Now that the supreme court judges have delivered their ruling (on 24 January) that the prime minister could not trigger article 50 and start the ball rolling towards the process of leaving the European Union (EU) without the parliament’s assent, a three line whip would need to vote whether it would be Brexit - Britain’s exit from the European union - or it would be Brit(a)In - Britain to remain in the EU.
In the UK, a three line whip means an instruction given to MPs by the leaders of their parties telling them to vote in the way the party wants them to do on a particular subject.
In this case, it is whether Britain should or should not leave the EU. This begs the question in a democratic country like the UK, should the MPs who wanted to remain the the EU and voted for Brit(a)In, Britain to remain in the EU, in the referendum be required to vote for Brexit?
The three line whip would then literally tentamount to somebody brandishing a real whip on them and compelling them to vote in the manner suggested by their party leaders.
However, whatever follows,the process of Brexit negotiations will take months to fianalise and the talks will be very very difficult. While this is going on, many major banks are making contingency plans to move thousands of their staff and jobs to Paris. So the UK’s loss will be Paris’ or Luxembourg’s gain.
Dinesh Sheth
Newbury Park, Ilford
