Gerald Warner raises a very valid question over the Lisbon Treaty, the Referendum-We-Never-Had and Cameron' breaking of the infamous 'cast-iron' guarantee.
"Why are we not allowed to vote on the Lisbon Treaty? The Big Lie, used by Dave to justify his reneging on his “cast-iron” promise of a referendum, is that a mandatory referendum cannot be held on a treaty that has already been ratified.....Only once in British history have we had a UK-wide referendum. That was the plebiscite on continued membership of the European Economic Community (EEC) held on 5 June, 1975. That was a binding referendum held after Britain had signed the accession treaty on 22 January 1972, formally joined the EEC on 1 January 1973 and had Parliament vote overwhelmingly to remain in Europe on 9 April, 1975. You cannot get more ratified than that. Yet, after that watertight ratification process, we still held a binding referendum."
2 comments:
Yes, all 3 main parties used legalistic arguments to get out of the spirit of their promise - which was, of course, a substantive referendum on our relationship with the EU. So, if theydont want a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the easy alternative is an in/out referendum!
No political party that has a hope of a majority, or of being influential in a hung parliament, will ever allow a referendum on In/Out of the EU. Regretfully, I think our only hope of becoming a sovereign nation again, is a civil insurrection, and things will have to get a lot worse to stir our supine population to this.
Post a Comment