Stavros
06-21-2015, 11:18 AM
The Conservative Party has introduced a Bill into Parliament which will 'make provision for the holding of a referendum in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar on whether the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union'. The Bill passed its first reading on the 9th of June 2015 with support from the Labour Party, and while it has been agreed that the Second and Third Readings will be read on the same day, that date has not yet been fixed, nor has a date for the Referendum been set, assuming it passes all its stages in Parliament; but it is expected to be held before the end of 2017.
The question on the ballot paper will be: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?
There are too many issues at stake here, and perhaps posts will reflect this if the topic invites enough comment. For me these are some of the issues:
1. A Referendum is the means whereby a government can abdicate decision-making and hand it over to the people even when, as in this case, it has only just been elected to office. Moreover, in legal terms, the Government could present a bill to Parliament seeking authority to enable the UK to cite Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon 2009, and thus leave the EU as an Act of Parliament, without holding a referendum. Two states have left the EU -in its earlier forms- Algeria was part of the Common Market [CM] when it was part of France, but left both France and the CM when it became independent in 1962; and Greenland left the EU in 1985 when it became independent of Denmark.
2. A referendum does not conclusively put an end to the argument. In 1975 the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson gave the British people a chance to vote in a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Economic Community but did so to put an end to internal Labour Party conflict over the issue. The result of the referendum not only made no difference to party conflict, by 1981 leaving the EU was Labour Party policy and as a consequence senior Labour figures left to form their own party, the Social Democratic Party. All the signs suggest that if the country votes to remain in the EU, the anti-Europeans will just carry on as they have been doing. But leaving the EU will make it harder to 're-join' so from this point of view the vote when it happens will be decisive.
3. The precise organisation of the referendum has yet to be decided. We do not yet know if the Bill when it becomes law will require a certain percentage of votes to be conclusive -for example, the vote requiring an endorsement of, say 48 or 49% of those who voted- or how this will be judged on a low turn-out. In addition to these calibrations, there is an appeal to allow 16-17 year olds to vote, given that they will be living with the consequences of the referendum for the rest of their lives; while the more complex issue concerns the regional aspects of the result if, for the sake of argument, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar vote to remain in the EU where the voters of England say No but where English votes are decisive in the result (if the vote is to leave). These issues will have to be dealt with before the Bill becomes law, but are important if the voting arrangements and the result are to be considered legitimate.
4. Prime Minister David Cameron has argued that the referendum is linked to the UK's attempt to reform the Treaty, but instead of cultivating agreement on Treaty reform with other EU members who share his views before bringing them to the negotiating table, he has advertised his menu of reform without consulting anyone, and is thus in a weak position, though this could be a deliberate tactic to make reform impossible, thus justifying the referendum which he thinks will maintain the UK's membership.
Should the UK remain in the EU, or should it leave? I have not gone into any of the issues around trade, the influence the EU has on the legal system in the UK, the impact on British society of the free movement of labour, but these are some of the key issues that relate to the UK's membership.
The question on the ballot paper will be: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?
There are too many issues at stake here, and perhaps posts will reflect this if the topic invites enough comment. For me these are some of the issues:
1. A Referendum is the means whereby a government can abdicate decision-making and hand it over to the people even when, as in this case, it has only just been elected to office. Moreover, in legal terms, the Government could present a bill to Parliament seeking authority to enable the UK to cite Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon 2009, and thus leave the EU as an Act of Parliament, without holding a referendum. Two states have left the EU -in its earlier forms- Algeria was part of the Common Market [CM] when it was part of France, but left both France and the CM when it became independent in 1962; and Greenland left the EU in 1985 when it became independent of Denmark.
2. A referendum does not conclusively put an end to the argument. In 1975 the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson gave the British people a chance to vote in a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Economic Community but did so to put an end to internal Labour Party conflict over the issue. The result of the referendum not only made no difference to party conflict, by 1981 leaving the EU was Labour Party policy and as a consequence senior Labour figures left to form their own party, the Social Democratic Party. All the signs suggest that if the country votes to remain in the EU, the anti-Europeans will just carry on as they have been doing. But leaving the EU will make it harder to 're-join' so from this point of view the vote when it happens will be decisive.
3. The precise organisation of the referendum has yet to be decided. We do not yet know if the Bill when it becomes law will require a certain percentage of votes to be conclusive -for example, the vote requiring an endorsement of, say 48 or 49% of those who voted- or how this will be judged on a low turn-out. In addition to these calibrations, there is an appeal to allow 16-17 year olds to vote, given that they will be living with the consequences of the referendum for the rest of their lives; while the more complex issue concerns the regional aspects of the result if, for the sake of argument, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar vote to remain in the EU where the voters of England say No but where English votes are decisive in the result (if the vote is to leave). These issues will have to be dealt with before the Bill becomes law, but are important if the voting arrangements and the result are to be considered legitimate.
4. Prime Minister David Cameron has argued that the referendum is linked to the UK's attempt to reform the Treaty, but instead of cultivating agreement on Treaty reform with other EU members who share his views before bringing them to the negotiating table, he has advertised his menu of reform without consulting anyone, and is thus in a weak position, though this could be a deliberate tactic to make reform impossible, thus justifying the referendum which he thinks will maintain the UK's membership.
Should the UK remain in the EU, or should it leave? I have not gone into any of the issues around trade, the influence the EU has on the legal system in the UK, the impact on British society of the free movement of labour, but these are some of the key issues that relate to the UK's membership.