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Re:No-deal Brexit opponents defeat government by jessaustin on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @06:05PM (#20871705)
"The government will implement what you decide."

Well there's your problem! That's a vague reference. To a lawyer, it might obviously refer to the voter's decision with respect to the immediately preceding question. To the average UK voter, it might also refer to her decision that she wants blue skies, decent food, and a personal unicorn pony for everyone. It's hard to vote against unicorn ponies.

[EDIT:] Apparently parent just pointlessly made up something, to which I credulously responded. Sorry for the distraction.

Re:No-deal Brexit opponents defeat government by QuesnayJr on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @06:20PM (#20871834)
Except the ballot didn't actually say that. Here's what the ballot looked like: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2016_EU_Referendum_B...
Re:No-deal Brexit opponents defeat government by nailer on Wednesday September 04, 2019 @05:53AM (#20875548)
The information leaflet provided by the government contained this statement. The ballot paper itself only provides the question (as is the nature of ballot papers). I suspect you probably know that.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmlykgDXEAAGs6C.jpg

Re:No-deal Brexit opponents defeat government by gambiting on Wednesday September 04, 2019 @06:03AM (#20875600)
The contents of the leaflet are irrelevant, the leaflet was not provided at the time of voting and no such statement was on the ballot. It holds exactly as much legal weight as "£350 million for the NHS" printed on the side of the bus. If you took the government to court over it the court would most likely decide that information printed on leaflets have no legal standing, even if they are distributed by the government.
Re:No-deal Brexit opponents defeat government by nailer on Wednesday September 04, 2019 @10:08AM (#20877336)
The leaflet was an official government communication provided to every household in the UK.

And yes, 350M came from the Office of National Statistics, which is pretty solid.

Re:No-deal Brexit opponents defeat government by gambiting on Wednesday September 04, 2019 @10:24AM (#20877459)
I'm not disputing the number, I'm saying that writing "[by leaving the European Union] let's give £350m to the NHS instead" on a side of a bus is not a legally binding promise. It's just a slogan, nothing more.

I'm not sure what we're arguing about at this point. The referendum was advisory, that's the legal status of any decision made in it - the government chose to implement the result, but it was at full liberty not to as well. That's irrelevant at this point because things didn't go down that path 3 years ago.

Re:No-deal Brexit opponents defeat government by nailer on Wednesday September 04, 2019 @10:31AM (#20877512)
> I'm not sure what we're arguing about at this point.

It seems you think people didn't believe the government was going to implement what the people decided.

The people were told the government was going to implement what the people decided.

If you agree with the latter then let's move on with our day.

Re:No-deal Brexit opponents defeat government by QuesnayJr on Thursday September 05, 2019 @03:13PM (#20889851)
If we are going to go by what the people thought, the people didn't think they were going to get a no-deal Brexit. Leave told a whole bunch of lies. Now that the reality of no-deal Brexit has set in, the position has proven unpopular.

All I am saying is that now that we know that is the reality on offer, that the British people should get to vote on it. Since no-deal Brexit will lose at the ballot box, I can understand why its supporters want to avoid such a vote.