ok next question leeding on from what we have discussed say everything goes your way

wham bamm out of the EU

wont it take time to set up all the trade agreements with the counties in the EU and everyone outwith as we will no longer be in the existing EU trade agreements

and while that transition period is going on ie outwith EU and cant trade as no agreements wont that leave us high and dry as a country until the agreements are set up ( not sure how long that will take perhaps someone here knows)

while reading the WTO in the past for another topic i got the impression that currently our trade even outwith the EU is done under EU trade agreements perhaps i read it wrong again perhaps someone can help with that also

Paul Birch

Do you mean that when the Lords rejected the Hunting Bill the Parliament Act could be immediately invoked because substantially the same bill had already been rejected by them in the previous session?

If so, is there any rule about how long a Parliamentary session lasts? Would it be possible, for example, to end the session after one day, then recall Parliament the day after?

I'm not, really, but you have to admit there's an awful lot of old party politicians and their cronies in it. There must be a considerable likelihood of their refusing to back UKIP's legislation. We'd need a contingency plan to deal with that.

"But then the prospect of a lot
Of dull MPs, in close proximity,
All thinking for themselves is what,
No man can face with equanimity."

Nic

That's the way it works, yes.

I don't believe so, the Parliamentary sessions usually last from the Queen's Speech to the following November(ish) unless a General Election gets in the way.

I'm not quite so certain that they would refuse to block UKIP legislation - after all they tend to take a more pragmatic view of things than the sheep. Mind you, if all else fails, there's always the Parliament Act. ;-)

Can't argue with that!

Paul Birch

Granted that that's the usual practice, but is it obligatory? I have a feeling that we recently had a short session when Parliament was recalled for the start of the Iraq War or after 9/11 or something. So if short sessions are permissible, is there actually any legal limit on their minimum duration?

I'm not certain either (I assume you meant "block UKIP legislation" or "refuse to pass" it, not "refuse to block" it!). But it's surely not so improbable we could afford to ignore the possibility.

Paul Birch

First, you don't need a "trade agreement" with a country to trade with it. You just get on with trading. All so-called trade agreements are actually agreements to restrict trade.

Second, we would still be in the WTO club, along with the EU, so WTO rules would automatically apply; the EU would be trading with us on the same basis as it does with all the other WTO signatories.

Nic

Quite correct - I should have read what I typed before getting carried away and posting it!!

I agree that we need to consider the possibility. However, there are some safeguards. The HoL is not allowed to reject financial bills, by convention it does not reject clear manifesto commitments (so that should cover our most important policies) and, as I said earlier, there's always the Parliament Act to fall back on if necessary. I'm not sure we would need much more than those to implement our policies, would we?

Paul Birch

Fair enough, though I (and I think scotgirl) was more concerned about being able to implement them quickly (which is politically important). I'd forgotten about the financial bill exception; we should be able to cast most of our main policies (including withdrawal from the EU) INTO phpbb_that form ("Article 1. The UK shall cease all contributions to the funds of the European Union with immediate effect. Article 2. Pursuant to Article 1 the European Communities Act of 1972 is repealed.").