Has Brexit come to a grinding halt?

Breakin' up is hard to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbad22CKlB4

Parliament is sovereign. Pending the appeal with the Supreme Court that is.

This does not stop Brexit, it just stops the executive changing laws without consulting parliament.
The EU treaties with the associated rules are all part of British law, voted in by parliament. Only parliament can change those laws.

This is the briefing produced by the House of Commons Library to accompany the referendum bill as it went through Parliament.

This is the key paragraph:

"This Bill requires a referendum to be held on the question of the UK’s continued membership of the European Union (EU) before the end of 2017. It does not contain any requirement for the UK Government to implement the results of the referendum, nor set a time limit by which a vote to leave the EU should be implemented. Instead, this is a type of referendum known as pre-legislative or consultative, which enables the electorate to voice an opinion which then influences the Government in its policy decisions. The referendums held in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1997 and 1998 are examples of this type, where opinion was tested before legislation was introduced. The UK does not have constitutional provisions which would require the results of a referendum to be implemented ..."

As mentioned above, the legal question is whether the Executive has the right on its own to trigger the process to leave the EU, ie Article 50. The Executive has the right to negotiate and abrogate treaties etc, but membership of the EU rests also on an Act of Parliament, which cannot be set simply aside by the Executive, or be irreversibly nullified by its actions. There is the added complication of whether just invoking Article 50 leads irrevocably to leaving.

Great thread, featuring typically thoughtful comments from Emma and Marco. I really appreciate these discussions even though eventually they can disintegrate beyond the Webmaster's tolerance level.

I, too, appreciate all the first hand information from those posters who are actually living through and participating in this (possibly?) life altering event. So I'm especially thanking Emma and Marco and a few others for their truly thoughtful replies.

"Decisions were made on almost no concrete information, appalling spin and some down right lies".

That was certainly my impression, watching from the "outside". Some of the statements made by "Bafflegab Boris" were clearly incorrect and misleading, and gave the wrong impression of the facts.

As Nigel Farage said back in May: "“In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way."

Looks like he has been proved right.

A 52-48 result in favour of remaining in the EU would not have been a mandate from the people for the UK Government to join the euro and Schengen, and changing to driving on the right. So in my view being the other way round is not a strong mandate for the hardest path in the opposite direction, especially when taking population overall it was only a plurality and not a majority.

Calling a general election is a lot harder than it might have been. With the Fixed Term Parliament Act it is no longer in the power of the Executive using the royal prerogative to be able to do so on its own whim. The current government in effect has to lose the confidence of the House and no other grouping be able to obtain it or two-thirds of members vote for one.

Rock, meet hard place.

Today we stand on...sinking sand or a new day for "greatness". Will our new populist direction, mesh with Brexit directions? Common ground perhaps? My plans for a visit later this month to Christmas Markets in Germany now might include a quick trip to the UK to measure, over a pint or twelve, brit reactions to the New US/UK parallels. Any suggestions for questions to ask? Ken? Anyone?

larry,

"Any suggestions for questions to ask? Ken? Anyone?"

The situation in the U.S. is still too "new" so I'm still mulling over the implications of that, but there does certainly seem to be some parallels with the Brexit vote. One thing that does occur to me is that both the Brexit situation and U.S. vote are still at a somewhat early point, so there's no clear indication yet on how either of these are going to play out in the long term. I'm sure more questions and comments will occur over time.

Have a pint for me!