Thursday, February 14, 2008
Nick - There is no shame in admitting you got it wrong
One of Nick Clegg's USPs as far as I am concerned is his transparent honesty. Now is the time for him to demonstrate this by knocking this referendum bunkum on the head once and for all. From where i sit he was bounced into this position by his predecessor. If we can't understand the reality that our apparent U turn on a referendum on the constitution/treaty looks like that to our electorate we understand jack (!) Whatever our position on the need or not for a referendum, we committed to it, we were prepared to argue our case. I hope Nick will reflect, will demonstrate his undoubted metal, show he has listened to the party and more importantly the country and show we can be trusted to keep our promises. As a champion for people to have more control over the decisions that impact upon their lives, he has little choice.
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2 comments:
No, the propoal to have a referendum on our membership of Europe, rather than one of a number of treaties is a far better policy than the previous one and one which we can sell very well to the public.
If we reverted to supporting a pointless referendum on the new treay (i) it would look like we had caved in to the Tories' agenda (ii) it would be 'bad policy' since it would not change anything even if it was agreed to by the government (iii) the original commitment was to a referendum on the constitution, which this new treaty is not, even if it does contain much of the same detail as the constitution.
We should have a referendum on whetehr we stay in Europe or not. The Tories would split down the middle and the resulting rump would lurch to the right. Labour would tie itself up in knots and god knows what their individual members would do, since they have always been uncertain about Europe.
Finally, and by far most importantly, it is the right thing to do since many people in this country have grave doubts about our membership. I believe we can make a strong case for staying in Europe and that we would win.
I would agree with you if we hadn't already committed to a referendum on the constitution, to most people they are not interested in the intricacies of the similarities and differences between the constitution and the treaty, it looks like we didn't keep a promise.
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