Victory in First Round on EU Referendum Bill

The first round in the battle to hold a referendum on Britain's EU membership was won today

James Wharton's private members bill which would provide for an EU referendum in 2017 passed its' first hurdle in the House of Commons today, when MPs voted to give it a second reading by 304 votes to nil.

All but five Conservative MPs backed the bill. Those five abstained or were away, but should not be assumed to be against a referendum: one of them will be chairing the "committee stages" of the bill and has to be neutral at this point in the process, and two are publicly on record as supporting a referendum.

The policy of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties was to abstain and most of their MPs stayed away, although half a dozen Labour rebels did vote for the bill.

Although it has passed its first parliamentary hurdle, the bill will face much stronger opposition later and its passage through Parliament is far from guaranteed.

Nevertheless a marker has been laid down. Whether we are in or out of the EU, I believe Britain's position will be clearer and stronger if the people of Britain, and not their political masters, have made the choice.

Let Britain Decide.

DC: Let Britain Decide

David Cameron writes:

Tomorrow, the Conservative Party will vote to give the British people their say on Europe.

As I made clear in my speech on Europe earlier this year, we want an In-Out referendum by the end of 2017. And tomorrow Conservative MP James Wharton will propose a Bill that would write this commitment into law.

The Bill has my full support – and it has support from across the Parliamentary Party: Ministers and backbenchers; Conservatives of all views. We are united behind it and together we will vote for it.

The political picture here is a simple one. Conservatives want to give people a choice on Europe. Labour don’t – they’re refusing to back our Bill.

For decades, politicians have denied the British people a voice on Europe. Tomorrow the Conservative Party will fight to give them one. And let us all be proud of that.

David Cameron

Sue Palmer RIP

Many people in Whitehaven have been shocked to learn that Sue Palmer, manager of the Beacon museum at the harbour, has died suddenly at the age of 44.

She was a popular and effective manager who was widely known and liked around the town.

My thoughts are with her family and friends.

Rest In Peace.

Postscript:

Following Sue Palmer's death, the Beacon has been temporarily closed. It will remain closed until Saturday, July 13, while preparations are made for the summer holiday exhibitions, "Ice Age – Life After Dinosaurs" and "Shark – Myths and Reality."

Why we need a referendum on Europe

Nearly forty years ago, my parents' generation were given a vote on whether Britain should be part of what was then called the "European Economic Community" or more popularly the "Common Market." But the British people have never been properly consulted on whether Britain should be part of the kind of European Union we have now.
 

And it is time they were. I support David Cameron's promise of a referendum in 2017 following renegotiation.

   

At the 2005 election, all three main parties promised a referendum on a proposed redesign of the European treaties which was then being called the proposed EU Costitutional treaty. The story of how that promise was broken is one of the most shameful tales in the history of both the European Union and Britain.

 

Initially the powers that be in Europe were happy to put the proposed constitution for Europe treaty to referenda in a large number of EU member states, in a manner which was mostly free and fair, the one questionable aspect being that the plebiscites in countries where it was thought there was a significant risk of a "No" vote - Britain, Ireland and Denmark - were to be held last, at which point they appear to have assumed the countries who had already voted would have supported the constitution resulting in great pressure on us to follow the lead of the rest of Europe and vote "Yes."

 

Only it didn't work out that way. Maybe several electorates were not as keen on the European project as the powers that be had believed, maybe they used the referenda to stick up two fingers at their own governments for different reasons, maybe they just didn't like being taken for granted.

 

For whatever reason, the proposed constitution didn’t get past the electors of some of the countries thought to be most pro-European. At first it appeared to have been put on life support when the people of France voted "Non" and then killed when the voters of Holland also voted against a few days later.

 

As the proposal appeared to be dead, a relieved Tony Blair cancelled the vote in Britain, believing himself off the hook.

