Damp squib threatens rickety structure

All hopes for a Parliamentary delay or reversal have evaporated. The Supreme Court said the Government must get the approval of Parliament (but not the Scot Nats)  before triggering Article 50. So the Government produced a very short Bill, asking Parliament to  give the Prime Minister the power to trigger Article 50 after a mx of 5 days debate. It was passed with a large majority. It now has to go the House of Lords for discussion, then back to Parliament for final amendments. The Government subsequently produced a White Paper setting out its objectives (more or less as we knew them -- gain control over immigration and legislation, leave the Single Market and the Customs Union, try to get the best possible local deals for certain sectors of industry and the City). There are lots of amendments already tabled, but no-one now thinks this will prevent a trigger in March

What has not been discussed is some implications for the fabled British Constitution:

1. After all that effort,cost and debate, the Supreme Court itself may rule whatever it likes, but an effective Government can simply bypass its recommendations within a day or two -- the legislative clearly effortlessly outweighs 'the rule of law'

2. The crucial role of the Opposition amounts to nothing if they agree with the Government anyway (as happened with Labour, and usually does)

3. MPs are in some confusion about who or what exactly they represent in Parliament --  their party; their constituents or a majority of them (an argument for voting Remain despite a Labour Party whip); the national interest as represented by the Referendum, despite their own view; the real national interest which the idiots who voted Leave couldn't see but which they can (some Labour, all Libs and SNPs but only one Tory MP); the Constitution, which would have been in crisis if Parliament voted to reject the results of the Referendum (former Chancellor G Osbourne) . All of these arguments are accepted as valid by the meeja -- they just cancel each other out so that in effect MPs can represent whoever or whatever they want and always justify it.

Luvvies, who are majorly distracted by Trumpery at the moment anyway, seem able only to rehearse old and feeble arguments. Here is John Harris in a kind of anticipatory schadenfreude reminding us we may have to give up cheap off-season strawberries --such barbarism!

Left-leaning people may... wonder [why] are businesses reliant on all that agency labour? But try coming up with a model of consumerism that avoids huge seasonal fluctuations. As Brexit may yet prove, coming down hard on this part of the economy would lead to lots of businesses going under.
It may turn out that the EU’s key contribution to Britain’s economy and society over the past 15 years was not the high-flown stuff about European cooperation and internationalism, but the way that it provided a huge pool of workers who would do jobs most British people would balk at [for shit wages], and thereby sustained a fragile mess of stagnating wages, skyrocketing credit, cheap food and consumerism-as-culture.
Millions of leave voters have experienced the magical [sic -- profit is magic for the bourgeoisie] benefits of all that just as much as those who voted remain. And if the whole model starts to unravel, their howls of dismay will be just as loud. It would be a very British outcome: in the land of having your cake and eating it, proof that if you play fast and loose with the people who do the baking, the fun soon stops.