His creamy dimples beamed with self pleasure
AS soon as Remainers’ barrister Lord Pannick entered the supreme court at 9.25am, five minutes before kick-off, it was obvious how the verdict had gone. Pannick was beaming with self-pleasure, two creamy dimples in his cheeks. Contrast the pink, pressed look of his opponent Jeremy Wright, the Attorney General, who came beetling in three minutes later, flustered.
The verdict itself (like the whole case?) was an anti-climax. Lord Neuberger delivered it briskly, his diction lightly furred. ‘The Government cannot trigger Article 50 without Parliament authorising that course,’ he said.
His fellow beaks, sitting in black, Mastermind- style chairs, betrayed no emotion. They were arranged semi-circular in a room oddly lacking British majesty. It felt like a continental tribunal, the sort of thing you see at the Hague.
Behind Lord Neuberger stood a scruffy usher with some glasses round his neck.
The only reaction I saw, apart from a shake of the head by Mr Wright, came from a thickset activist near the back who clenched both fists and then started to pump hands with colleagues.
The spectacle was over in less than ten minutes. With that, the real action began: The TV grandstanding outside, where a knot of pro-Brussels protestors, one in a beret, chanted ‘We love EU’ and waved a blue flag.
Ready for your close-up, Miss Miller. Roedean Remainer Gina Miller, frontwoman for this legal campaign, was done up in a chi-chi sort of fur coat.
Little Lord Pannick was next to her. He had to shimmy a few steps left to be in TV shot.
Meanwhile, the judgement document named the main lawyers involved. There were 57 of them! That was without counting the solicitors.
Mrs Miller’s tragi-triumphal soliloquy was largely inaudible in the crush, but I caught something about how ‘Parliament alone is sovereign’. It did not always feel like that when the EU was raiding our national powers.
Nearby stood bodyguards, opennecked, burly, bristling. At the back of the crowd someone started playing accordion music. A proBrexit placard said ‘Britain will fight for Israel in the Third World War whereas Europe will fight against Israel and Against Christ’. You do not often see slogans containing the word ‘whereas’.
Pimlico Plumbers millionaire Charlie Mullins, a Remain moneybags, loitered behind Mrs Miller with his Rod Stewart hairdo.
Attention moved from this legal circus to the Commons, where Brexit Secretary David Davis soon stood before MPs. Brexit would proceed unimpeded, said Mr Davis. Article 50 would be triggered by the end of March. Below decks the engine pistons were pumping away, tempo unaltered – so he intimated.
There was no sign of Lib Dems Nick Clegg or Tim Farron. If the Supreme Court had really scuppered the Government, we might have had more than one Lib Dem MP (Tom Brake) in the Chamber.
Labour frontbencher Sir Keir Starmer QC wanted the Government to submit to a ‘reportingback procedure’ to Parliament throughout Brexit. Novice parliamentarian Sir Keir, an underwhelming orator, concluded by saying ‘what a waste of time and money’ the Supreme Court appeal had been. Cue Tory cheers.
MRDavis thought this an unusual thing for a lawyer like Sir Keir to say. DD put in another unflappable, goodhumoured performance.
Ken Clarke (Con, Rushcliffe) waffled about his memoirs. Iain Duncan Smith (Con, Chingford & Woodford Green) said of the looming Article 50 Bill: ‘Keep it short, keep it simple, keep it swift.’
Mr Davis: ‘ We’ll keep it straightforward.’
Angela Eagle (Lab, Wallasey) demanded that the Government respect ‘ the spirit’ of the court’s ruling. But what was that spirit?
Leaver Dominic Raab (Con, Esher & Walton) thought the Supreme Court had improved on the ‘ rather opaque’ High Court ruling. Various Remain voices, including Broxtowe Tory Anna Soubry (whose tone to ministers is now avowedly constructive), longed for a Brexit White Paper. Beware, said Sir Desmond Swayne (Con, New Forest W). Though originally a Remainer, he suggested that a White Paper could lead to judicial review.
We may have had enough of lawyers for a while.