Hold onto your hats, folks, because things are about to get mighty wild over in the United Kingdom.
You remember Brexit, right? That big ol’ referendum which, by will of the British people, decreed that the UK was to leave the European Union as soon as it was possible to do so, free to carve out their own path in international affairs. It ended the career of a prime minister and bitterly, bitterly divided a nation.
Well, it’s not over yet: a group of private citizens have just won a case in the country’s High Court which challenged the very legal basis of the referendum. The court ruled that the Government can’t actually trigger Article 50 – which is basically formally notifying the EU of intention to withdraw – without the support of the Parliament.
The case had been brought as the litigants believed the Brexit campaign was deeply misleading, had spat in the face of the UK’s commitment to parliamentary democracy and had not properly expressed the possible risks of leaving the European common market to the nation’s economy.
A statement from Prime Minister Theresa May, who was expecting the actual formal process of Brexit to be the least of her concerns, expressed her disappointment. She intends to expedite an appeal through the Supreme Court, hoping to get it all sorted out by December.
“The country voted to leave the European Union in a referendum approved by act of parliament. And the government is determined to respect the result of the referendum,” it said. “Our plans remain to invoke Article 50 by the end of March.”
Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP and a driving force in the Brexit campaign, says this decision is a “betrayal”:
I now fear that every attempt will be made to block or delay the triggering of Article 50. If this is so, they have no idea of the level of public anger they will provoke.
This comes as a new poll suggests a narrow majority of citizens reckon it’s a good idea to stay in the EU now. Things boutta get loose.
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Getty Images / David Mbiyu.
