Theresa May’s assertion that “Brexit means Brexit” has been met with a blow with a reply of “Democracy means Democracy” by the high court as a Judge did his job this morning.
Since the 23rd of June, supporters of the Leave campaign have urged Remain supporters to accept the will of the people and accept a democratic vote to “take back control” of our country from the unelected European government, including those members of the European government they elected themselves such as Mr Farage.
It now transpires that the system of government formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland is not, as Brexiters would have us believe, a direct or “pure” democracy but rather a representative democracy whereby the electorate elect a parliament to act on their behalf and relinquish responsibility of momentus decisions such as leaving the European Union, selling off publicly owned utilities and industries or going to war to their representatives (lets call them “Members of Parliament” or MPs for argument’s sake).
What will come as even more of a shock to those people who have been so delighted by the news that the unelected EU bureaucats they despise will no longer have a say in the matters of British affairs is that the British Parliament is made up of two houses.
Whilst the democratically elected House of Commons has its part to play, the entirely unelected House of Lords will have the final yay or nay.
The irony of the fact that the decision to leave the EU will ultimately be in the hands of an unelected group of individuals, a good number of whom only turn up to the House of Lords to claim their allowance and use it as a good spot for a nap, when the argument that the EU parliament is undemocratic and unelected was used like a battle cry by the Leave campaign is positively palpable.
Coupled with the fact that Mrs May has already stated categorically that she will not be giving the much vaunted £350bn a day to the NHS as promised, I have no doubt that Conservative Party Central Office will be placing multiple orders for extra soft lavatory paper over the coming weeks and months.
More on this story as it unfolds.
