I am sbsolutely committed to a referendum and I am very glad indeed that David Cameron, William Hague and the excellent Mark Francois MP have been doing so much to promote this.
The Government's refusal to hold a referendum is a direct breach of a solemn committment to the electorate. As such, it makes nonsense of Labour's pledge to listen to people and to create a new mechanism of 'citizens' juries' in order to facilitate consultation. I believe that the EU constitution is one of the most important political questions facing the nation and the only jury that is appropriate in determining the outcome of that issue are the sovereign voters themselves.
When the enormity of what was being proposed became apparent back in 2004, the Conservative party lauched a campaign for a referendum. The Government refused, hiding behind the formula that the new treaty was just an administrative tidying-up exercise. Such was the success of the campaign for a referendum and the petitions that were presented, the Government caved in early in 2005 and declared that there would indeed be a referendum. I believe they did this because they did not want the Conservative party to have the issue as a campaigning advantage in the election of May 2005. The Labour Government went into that election pledging to give us a referendum on the issue. Subsequently, the votes in France and the Netherlands were considered to have killed off the whole constitutional issue and so Labour took the view that it was no longer necessary to hold a referendum on something that simply wasn't going to happen anyway.
Of course we all now know that the treaty which the Government judged to be dead has now been revived. The estimate of virtually all the commentators is that it is in all essentials the very same as the constitution rejected by the Dutch and the French. The Government however, has revived the fiction that this is a matter of little consequence and that it has secured opt outs which significantly reduce the implications of the constitution in respect of Britain. I neither trust nor believe the Government. The refusal to hold a referendum is a clear breach of trust and I hope that the voters will treat it as such and punish the Government accordingly. I believe that it is vital for our nation's future that we all campaign for a referendum and show the strength of feeling on the issue to the Government.
I would urge all that have not done so, to sign up to the petitions that are being organised, for example, the one being promoted by the Daily Telegraph, and this can be done either by filling in the coupon in that newspaper or by writing to Telegraph EU referendum Petition, PO Box 2248, Colchester, CO2 8NQ or logging on to: www:telegraph.co.uk/eu
|
