Standing up for the British people

Last Tuesday (26th February), much to my surprise, I found myself being dismissed from the Chamber of the House of Commons by the Deputy Speaker.

If you agreed with what I did please sign the petition calling for a Real Vote on Europe.

My surprise will, I hope, be shared by my constituents and all those who know me well. I’m not someone who courts controversy. I play by the rules. If there’s a criticism to be made, it’s perhaps that I’m too reasonable.

Yet on Tuesday in Parliament I could not contain myself, because of my anger at the grotesque unfairness of being denied a debate on whether the British people should have a vote on the UK’s membership of the European Union. So I protested.

Read the BBC article here ..... watch the video here.

Background to my actions

Let me give you some background, so you can make your own mind up on my actions.

I now speak for the Liberal Democrats on Foreign Affairs, shadowing the Foreign Secretary, David Milliband. At the moment, I’m involved in a long process of debating the latest European Treaty, sometimes called the Lisbon Treaty or the Reform Treaty. This treaty is designed to make the EU more efficient now that it has almost doubled in size in the last decade, now with 27 countries. The treaty does things like cut the number of European Commissioners by a third; it replaces the current 6 month rotating Presidency of the European Council, with a Presidency that lasts for 2 ½ years instead; and it improves the ability of European countries to co-operate on things like tackling terrorism and climate change. All sensible, modest measures.

So sensible that the anti-Europeans in the Commons have fallen back on their old tricks – to confuse the electorate, and focus on something entirely different from the contents of the Treaty.

The political debate Conservatives and other Europhobes have pushed is about a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon itself. Their argument is that at the last election all three political parties had in their manifesto a commitment to a referendum on the then Constitutional Treaty. These eurosceptics then argue, supported by their friends in the anti-European press, that the Lisbon Treaty is the same. Therefore, there should be a referendum.

Yet it is simply not true that the Treaties are the same. I readily concede that some of the changes proposed in the Lisbon Treaty were in the Constitutional Treaty. Both, for example, change the word “ecu” to “euro” in the old Treaties. Indeed, 90% of what’s in the Lisbon Treaty can be found in the Constitutional Treaty. Yet having 90% of the same measures is not sufficient to say the Treaties are the same – it depends on the importance of the remaining differences. The DNA of a mouse and a human being is 90% the same – it’s just that the 10% difference is critical! Moreover, the Constitutional Treaty contained far more – it had 157,000 words to Lisbon’s 44,000, for a start.

The Constitutional Treaty was much longer because it was genuinely different! It replaced all past Treaties – the Treaties of Rome, Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice, as well as the Single European Act – and contained a brand new EU Constitution. To quote William Hague on the Constitutional Treaty, “the fact that it was a Constitution, not simply a treaty, would have revolutionised the EU.” Indeed, it was because the old Treaty was revolutionary and “constitutional” – and not merely a minor amending Treaty as Lisbon is - that I argued for a referendum at the last election.

However, I and my party still want to honour our election pledge. But with the old Treaty defunct, how do we do that? Well, before the last election, our then Leader, Charles Kennedy, said about our referendum pledge: “It's time for this debate - time for us to decide what we actually want from Europe. I believe, once the argument has been joined, the consensus will be that it's better to be in than out.” In other words, Liberal Democrats always viewed a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty as a vote on whether Britain should be in or out of the European Union.

Last Tuesday

So much for the background – back to Parliament and the run up to last Tuesday.

We had gone about trying to securing such a debate and a vote on a referendum on membership of the EU in the normal way. Talking to the relevant authorities to make sure our amendment was in order, and could be debated. Bringing our intentions to the Speaker’s attention. Ensuring the other parties were aware.

And yet we were gagged. Gagged from debating what we believe is our manifesto promise. Gagged from allowing the other parties to honour their manifesto promises too. And gagged from arguing for the referendum the British people want and were promised.

There have been many questions in the past on which I’ve felt indignant – the Iraq War, for example. But then we were at least allowed to debate the subject. We were allowed the vote, at the right time.

On Europe, the Conservatives and Labour have colluded to silence us. Labour, because it is refusing the people any referendum, and the Conservatives because they would be divided and split asunder on an in/out referendum and so only want a limited, restricted referendum, on a much narrower question to the one they pledged to give.

So, whether you agree with my pro-European views, whether you would have voted “yes” like me in a referendum on whether Britain should remain in the European Union, or not. Indeed, whatever position you take on the European question, I believe I was right to seek the debate for the British people, and right to protest when prevented. Even to the extent of being dismissed from the Chamber for the rest of that day.

Do you agree with me?

If you agreed with what I did please sign the petition calling for a Real Vote on Europe.