The time is right for a referendum

David Cameron has set Britain on the path to a referendum on our membership of the European Union. Having decided to veto EU-wide treaty changes to address problems in the Eurozone, the UK will be further margainalised within the context of EU decision-making and the road to a two-tier Europe has just been formalised.

Has the Prime Minister really taken this decision in the British national interest or is this really an attempt to appease Tory backbenchers and the right-wing press establishment who have been spoiling for a fight? I’ll let you form your own judgments on that. I want to focus on another issue – the need for a referendum and why Ed Miliband should be leading the calls for it.

The last time Britain had a referendum on Europe was in 1975, over 35 years ago. Since then, successive British governments have agreed to radical changes in the nature of the EEC institutions and Europe-wide decision-making processes. All of this has been done without a mandate from the British people.

That is not to say that these changes haven’t been good for Britain. Quite frankly they have. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the EU has exercised a degree of soft power that no member state would have been able to on their own. The decision to co-opt former Soviet satellite states into the economic union has fostered stability and economic harmony and prevented the sort of chaos that we have seen in other areas of the globe when great structural change occurs.

However, Britain has always seemed an unwilling partner in these endeavours. Successive British Prime Ministers have felt the need to court the self appointed judge and jury on European matters – the British press – preventing Britain from meaningfully engaging in Europe.

Our political elite have a complete and utter lack of courage on this issue. Politicians have pandered to the views of the press, leaving them unchallenged and free to ride roughshod over any positive measures coming out of the EU. There has also been a lack of courage to put the question to the British people, to trust them to make the right decision on the issue of Europe.

As such Ed Miliband has the opportunity to put that right and show the courageous leadership that we’ve been waiting for since his election last year. Now that the Prime Minister has shattered his (and with it – Britain’s) relationship with Europe, Miliband should lead the calls to have a referendum on the EU. This would be a bold and timely move, demonstrating that Miliband wants the British people to shape our relationship with Europe; not our political elite who grow ever more remote.

Not only should Mr Miliband call for a referendum, he should lead up the pro-European campaign before Nick Clegg gets his poisonous hands anywhere near it. In doing so, he should learn from the farce of  “Yes to AV” and work with the Labour Movement for Europe and Labour MEPs to craft a positive narrative and pithy vision for Britain’s future in Europe. If he does that, the vote can be won and Labour Party would have helped shaped a constructive dialogue with our European partners moving into uncertain times.

So Ed, I say to you be bold and brave on this one. We’re in purgatory at the moment. The British government has been strategically indecisive for too long. If the vote is won, the British people would bequeath to government the ability to be a positive participant in Europe, despite the machinations of the right wing press.  And if the vote is lost, we must respect the will of the British people and craft a new relationship with the EU as a partner not a participant. Either way it should be you who shapes this agenda; no one else.