Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
Interesting. I did a bit of research myself and, even though the Government leaflet did state "The Government will implement what you decide", this fact checking charity agrees with your post, though it does suggest that, whilst not legally binding, there is a political and moral case for enacting the referendum result:
https://fullfact.org/europe/was-eu-referendum-advisory/ |
Yes, that’s kind of what I was driving at earlier. Beneath statute law in British tradition lie all sorts of other things like legal precedent (aka case law), parliamentary precedent and common law*. What these things have in common is the idea that there is a fundamentally fair and moral way to conduct ourselves and our governance that applies even in the absence of a specific Act of Parliament to enable or criminalise something.
We behave fairly and consistently towards one another and there is then no need for Parliament to write endless reams of new laws, acting only where there is a clear and pressing need. The imperative upon Parliament to respect the referendum result is very clear on that basis. Just because it is sovereign and can do whatever it wants, does not mean that it should. If our parliamentarians start picking away at the seam, all sorts of things might start to fall apart.
* For example, there is no statute law against murder in England and Wales. A defendant in court is charged with murder “contrary to common law”. Murder is wrong because it just is, and always has been, and there has never been a pressing need for Parliament to further define it in statute law.
---------- Post added at 17:27 ---------- Previous post was at 17:24 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh
Actually, having been very active in local and national politics in the 80s and 90s, including a couple of years as a researcher for my local MP, not much googling was required.
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Anyone who has known you via this forum for any great length of time knows this, and TBH it makes your (I think deliberately) simplistic one-liners all the more frustrating. You know that the phrase “Parliamentary sovereignty” is an enormously loaded phrase ... I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts on it.