Post by MMVernon Bogdanor writes in today's The Times that
"...a sovereign parliament could legislate retrospectively, with
the agreement of the EU, so as to extend the Brexit date and deem
Britain not to have left the EU on October 31. Parliament has
legislated retrospectively in the past, most notably in the War
Crimes Act 1991."
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-the-commons-could-
thwart-boris-johnsons-no-deal-brexit-trkgbggcz
MM
Clutching at straws again I see. Now you're even proposing
retrospective, undemocratic laws just to get your way.
But how retrospective would they have to be? The current government
isn't going to do anything so fundamentally shabby, so it would have
to be a new one, presumably, you must think, led by Corbyn or that
shrill woman whose name I can never remember from the LibDems. But
that entails a motion of no confidence being passed, and that has to
be proposed by the opposition.
And I see a little bit of a problem with that. You see, Labour got
40% of the popular vote last time but are hovering around 20% now in
the polls. That means they would lose a huge number of seats and
would suffer a corresponding loss of influence and power if they were
unfortunate enough to win on no confidence and force an election. So,
for all their bluster about it, it's not looking a good strategy at
all from their point of view.
In the meantime, since Brexit will have happened in your scenario,
the Brexit Party will have had its fox shot by the Tories who would
hoover up a large majority of their votes in any general election.
They'd attract even more through the Boris effect, while Labour, the
LibDems, the SNP and the Greens will continue to squabble amongst
themselves and split each other's vote.
I wouldn't take it for granted then that there will be a vote of no
confidence, nor that there will be a general election, nor that a
Remain party will win it, at any time soon. And if it comes in 2022
as scheduled, I think that will be just a little late to pass
retrospective legislation saying we didn't leave at all in 2019.
2022 looks like floundering.