| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Labour getting desperate? | |
| Posted by: | Francis Rowe | |
| Date/Time: | 17/07/25 16:05:00 |
| That's not really accurate. The 2005 commitment was to have a vote on a specific EU Constitutional Act, not membership. That was scrapped after other countries voted against it so Labour was no longer bound by its manifesto. There is a strong argument that they should have held a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty as it served much the same purpose as the Constitutional Act but they were never obliged to do so. You are wrong that there would have been a yes vote - it would almost certainly have been rejected. However, although Euroscepticism was growing at this point, the country was still substantially in favour of EU membership. You may be right that a refusal to have a vote on the Lisbon Treaty increased anti-EU feeling that led to Brexit or it could be that a No vote would have meant that we made the disastrous decision to leave even sooner meaning we would be even poorer than we are now. |