I know this has been mentioned in the comment section of this blog before now, but this is from the EU Withdrawal Bill and discusses how the Scottish parliament can give consent to certain actions relating to Brexit. Pay particular note to para 4:
Paragraph 4 shows why a Tory minister can never be trusted again. Whatever the Scottish parliament does it is deemed that they consent to Westminster's action. They don't even have to discuss the draft; they are deemed to have consented to it anyway.
This is not just an Orwellian nightmare, it is a full frontal assault on the Scottish parliament, on devolution and democracy itself, both at Westminster and elsewhere.
And some wonder why those who promote Brexit are not trusted? This is all the evidence required of their deceit, if it were needed. I assure you, you will find out soon that you have consented to Brexit (and much more) whatever you might think you may have done: they will have deemed that you did so. And that's all the evidence they will think they need.
Woe betide the thought police if you dissent then.
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Brexit ‘is the will of the people’.
The referendum result said so. QED.
Was there ever a less porky pig sold in a more opaque poke ?
Isn’t democracy wonderful ?
And that, right there in dry legalese, is the end of the Union of the United Kingdom.
It certainly should be.
I agree – casus belli. However, the English have been preparing to lose Scotland for some time. The split of oil & gas fields between Scotland and England has been “fiddled” to favour the English (I have the details somewhere). It was done as a “just in case” action. However, as usual, the English have rather missed the point.
British oil & gas is declining. By contrast, off-shore wind is growing. Scotland sits on the best resource in Europe. The country dominates Northwestern Europe in this respect. There is sufficient potential wind energy to power much of the EU. Certainly sufficient to (re)build, for example a zero carbon petro-chem and steel industry in what is left of Scotland’s industrial belt.
As usual, the English think they have been clever tactically with the legal fancy footwork mentioned above. They will rue the day. For the avoidance of doubt: I’m English – but am puzzled by the self-harm tendencies of sections of (Tory) English society – which resemble those of a mentally disturbed teenage drug addict.
Scotland also has a massive tidal reach – and yet more renewable potential as a result
The so-called Secretary of State *for* Scotland is still saying a deal can be reached. If a deal satisfying the Scottish Government was arrived at, another vote would be held at Holyrood and legislative consent would presumably be given.
However, the final words of the extract above say that the decision already made, to refuse consent, would stand and revisiting it is pointless.
So it is a waste of time to agree, disagree, ignore or revisit – they really have covered all the bases.
”And some wonder why those who promote Brexit are not trusted? ”
I still need to pinch myself to check I am not imagining it when I hear Brexiteers flippantly say that the Irish border issue will be fixed by a technological that doesn’t yet exist. They can’t point to a single example of two countries with different custom/tariff regs where a digital border ensures the free movement of goods and services, but they’re adamant we can have one in Ireland. And I just think WTF?……..
This is just one example of why no philosopher takes the consent argument seriously as a justification for democracy or as the basis for a moral duty to obey the law. The problem is that no matter what you do (vote for, vote against, abstain, not vote) your action is meant to show that you consented. There is literally nothing you can do to show that you didn’t consent. So the whole consent argument is nonsense as the source of authority (there’s other reasons why it’s no good as well but that’s enough).
“There is literally nothing you can do to show that you didn’t consent.”
What did Ireland do when they wouldn’t consent to rule from London? Are we heading to a civil war?
I have long suggested that it is possible
Albeit in its modern form
Just to remind your readers that the residents of Jersey, Guernsey and the IOM did not have a vote (apart from a few with UK residence links) in the BREXIT referendum but the Islands will be impacted.
Similarly, residents of the BOTs did not vote either.
Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are not part of the EU. Neither are the British Overseas Territories. The islands may be impacted somewhat, as will many other states and territories, but it’s difficult to see how they should have been given a vote on a referendum in a country that they are not part of, to leave a union that they are not part of.
The problem with politicians of extreme left-wing and right-wing persuasion, such as this current Tory government and Labour leadership opposition, is they have a great deal of difficulty finding the balance between self-advantage and other-advantage which negates the possibility of cooperation to explore compromise solutions. Such difficulty has to stem from poor parenting which doesn’t encourage the importance of helping a child to differentiate between self and other as part of the maturation process. In consequence a child can grow up as highly co-dependent seeing themselves as primarily extensions of others or indeed the opposite, highly domineering regarding others as mere extensions of themselves, objects there to do their bidding. Of course those with some knowledge of human psychology will recognise my argument as stemming from Existential Psychotherapy and how it goes a long way towards explaining why Michael Heseltine’s plea for a cross-party approach to Brexit has never materialised.
Except the current Labour manifesto isn’t “extreme’, where as the Tory’s is c/w say the last 50 or so years of UK politics.
I see this differently, though I don’t claim to understand it.
There is nothing the Scottish Parliament can do to prevent the legislation being debated at Westminster. However, the Scottish Parliament will only be deemed to have given consent for the debate, if the Scottish Parliament explicitly votes to give consent. A consent decision is a decision on giving consent, rather than a decision to give consent.
I think you need to re-read that
I think you have mis read
Gibraltar voted in the European elections (part of South west England Euro constituency) but I am not sure whether they voted in the Referendum. They will be just as much affected by border issues with Spain as the two parts of Ireland are with each other, whether or not some digital/technological wheeze can be dreamt up to pretend that a physical border is not necessary.
They did vote in the referendum – about 98% remain
As ever out of kilter with British sentiment, of course
English voters seem ambivalent in their feelings about Gibraltar.
In a Panelbase poll conducted for the pro-independence blogger Wings over Scotland this month, 1020 English people (resident and born in England) answered the following question:-
“Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly (99%) to Remain in the EU. If part of the price of Brexit was returning Gibraltar to Spain, do you think that would be a price worth paying?”
Yes 38%
No 37%
Don’t know 24%
The votes in favour of losing Scotland from the union, and for Ireland to be re-united, if it helped to achieve Brexit, were more decisive.
Scotland leaving the UK:-
Yes 43%
No 35%
Don’t know 22%
Re-united Ireland:-
Yes 45%
No 31%
Don’t know 24%
Worth pointing out that the sample will have included about half Remain and half Leave voters!
Which Stanley Kubrick film does this all feel like: the impenetrable “2001 – A Dystopian Odyssey” or perhaps the unhinged “Dr Strangelove – or how I learned to stop worrying and love the Brexit”?
And this is the picture.
Courtesy of Chris Cairns and Wings.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-road-to-hell/comment-page-1/#comment-2363703
Very good
As far as films go, I think we are in Marx Brothers territory.
There is absolutely no sign of any sanity clause about Brexit.