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Originally Posted by Mick
I know it was advisory but you have MPs suggesting it was binding, because you cannot give the people a decision and then take it away from them without causing a serious constitutional crisis.
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They should have made it binding.
However Parliament have a clear message they have to allow Article 50 to pass. In the remote chance they do not it is a constitutional crisis but one which is easily solved via a General Election in which the voters will make it all too clear what they think of it.
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It's ludicrous to suggest that it is a dictatorship, that the PM is going to invoke Article 50, bypassing Parliamentary process, when actually it already went through one when it voted overwhelmingly to give the British people the vote. So democracy took place and it was answered, leave meant leave. It did not ask on the ballot paper, do you want to leave but keep this or keep that? It simply asked if we wished to leave the EU or stay and it was decided by 17.4 Million people.
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The problem is by making the referendum advisory she didn't have the legally authority to bypass Parliamentary process. I agree morally and politically she did but the principle is important. If the referendum didn't give her the power to bypass Parliament then what does? The government tried to dodge the question by framing it as foreign policy decision and that's probably how they'll appeal it because, as far as I can see, the referendum as no bearing on the legal process here.
Remember even manifesto promises have to be waved though Parliament. The Governments' ability to act without Parliamentary approval is limited.