YESTERDAY, LONDON’S HIGH Court ruled that only parliament alone, and not the sitting government, can instigate the process to extricate Britain from the EU.
That decision could, in theory, slow down the whole process of Brexit.
And Britain’s pro-Brexit media are not in any way happy about that decision.
The Daily Mail has taken a particularly incendiary line, dismissing the three judges responsible for the decision (Lord Chief Justice John Thomas, Master of the Rolls Terence Etherton, and appeal court judge Philip Sales) as “out of touch” and as being “Enemies of the People”.
The publication has also drawn ire for appearing to condemn Etherton as being an “openly gay, ex-Olympic fencer”. Lord Chief Justice Thomas meanwhile was described as being a “europhile” for his role as a founding member of the European Law Institute.
Thomas yesterday described the decision he and his colleagues arrived at as being “a pure question of law”, unrelated to any “political issue”.
Contrast
The Sun and the Daily Express are two other tabloids that have dealt with the High Court decision in less than positive fashion. The former describes the decision as: “Loaded foreign elite deny the will of Brit voters”, while the Express simply says: “We must get out of the EU”.
Not all of Fleet Street’s outpourings are quite so critical of the decision however, understandable given the press itself was as split as the electorate when it came to last June’s seismic vote.
The Times has called on Theresa May to call a “snap election” over the ruling, the Guardian simply describes the situation as “turmoil for May”, and the Independent describes the move as “the verdict that rewrites the rules of Brexit”.
All are in agreement on one thing however – the decision is bad news for prime minister Theresa May.
The decision itself
While in theory the High Court ruling means that parliament could indefinitely delay the invocation of Article 50, triggering the UK’s exit from the EU, in reality that is less likely to happen.
For starters, the government is certain to appeal the decision to the UK Supreme Court.
Secondly, parliament isn’t likely to block Brexit given the weight of public opinion in favour of leaving.
However, it could turn May’s favoured time period for triggering Article 50, the three months between New Year and the end of March 2017, into something of a pipe dream.
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