A Thousand Brit Lawyers Say No Exit

More than a thousand British lawyers have signed a letter to prime minister David Cameron and members of Parliament, arguing that the Brexit vote was only advisory and is not legally binding. They maintain the only way the Brexit could proceed is through a parliamentary vote, but that before a vote takes place the government should set up “a Royal Commission or an equivalent independent body to receive evidence and report, within a short, fixed timescale, on the benefits, costs and risks of triggering Article 50 to the UK as a whole, and to all of its constituent populations.” Such arguments notwithstanding, reader comments to this article in the British online newspaper The Independent, which prints the letter in full, make clear what many British politicians are pointing out: There would be a strong and potentially dangerous populist reaction if the Brexit vote were to be discounted.