Brexit is perhaps the most significant constitutional and political event of this century for the peoples of these islands, for the following reasons:
1. It constitutes a unique reversal of EU elites' rejection of previous results of referenda (which were steamrollered in the form of the Lisbon Treaty) but also of the notion of fundamental, inalienable "rights" (which were contained in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, superior to Parliamentary law, unlike the Human Rights Act 199
;
2. Straightforwardly, it restores parliamentary sovereignty in more or less absolute terms, which is no longer subject to European law (since the
Factortame case in the 1990s) but the success of applying Brexit in the teeth of Parliamentary opposition also suggests (some argue) that
de facto (if not
de jure) sovereignty rests with the people (few would dispute that Scotland or Northern Ireland should be allowed to secede from the union if they voted for that in a fair referendum), of which Parliament is but one (if also the principal) manifestation;
3. In restoring Parliamentary sovereignty, the power of the senior courts (
i.e. the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and, to an extent, the High Court) are reduced in that their subordination to the High Court of Parliament (Parliament retains some vestigial powers as a court, such as the power to try impeachments) is, once again, straightforward and clear. Even legal rights such as those found in the Human Rights Act cannot overcome Parliamentary (and, arguably, popular) sovereignty;
4. Lastly, it poses the question as to the legal and political nature of the union of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, which are founded, it seems, on popular sovereignty as expressed at Westminster and in their respective assemblies (except for England, it seems). How should they co-operate, especially if Scotland permanently hosts a party hostile both to England and the Union?
I'm glad we're out,
but now it's time to roll back the NHS.
Edited by a grammar Nazi.Semi-colon heil!
