Yet more support for a referendum on the new EU Constitution Treaty:
Up to a third of Labour MPs may support calls for an EU Treaty referendum, says a Labour MP spearheading the campaign.
Ian Davidson told the BBC he believed he could persuade up to 120 MPs to support a referendum on the new treaty.
He said it was "virtually identical" to the failed EU constitution - on which a referendum had been promised.
But Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that the constitution had been "abandoned" and MPs would see the new treaty was in Britain's best interests. (BBC)
Now there is support for a referendum on this "not-Constitution" Treaty from the Conservatives, some Trade Unions, a third of the PLP, and even several senior ministers. We want a referendum on this. Whilst I have every intention of voting against it myself, whatever the result of a referendum on it would have to be accepted.Ian Davidson told the BBC he believed he could persuade up to 120 MPs to support a referendum on the new treaty.
He said it was "virtually identical" to the failed EU constitution - on which a referendum had been promised.
But Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that the constitution had been "abandoned" and MPs would see the new treaty was in Britain's best interests. (BBC)
It is clear that, like Brown, the EU doesn't want the people - and certainly not the British - to have a choice over this. The people of France and the Netherlands rejected the EU Constitution, so they are just changing a few words - and in the process making it "unreadable" - to get it past the people and legislatures of Europe. There will be transfers of sovereignty, and they don't want us to know that or to have the chance to vote on it. The Constitution has not been "abandoned" like David Miliband says, but just slightly re-written. No matter if "[t]wenty-seven European heads of government all signed a document in June, after nearly two years of negotiation, saying the constitutional concept has been abandoned," the reality is that it hasn't.
I thought the European union was supposed to be democratic? That's what the entry requirements include anyway. It's just a pity that they themselves fail their own democratic requirements - if the EU applied to join the EU, it would be rejected on those grounds. But since Britain is still a democracy, we the people demand our right to decide on our own future - directly, in this case.
If Gordon Brown does not give in to their 12 points, the third of Labour MPs who support a referendum on this issue have no choice but to vote against the "not-Constitution" Treaty if it goes to Parliament rather than coming to the people. Even if they agree with the "Treaty" itself, they must vote against it because the people have been denied the right to vote.
Sources: BBC, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Daily Mail
