Ok, here’s the letter I will be sending to my MP today. You are welcome to copy it / make it your own. But please please make some contact with your MP, and spread the word.
Today, an epetition. Link to follow!
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Dear MP
I am writing to you to invite you to petition the Government to revoke, with immediate effect, the UK’s Article 50 notice to leave the EU on 29 March 2019.
I make this request with no agenda other than a deep concern that there has not been sufficient time to allow for a complete negotiation of the terms of the country’s departure or to prepare for the practical effects. For example, it is widely predicted that even with a withdrawal agreement in place, a departure on 29 March this year will lead to severe delays in the import and export of goods at our cross-channel ports, and of the timely and reliable distribution of time-sensitive medical products across borders, because there hasn’t been enough time to make the necessary preparations. Further, there is no technical solution available to manage a customs border between the EU and the UK on the island of Ireland, or the control of movement of people across that border that does not offend the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
I am extremely concerned that the prospects of a chaotic, rushed departure from the EU this March will cause significant social and economic instability in this country and abroad. Even more so if a ‘no deal’ Brexit occurs. The risk of severe and long-term social and economic disruption to the UK, when the ‘benefits’ appear at this date, so intangible is, in my view unacceptable.
Sir John Major recently made a speech on this subject*, and I find myself agreeing with him wholeheartedly:
“…We need to calm the markets. We need to protect the economic wellbeing of the British people. We need to protect our national interest. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that - to do so - we need to revoke Article 50 with immediate effect. The clock must be stopped. It is clear we need the most precious commodity of all: time…”
I anticipate that you support the Government’s position that it has received a firm mandate from the UK electorate to take steps to leave the EU. However, I would argue that such a mandate did not require the Government to ensure the ‘divorce’ took place on 29 March of this year. If it is not in the best interests of this country to leave the EU on that date, we must not.
The European Court of Justice has confirmed that the Article 50 notice can be revoked by the UK Government, without a parliamentary vote**. It would, of course, be possible to trigger Article 50 again in the future, once the current obstacles have been overcome, if the Government so chooses.
I hope that you will be able to take time to consider the points I have raised in this letter and I look forward to receiving your response in early course.
Yours sincerely,
[.......]
- Extract from Sir John Major’s speech to the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin, made 11 December 2018
** Case C/621/18 Wightman and ors v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union