For And Against Article 50 – What I’ve Seen So Far

There have been speeches presented in Parliament recently based around whether MPs should vote for an Act of Parliament to trigger the Article 50 process with the EU – and so start the process of leaving it. That Parliament should have this decision is a democratic and legal no-brainer, only opposed by complete idiots who have been suckered in by fascist newspapers. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh, but it’s as fair an assessment as I can muster.

So, what are the for/against arguments?

Based on some of the speeches and comments I’ve read so far, the arguments basically boil down to the following:

Arguments for MPs to vote against an Act of Parliament to invoke Article 50

Arguments for MPs to vote for an Act of Parliament to invoke Article 50

Consider the rights, views and future of 15 million people too young to vote Consider the rights and views of 72% of the population that didn’t vote for this Consider long term strategic stability of the country over the short-term points scoring of the government Consider the lack of a strong democratic mandate from a supermajority for a major constitutional change Consider that the Leave campaign on the referendum was built on many lies Consider the number of people voting Leave only as a protest vote and have since changed their mind Consider a lack of clear communication and planning from HM Government on the details of leaving the EU Consider the lack of trained negotiators in order to continue the 2-year Article 50 process Consider the effect of the US election on the world, leaving us only with a proto-fascist to trade with Consider economic changes since June, including the strength of the pound

There was a vote, so shut up!

Pretty conclusive in favour of leaving hard and fast, I suppose.

Here’s an image version if you’d like, since apparently JPEG is now the standard format for communicating text.