good day to buy your Euros or Dollars…
