BREAKING NEWS

BOMBSHELL legal question-Did we exit the EU YESTERDAY?!

1 June, 2019
David Clews

The constitutional and legal uncertainties around Brexit continue. As we have been reporting extensively there is a legal case going through the courts led by The English Democrats under Robin Tilbrook. We are going to publish shortly a sceptical view of this case by another lawyer but are just awaiting Mr Tilbrook’s comments on this.

There was extensive twitter chatter around the 31st of May deadline and we have just received the following correspondence from one of our readers:

Here is the email I have sent Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Dominic Raab and out of courtesy to my local MP (ye gods!) Harriett Baldwin:-
“I wish to draw to your attention that since the UK did not both hold the European Elections AND ratify the Withdrawal Agreement it would appear that the wording of the EC’s Decision in which it extended the period for ratification has expired as of last night. This is my interpretation based upon 30+ years experience in international law. Specifically, the Decision says:-
“This decision shall cease to apply on 31 May 2019 in the event that the United Kingdom has not held elections to the European Parliament in accordance with applicable Union law and has not ratified the Withdrawal Agreement by 22 May 2019.”
Therefore it is not either/or and it is not and/or. The requirement is that both be done otherwise the decision “shall cease to apply on 31 May 2019”. This is in effect the same as an “Unless Order” in English law, in which both parts are required to be carried out to avoid the application of the sanction.
Can you confirm that on this reading we are now out of the EU on WTO terms? I should think this might offer HMG a useful avenue to exit the EU without further ado and the prevarication.
I shall be sending correspondence in exactly similar terms to my local MP Harriett Baldwin, to Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Dominic Raab as with my previous emails.
Kind regards”
The letter was written by someone with an extensive working knowledge of English and International Law as well as being involved in a number of EU related treaties. We have no reason to doubt their motives or integrity on the matter. The letter concluded to us by saying:
I have looked at the news media this morning and not seen word of a further extension, so it seems to me we are out as of midnight last night always subject of course to whether we were still in at all after 29/3/19 as Robin Tillbrook is litigating now.
I do feel this needs to be aired. If we are out, then I don’t see how the EC can simply issue a decree to say we are back in. Out is out after all, and they themselves both set this deadline and have confirmed elsewhere that to re-enter would require a whole new application process. Have the establishment dropped a rocket they hoped we wouldn’t spot? I think so.
The one point we feel needs exploring is the abject lack of coverage given to any of these issues in the mainstream media. We will always reference back to the spotlight shone on the Gina Miller case and just look at the coverage this week of the Boris Johnson legal challenge that as a result of so much coverage has raised in excess of £300,000.
Lawyers across the UK must be very much enjoying the uncertainty but the lack of equitable coverage is a concern for not only the media but democracy in general.

Thanks to your support as a real alternative we can keep publicising these cases but we need your help as we get no Government funding or have any rich donors, just you the people help us so please:

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