No Need For Referendum, Then?
As expected, the Prime Minister has returned from Lisbon declaring, "The reform treaty has now been agreed. The red lines have been secured. The British national interest has been protected."
The Foreign Secretary has helpfully added, "The constitution is dead. Last night marked the end of the constitution... there was finally the legal text agreed in all languages which showed very, very clearly that by no measure - by no measure of legal structure, by no measure of legal content and by no measure of political consequence - could this be called a constitution."
Well, how reassuring...
2 comments:
I simply cannot understand why we are not being promised a referendum.
Now, I'm not of the position that any treaty signed by our government with another sovereign body or otherwise, should be subjected to a referendum. In my opinion, our electoral votes give our members of parliament authority to make decisions on our behalf.
However, my objection stems from the belief that where a government arrogates to itself the authority to sign away the very system of democracy (i.e. give away rights to other nations or supranational bodies to make national policy decisions about our relationships with other nations), and especially to allow a body of non-directly elected bureaucrats to take decisions that we elected our MPs to take on our behalf, that government should be subject to scrutiny by the electorate, and a legally structured opinion obtained.
Hence, I fully support a referendum on this treaty.
I am under 50 and therefore have never had any right to vote directly on whether or not I wish to be governed from Brussels. The Tories should hang their heads in shame about what they lead us into and acknowledge that it's time for a radical re-structuring of our relationship with 'Europe' and press for a withdrawal from Europe option on the referendum form. Europe is a one-way street when it comes to power.
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