Time for the referendum people really want

By Mark Seddon

When I joined the Labour Party in Devizes, Wiltshire, at the tender age of fifteen, the party was largely opposed to what was then called the Common Market. In the referendum, called by Harold Wilson in 1974, Labour had advocated a ‘No’ vote. The majority of the people took a different view – and voted ‘yes’ to continued membership. Even at that young age, I knew that I wasn’t a ‘little Englander’ – I had grown up on army bases around the world – but I did listen to the arguments on both sides, and I do recall that some of the most powerful came from one party member who was also a member of the Anti-Common Market League.

That said, the arguments for remaining in the Common Market seemed settled. But in the intervening years, the Common Market has transmogrified into the European Union with a now buckling currency union embracing part of it. For good or ill, more and more of the laws that govern this country emanate from Brussels. An enormous shift in power has taken place without the people ever being allowed a say. In fact you have to be over the age of 54 to have ever voted in a referendum on Europe.

Recently the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, inadvertently demonstrated in parliament what has gone wrong with the European project and the fact that we are powerless to do anything about it. Facing the Prime Minister, David Cameron, on March 16th in the commons this is what he had to say:

“Will he confirm that this Bill makes health care subject to European Union competition law, for the first time in history?…. Why does the Prime Minister not answer the question? Does he even know whether the health service will now be subject to EU competition law? It will be.”

The EU has passed laws enforcing the liberalisation of our railway system (directive 91/440) and postal services (directive 2008/6). Now the EU is set to expose the NHS to privatisation.

When I was a member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee, Tony Blair used to tell us that there was nothing the government could do to halt the process of Post Office privatisation. But read the newspapers and watch the television, and it appears that the continuing outsourcing and selling off of everything that isn’t nailed down is exclusively rooted in ideological domestic politics. It isn’t. It is the preserve of the European Commission. The truth is that even if David Cameron were opposed to the privatisation of the NHS there is not much he could do about it – which is of course why Ed Miliband asked his question.

The Labour leader will also know that Europe remains the Achilles heel of the Conservative Party, which is precisely why David Cameron doesn’t want to answer his questions. The arguments for a new referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union are becoming overwhelming for social, economic and political reasons. The argument for Ed Miliband and the Labour Party is also that in supporting a referendum call, Labour will be on the side of the public – a majority of who favour an EU Referendum, and the Tories will be put on the back foot.

Significantly there are now advocates of Britain’s membership of the EU who do believe that after 36 years and five subsequent treaties after our membership of the ‘Common Market’ was tested in a popular vote, it is necessary to refresh the mandate by having a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. For Britain today has less than 10% of the votes in the council of ministers and in the European Parliament. If politicians and civil servants from other member states are to predominantly determine that important laws such as the European Arrest Warrant and the privatisation of postal services are enacted here, then this must be with the conscious consent of the electorate. And the same, of course, should apply equally in the other EU countries.

This is why former Europe minister Keith Vaz and Caroline Lucas, firm EU believers, are lending their support to the new campaign that I am the director of; “The People’s Pledge”. This is a public, online, constituency by constituency, register of voters demanding the right to a definitive, in or out referendum. Our website – www.peoplespledge.org – will demonstrate to MPs and prospective candidates the strength of desire locally for such a referendum and, in turn, will enable constituents to see where the politicans of all parties stand locally on the issue. In this way, we intend making our objective a significant issue at the next general election.

Keith Vaz is also chairman of an all party pro-referendum group of MPs that includes those who would campaign for a ‘yes’ vote and those who would vote ‘no’.

Baroness Shirley Williams recently told a Fabian audience that EU leaders will soon be putting in place yet another new treaty, to establish what German Chancellor Angela Angela Merkel calls ‘European economic governance’ in order to try and save the single currency. This may involve commission surveillance over national budgets, the imposition of strict monetarist-inspired rules on debt and so public spending, common corporation tax rates, common retirement ages and a permanent fund to transfer huge sums of money to euro zone countries in difficulty.

She also said it “would be inconceivable that David Cameron could refuse to sign this treaty on behalf of the British people when all the other member states are behind it”. What she, of course, really meant was that the political heads of state, as opposed to the British, French, Italian, Dutch, German electorates, will decide whether yet more powers should be concentrated in Brussels.

Next month we will be allowed to vote in a referendum that few of us want, still less of us understand – on the ‘Alternative Vote’. Twice as many people told a recent YouGov poll that they would prefer a Referendum on the EU rather than AV. So who is listening?

Ed Miliband and the Labour Party now need to ask this question: do we take this opportunity to re-establish our reputation for being the people’s party, or are we still the party of the Blairite years, a party that fears the judgement of the people?