Dr Sheila Lawlor, who heads up Politeia, set out her ideas in a new paper, Now or Never: Countering the Coup Against Britain’s Democracy. And she suggested Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ongoing battle with Parliament, and its attempt to box him into requesting a further delay to Article 50 using the so-called Benn Act, was emblematic of a wider struggle between elected politicians and the British people.

Dr Lawlor wrote: “This is a fight not only to make Brexit happen as promised, but to preserve and restore the tattered institutions of government and parliament as the servant, not the master, of the people.”

She argues traditionally the UK’s political arrangements reflected the will of the public, albeit reluctantly in many cases.

Failure to listen to popular opinion resulted in them being ousted from Government – yet Parliament remained defiant, more than three years after the 2016 referendum which saw 17.4 million people vote to leave the EU.

Dr Lawlor added: “We are seeing the last throw of the dice by MPs to entrench a parliament that has lost popular support on the greatest matter of the day, has forfeited the constitutional authority to legislate, and now refuses to seek it.

“For in Britain’s constitution the authority to exercise power comes from the people.

“Having voted to restore the country’s sovereignty, like the Prime Minister, they want Brexit ‘done’.”

She further suggested the EU have weaponised the issue of the Irish border in order to impose its will on the UK, characterising the backstop as an attempt by the bloc to impose its economic agenda.

With specific relation to suggestions that Brexit posed a threat to the Good Friday Agreement, she say mutual arrangements for north south cooperation had worked well

She added: “There is no reason that that should not continue.”

The EU “has no right to stir up the historic battles, now buried, of a complex and difficult past, to its own political ends, reigniting embers of a dying fire,” Dr Lawlor said.

She urged Mr Johnson to be ready to leave without a deal, under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules if necessary, concluding: “Brexit is not only a battle about constitutional freedom and the sovereignty of the UK.

“It is a battle between two economic systems.

“The EU’s centrally planned and controlled economic system run by Brussels is incompatible with the UK’s tradition of free markets and competition, open to challengers and small companies alike.

“For France and Germany the EU was a Franco-German project developed in the 1950s for reasons of history, politics and France’s national security.

“There may still be good reason for each to put their future in the joint venture for EU integration.

“But for the UK, the world’s fifth richest economy, with a different history and a tradition of economic freedom under the law, the EU system is incompatible with this country’s constitutional sovereignty and economic freedoms.

“The UK’s focus should now be on a future free trade agreements with the EU and globally, without the constraints of being bound by EU law.”

Source: Read Full Article