Quote:
Originally Posted by Mick
They had a Parliamentary vote, they voted already, 6 to 1 to take the decision to the people, they cannot then give that decision and turn round and say, 'Well, actually, we don't agree with the decision and we are going to ignore it and have our own Parliamentary vote anyway.' It is unacceptable, and it will create a very serious constitutional crisis. Not only that but democracy will be killed off in this country and we will officially be living in a dictatorship. I don't think for one minute you seriously are advocating that..
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The referendum wasn't legally binding. The court has said that the Government simply doesn't have the power to issue Article 50. It's not them rowing back on it.
Also allowing Parliament to vote will not make us a dictatorship. That is going a bit far. Parliament is part of our democracy. Taking power away from the Crown and giving it to Parliament was a key part of transition to democracy. If anything we want to limit the powers the crown has precisely to avoid a dictatorship.
This is more about legal and constitutional process. It was a bit of a mess not making the vote binding but there are questions on how much power the Government has to use royal prerogative. From what I can work out the referendum give her moral legitimacy to use it but not legal legitimacy and that could prove a problem. From what I have read about the case the Government didn't use the referendum as the basis of their defense and instead attempted to characterise this as foreign policy and therefore within their domain.