 

The trouble is, the EU doesn't allow cherished schemes to be killed for such trivial reasons as that the electorate have voted against them. The constitutional treaty came back with some minor changes and a new name - the Lisbon Treaty. Everyone in Europe except the then Labour government of Britain recognised was the proposed Lisbon Treaty was more than 90% the same as the constitutional treaty which the electorates of several european countries had voted down (and others probably would have if given the chance.)

 

This time they were not taking any risks about consulting the people. Only Ireland put the proposal to a referendum, and in a climate of fear and recession the Irish government managed to get a "Yes" vote.

 

Shamefully for Europe, none of the countries whose voters had rejected the original draft of the treaty dared to consult them again.

   

Shamefully for Britain, the Labour and Lib/Dem parties broke their promises to hold a referendum here on the treaty.

 

A Conservative motion to hold such a referendum attracted the support of the overwhelming majority of Tory MPs (all except two), and a few brave Labour and Lib/Dem rebels. However, Gordon Brown whipped labour MPs to vote against a referendum, and Nick Clegg whipped Lib/Dem MPs to abstain.

 

David Cameron made a promise that if he came to power before the treaty was ratified he would suspend ratification and put it to a referendum. Unfortunately he had no opportunity to implement this promise because the ratification of the treaty was completed while Gordon Brown was still in power.

 

Brown’s signature of the treaty was a particularly embarrassing episode and the worst of all worlds – rather than sign at the same time as all the other leaders he turned up after they had all gone and signed it on his own as if trying to hide. This managed the rare feat of uniting the full spectrum of opinion from the most pro-Federalist to the most anti-EU – but they were all united in finding this ridiculous.

 

The whole sorry saga has left a bad taste in the mouth and poisoned attitudes to Europe through a wide part of the British political spectrum. Whatever the future relationship between Britain and the rest of Europe is to be, we have to start by accepting that the British people must decide the basic direction, and that means giving them a vote on it.

  

Until comparatively recently I was not a supporter of an In-Out referendum, partly because the idea was being put forward by people who were trying to wriggle out of their promise of a referendum on the EU Constitution by offering one on British membership of the EU instead. (They thought they would lose a vote on the treaty but win one on EU membership, so they were offering a plebiscite they thought would give the result they wanted as a substitute for the one they had actually promised at election time, which wouldn’t.)

   

I changed my mind when I listened to David Cameron’s speech on Europe, which convinced me that we do need a referendum on British membership.

Quote of the Day

"If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law."

(Sir Winston Churchill)

Conservatives launch Team 2015

Do like the idea of watching Ed Miliband and Ed Balls strolling up Downing Street after the next election?

Could you live with their hands back on our nation’s finances - borrowing, spending and saddling you and the children with more debt for years to come?

If not – would you like to do something about it?

If so, the Conservatives are giving you the opportunity to do so by signing up for Team2015 to help secure a Conservative majority in 2015.

Team2015 is a volunteer network which deploys our best people to where they are most needed in our 40:40 target seats.

Your skills will be channelled directly to the campaigns that need them most - and you'll be joining over a thousand other volunteers on the ground in a target seat near you.

Help us reach that all important majority in 2015 so we can:

• Stand up for those who want to work hard and get on in life
• Finish off the job we’ve begun by getting our deficit under control
• Make sure work pays by continuing our welfare reforms
• Continue to build Britain the world class education system she deserves
• Carry on our hard work to restore order to our immigration system
• Let Britain Decide on our relationship with the EU through a referendum by 2017, as Ed Miliband makes clear that he is too weak to give his MPs, let alone the public, a say

If you want to achieve all of the above and stop the keys to No10 and No11 being handed back to the very people who crashed our economy in the first place, then please join Team2015 today.

Sign up now at www.conservatives.com/Team2015 and one of our Team2015 coordinators will be in touch.

Quote of the Day

"There is no such thing as a good tax"

(Sir Winston Churchill)

Testbed creation

This blog is the second of two test sites for Chris Whiteside's blog, for the purpose of checking the appearance of possible reformat designs for the main blog which I am working on.

The main site for Chris Whiteside's blog is at http://chris4copeland.blogspot.co.uk/