Tusk says he will urge EU leaders to back long extension to article 50 if UK cannot agree Brexit pla

[nitpicker]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/mar/14/brexit-mps-to-vote-on-delaying-departure-from-european-union-politics-live?page=with:block-5c8a19f7e4b0eff8e0fc2b0a#block-5c8a19f7e4b0eff8e0fc2b0a

(snip)
Tusk says he will urge EU leaders to back long extension to article 50 if UK cannot agree Brexit plan

Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, has just posted this on Twitter.

Donald Tusk
✔ @eucopresident

During my consultations ahead of #EUCO, I will appeal to the EU27 to be open to a long extension if the UK finds it necessary to rethink its #Brexit strategy and build consensus around it.




This is probably helpful to Theresa May, because it reinforces the argument that she is making to MPs that, if they fail to vote for her deal, she will have no choice but to seek a long extension of article 50.
(snip)

[Denzil_DC]

1. I don't think May's ever used the word "long" in relation to an Article 50 extension.

I don't think she'd dare at this point, even as a parliamentary bargaining ploy, as the hardline Brexiteers are shrieking loudly enough about the prospect of "betrayal" as it is. "Short" and "technical" have been her buzzwords.

Depending how hard people have been listening, there's a perception of mixed messaging coming from the EU leadership. Here's Verhofstadt yesterday:

Link to tweet

Martin MacDonald @Innealadair

Guy Verhofstadt at the European Parliament Plenary session today. Worth watching for two reasons:
1. He has a real go at Nigel Farage
2. He does not, repeat not, want an extension to Article 50 unless the UK can come up with a very, very good reason for it.

The arguments for a longer extension, rather than the brief one May thinks is necessary even if her deal gets passed next time it's up for the vote, were covered here:

Brexit could be delayed until 2021, EU sources reveal
https://www.democraticunderground.com/108815360

Any extension beyond the EU elections means the UK would have to take part. Word is that the Tories are already gearing up for the possibility.

Meanwhile, Farage, who thinks he and whatever party he's managed to cobble together by then would do very well in such an election, Arron Banks and several Brexiteer Tory MPs have been sucking up to right-wing European leaders of countries like Hungary, Poland and Italy, trying to encourage them to veto any extension.

So much for UK parliamentary sovereignty, huh?

[Ghost Dog]

2. The UK parliament clearly has zero sovereignty. Nor, in practice,

does the government 'Cabinet' nor the 'Privy Council' - 'non-binding' advisory bodies all. A UK Prime Minister in this country with no written Constitution has almost complete dictatorial powers. She can lie to, procedurally manipulate and ignore parliament. She can stack the newly so-named 'Supreme Court' she probably doesn't, in law, have to obey. Hell, if pushed she can probably appeal to the 'Constitutional Precedent' provided in case-law from the time of Henry VIII and order heads to, literally, roll.

[Denzil_DC]

3. The UK Prime Minister is bound by legality and what parliament and the electorate will put up with.

We don't have a codified constitution in the sense of one unified document, but we do have the Bill of Rights etc. and we have signed up to international norms via the UN and ECJ, as the government's found to its cost at various times, with varying degrees of penalty from none at all to overturning decisions.

He/she also cannot bind the hands of future parliaments by declaring that any law passed or decision of parliament can never be changed.

However, May has come close to seizing the sorts of dictatorial powers you describe through the "Henry VIII" measures parliament passed, allowing less or no parliamentary scrutiny of statutory instruments during the course of Brexit.

But to extend your argument, "national sovereignty" is a mercurial concept in an increasingly globalized world. Everyone's a rule-taker in some regard, unless they want to go the route of the likes of North Korea and become a pariah.

What I object to most is the utter humbug of Farage and other Brexiteers campaigning long and loud about "taking power back" when they're evidently opposed to parliament exercising what power it currently has!