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Null and void? Not for these reasons, M’Lud
According to the Independent’s story below, Brexit may be declared “void” because of illegality and “multiple criminal offences” by Leave-supporting business people and politicians.
I doubt it. That’s not going to happen just because they told lies and broke the law. Lies and broken laws have littered political campaigning since it was invented. Most elections that any of us can remember could be declared “void” if the grounds were that porkies were told and crimes committed.
Moreover, in this particular case, Croft solicitors have definitely come up with the wrong solution. May, they tell us, must consider “how best to conduct another referendum”. This presumably means that, of all people, she and her cabinet must devise one where nobody tells porkies and nobody is a criminal.
Difficult. Not to say – no, I will say it – impossible.
There may be a case for another referendum. This isn’t it. This one seems to sit side by side with the one that says Leave voters “didn’t know what they were voting for”. Now, there’s disdain for you; there’s patronising. The people using this latest argument apparently think Leave voters didn’t know that politicians lie and business “leaders” break the law when it suits them. Give me a break.
The idea that we should have a referendum on the grounds suggested by this case should be greeted with a cascade of mockery and laughter.
On the eve of a referendum …
Several friends have told me that they are voting Remain in the EU referendum – but with a heavy heart.
I’m voting Remain too, in spite of France tear-gassing protesting workers who are resisting their government’s, and the EU’s, plans to ditch their rights (Jeremy, don’t imagine the EU is on your side here) and tear-gassing (again by France) of refugees in Calais (ditto, Jeremy) and its refusal to allow aid through to Calais. I’m voting Remain because I don’t want Johnsonism and Goveism to have the whip hand in government and I also want to save Jeremy from the Blairites and the assorted Gawd-knows-whatites waiting to get rid of him if there’s a No vote. It’s not the right time to vote Leave.
If we get a Labour government committed to rolling back NHS privatisation, rejecting TTIP, bringing the rail network and the energy companies into public ownership, restoring the trade union rights that have been eroded since Thatcher and getting rid, amongst other noxious things, of zero-hour contracts, that would be several major steps forward. A Corbyn-led government could do that, and it could reaffirm the principles of the Refugee Convention rather than bolster the profits of the tear-gas manufacturers. The EU would certainly oppose such a Labour programme, since much of it would break EU rules, laws and protocols. Then we could oppose the EU, and then, if change proves impossible, vote to leave – and defend policies worth defending.
Will any of that happen?
Don’t know.
But if we vote Leave now, we are playing into the hands of the Right, including the very nasty Right.
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