Accrington Web - View Single Post

Greg Pope · 05-03-2008, 15:47

The EU Constitution died when it was rejected by the French two years ago, and what we now have is a treaty which reforms the way the EU runs in order to accomodate the fact that it has been enlarged and now has 27 member countries. Whether you agree with that statement tends to depend on whether you think Britain should remain in the EU or not.

It seems to me that some of the opponents of the treaty are being a little less than totally honest with us. If you support the EU and want it to run better then surely this treaty is a reasonable way forward. If, however, you are opposed to British membership of the EU you should be honest enough to say so and call for us to have a referendum on withdrawing altogether - don't call for a referendum on the treaty as a way of bashing the EU by proxy. As it happens I think we probably should have a referendum at some point on whether we stay in the EU or not, as it is a radically different organisation to the one on which we had a referendum in 1975.

A couple of quick points in response to those made by others: it's hard to see how I am ignoring the wishes of Hyndburn voters - of the 67,000 electors in the constituency I have been contacted by fewer than 10 on this issue; I also don't see how I ignored the wishes of voters over Iraq - hindsight may be a wonderful thing but at the time opinion polls showed a constant (if small) majority in favour of the war.

05-03-2008, 15:47	#21
Greg Pope Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 65 Liked: 0 times Rep Power: 0	Re: Referedum on EU Treaty The EU Constitution died when it was rejected by the French two years ago, and what we now have is a treaty which reforms the way the EU runs in order to accomodate the fact that it has been enlarged and now has 27 member countries. Whether you agree with that statement tends to depend on whether you think Britain should remain in the EU or not. It seems to me that some of the opponents of the treaty are being a little less than totally honest with us. If you support the EU and want it to run better then surely this treaty is a reasonable way forward. If, however, you are opposed to British membership of the EU you should be honest enough to say so and call for us to have a referendum on withdrawing altogether - don't call for a referendum on the treaty as a way of bashing the EU by proxy. As it happens I think we probably should have a referendum at some point on whether we stay in the EU or not, as it is a radically different organisation to the one on which we had a referendum in 1975. A couple of quick points in response to those made by others: it's hard to see how I am ignoring the wishes of Hyndburn voters - of the 67,000 electors in the constituency I have been contacted by fewer than 10 on this issue; I also don't see how I ignored the wishes of voters over Iraq - hindsight may be a wonderful thing but at the time opinion polls showed a constant (if small) majority in favour of the war.