BBC News reported that MPs have agreed to stage an historic debate on whether to hold a referendum on Britain’s future in the EU.

The day-long debate will occur next Monday and will culminate in MPs voting on whether to give the people of Britain a referendum.

Although originally scheduled for Thursday, Downing Street brought it forward to Monday amid fears that the party might use Cameron’s absence later in the week to stage a rebellion against his pro-EU policies.

All three political parties are putting pressure on their members to vote against the referendum and the BBC reported that conservative MPs may even be facing a three-line whip. This is a procedure that would require MPs in Government jobs to follow the Prime Minister’s lead or be threatened with losing  their positions. If Europhile David Cameron does order his MPs to vote against the referendum, it would practically ensure its defeat.

Even if MPs vote in favour of the motion next Monday, David Cameron is not bound to enforce the result, although it could be politically dangerous for him not to.

The motion that MPs will vote on reads:

This House calls upon the Government to introduce a Bill in the next session of Parliament to provide for the holding of a national referendum on whether the United Kingdom:
A) Should remain a member of the European Union on the current terms;
B) Should leave the European Union;
C) Should re-negotiate the terms of its membership in order to create a new relationship based on trade and co-operation.

Tory back-benchers voted to hold the debate after more than 100,000 people signed a petition demanding a choice. Conservative MP David Nuttall articulated the case for the referendum when he said, “I believe that a referendum along these lines would allow the public to make clear their views about our current membership of the European Union.”

“It is 36 years since we last held a referendum and our relationship with what was then known as the Common Market and the European Union has changed out of all recognition.”

Pressure on David Cameron has been mounting ever since his 2009 U-turn on the Lisbon treaty referendum. If he chooses to use his weight to block the referendum in next week’s vote, he could force a mutiny within his own party.

Speaking of the prospect of Down Street intervention, Tory MP Bill Cash said it would be ‘beyond belief’, commenting,

“It would be quite extraordinary for the Prime Minister to prevent the British people from having their say on a European project that is quite clearly failing. We have protests and riots all over Europe, we have billions of pounds being poured into bailouts and we have a trade balance with the EU which has deteriorated by £40billion. For the Prime Minister to ask the Conservative Party to vote against asking people their views would be beyond belief.”

SIGN THE PETITION at The People’s Pledge to register your support of a referendum. Also sign the Express’s e-petition.

PHONE your MP and ask how he intends to vote next week. Emphasize that we need a referendum since no one under the age of 54 has ever had a say on Britain’s relationship with the EU. Information on contacting MPs can be found here.

Further Reading

The People’s Pledge

This Crusade Can Help Free Britain From EU Tyranny

The Daily Express’s e-petition

Daniel Hannan’s Eurosceptic Articles

Extraordinary Powers Granted to European Police

European Union Articles at Robin’s Readings & Reflections

Conservatives ordered to vote against EU referendum

 

 

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8 COMMENTS

  3. I would be interested to know when the UK became a (i.e ONE) sovereign nation under God. If for the sake of argument we date Christianity in Britain from Constantine then what is now the UK has been a Roman province (although only part of it), several Saxon and Danish kingdoms, four distinct elements comprising a principality conquered by Edward 1st, Ireland (larger than the UK bit which did not start to be incorporated in any degree until the middle ages) an independent Scottish kingdom unified first under the crowns and later by choice of the Scottish Parliament, and England.
    The current UK is a relatively recent entity and all the historical rulers of its constituent parts would have claimed to be ruling under God

    • There was no specific time when the UK became ONE sovereign nation. This is because what we know today as the United Kingdom only emerged after an organic and gradual process spanning hundreds of years, as you rightly point out.

  4. So why is the UK as currently constituted uniquely sovereign under God in a way which – according to Christian Voice’s position on EU membership – precludes any degree of supra national relationship or – as EU advocates would argue – not the abrogation of sovereignty but its pooling with others to achieve common ends. And can the original worthwhile objectives – peace, prosperity etc – just be dismissed.

    And looking back over history why is the current UK uniquely sovereign under God if Scotland wasn’t before the Act of Union, or the Saxon kingdoms before Alfred. And if it is presumably devolution is at best wrong and calls for Scottish independence positively sinful

    • Simply because our Queen was anointed to rule her people in a covenant with God during a ceremony which stretches back to the day in 973 AD when Edgar was anointed and crowned king by Archbishop Dunstan in Bath. Scottish kings have been similarly crowned and anointed since 1329, well before the Act of Union. The Treaty of Lisbon, on the other hand, explicitly excluded God.
      The UK may be unique in its ceremony, which is modelled on the consecration of Solomon, but God calls every nation to obey him and follow his ways. This is wonderfully seen in the Coronation, not least at the point when the Queen was given the Orb from the Crown Jewels with the words: ‘Receive this Orb set under the Cross, and remember that the whole world is subject to the Power and Empire of Christ our Redeemer.’