Warning: Potential long dull and boring post. (You guys are going to me barred from The Arms, and Im rather fond of barhanging round here.)
Random, Ive read it. Its utterly depressed me, but heres my Obs.
So layman obs (which arent a bad thing in my book, as anyone should be able to pick up a parliamentary paper and understand it) from an utterly insignificant MN poster. (I know my place)
Firstly, I got stuck with the header title. It tickled me. In the context of the EU, the UK is indeed a State of confusion. This was however, the last time I found any humour in any of this.
Anyway, ob 2. This is 2014, and Im simply staggered this document exists. We objected to Lisbon in very public terms at the time, but between being given 'assurances', and not given a formal voice, (referendum) we all shoved it under the mattress and cracked on. Fait accomplis and all that.
(Why is this point worth going over again? Because the depth of feeling goes back to Lisbon. To understand todays 'leaver' needs some understanding of how we got there)
Heres a view from the time.
http://www.heritage.org/europe/report/the-eu-lisbon-treaty-gordon-brown-surrenders-britains-sovereignty
What should be pointed out, under this point is, the Judge whose comments prompted this parliamentary paper, said this.
"It can be seen that the legal basis of the claimant’s claim rests in part on alleged violations of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. When I read this in the skeleton argument on his behalf I was surprised, to say the least, as I was sure that the British government (along with the Polish government) had secured at the negotiations of the Lisbon Treaty an opt-out from the incorporation of the Charter into EU law and thereby via operation of the European Communities Act 1972 directly into our domestic law. "
He went on to say;
"The constitutional significance of this decision can hardly be overstated. The Human Rights Act 1998 incorporated into our domestic law large parts, but by no means all, of the European Convention on Human Rights. Some parts were deliberately missed out by Parliament. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union contains, I believe, all of those missing parts and a great deal more. Notwithstanding the endeavours of our political representatives at Lisbon it would seem that the much wider Charter of Rights is now part of our domestic law. Moreover, that much wider Charter of Rights would remain part of our domestic law even if the Human Rights Act were repealed."
My points, on Obs 2 is, the next time any pro-eu, remainer, anti-brexit fanatic, wishes to berate the so called ignorance of a leave voter, remember this Judge. He was a tad surprised.
And Im just going for a beer before Obs 3. It gets worse. 