Daily Mail readers furious
Law and government professor and head of Durham Law School Thom Brooks has made waves in right wing media comments sections by claiming Article 50 will never be invoked and Brexit will never happen.
Connecticut-born professor Brooks, who announced he will be heading the Russell Group law school earlier this month, has said:
I do not think Article 50 will be invoked.
Leaving the EU — and ultimately unravelling a 42-year-old evolving legal relationship — would be “an absolutely massive task”. Speaking to the Mail Online, he continued:
The closer the government looks at what is actually involved in leaving then the less likely they are going to be jumping ship.
The former Newcastle University lecturer even went as far as dismissing Theresa May’s famous “Brexit means Brexit” vow as similar to saying “gobbledygook is gobbledygook”.
Unsurprisingly, Brooks’ comments have riled Mail Online readers. Snippets from the comments section include “We have had the Vote, now get over it” and “42 years of legal stuff too difficult to unpick? What absolute nonsense. A millenia [sic] of British law and a century of commitment to the Commonwealth was ditched overnight when the UK joined the EU”.
The government knows there are strong democracy arguments for honouring the vote, and Brooks thinks politicians will do their best to appease disgruntled Leave voters by calling a second referendum:
I expect May will have Boris and other Brexiteers submit a plan for a second referendum. This will be presented as the government’s best efforts to honour the previous referendum result — however far short it may fall of Britain leaving the EU altogether. This second referendum will either see Britain changing its mind on Brexit or voting for something other than a full withdrawal.
However, both the Foreign Office and the brand new Department for Exiting the European Union have confirmed that Brexit does, indeed, mean Brexit.
So, Legal Cheek readers, what do you think? Do you think Article 50 will ever been invoked?
Do you think Article 50 will ever been invoked?
— Legal Cheek (@legalcheek) August 30, 2016