Topic: | Re:Re:Ann Keen Votes against Labour Party Manifesto and her Democratic Mandate | |
Posted by: | Richard Greenhough | |
Date/Time: | 06/03/08 14:15:00 |
"There wasn't a referendum on Maastricht so why do we need one this time?" There should have been one on Maastricht, just as there should be one this time. There should also have been one before Ted Heath signed the Treaty of Rome in the first place. In simple terms, the electorate lends its powers and rights to its elected representatives at a general election, and those powers and rights should be returned intact to the electorate by those representatives at the end of their term in office. A government ceding powers to supra-national bodies without a clear mandate to do so is breaking that constitutional convention. Mrs Thatcher should not have signed the Maastricht Treaty without either putting it to the electorate by means of a referendum, or a clear manifesto statement at a general election once the terms of the treaty had been agreed, and Gordon Brown should not sign this one either. The fact that his party gave a clear manifesto commitment to a referendum on a constitution which is largely identical to the present treaty and has reneged on that commitment shows a shameful contempt for the electorate, acknowledges that he does not believe he could persuade the electorate to vote in favour of the treaty, and is another erosion of our hard-won democratic rights. |