The EU Referendum Campaign is launched
By Daniel Hannan Politics
Last updated: September 8th, 2010
When the Conservatives announced, last year, that there would be no referendums on the EU during this parliament, I resigned from my – admittedly somewhat paltry – frontbench role in the European Parliament. I did so in no carping spirit. I voted for David Cameron as Tory leader, and I would do so again tomorrow. I like the man and, more to the point, I think he’s doing the right things as PM, scrapping quangos, cutting spending, freeing schools, tackling welfare dependency. I simply wanted to concentrate on building up a cross-party campaign for an in-or-out referendum.
Let the people decide讓人民決定
Nine months later, here it is. The EU Referendum Campaign brings together supporters of all parties and none who believe that the question of EU membership should be settled by a popular vote. I make the full case in the main paper. The issue cuts laterally across all the parties; it cannot easily be settled at general elections; it is a matter of first-rate constitutional importance; it divides Parliament from people (only one per cent of MPs oppose EU membership, compared with around 50 per cent of their constituents); all three parties recently promised a European referendum. Europe is, in short, the textbook example of where a plebiscite is proper. The only reason not to hold a popular ballot is because you might not like the outcome – which, in a democracy, is not a worthy objection.
9個月後，在這裡啦。歐盟公投運動匯集各黨的支持者，和沒有人他們相信歐盟會籍的問題應該由人民投票解決。我把全部情况放入主要文件，議題削減橫跨各黨；它不能容易地在一般的選舉中被解決；它是一流憲法重要性的事件；它從人民分開議會（只有百分之一的議員反對歐盟會籍，相比約 50%的成員）;所有三黨最近承諾一歐洲公民投票。歐洲是，簡而言之，教科書的例子在那一次公民投票是正確的。唯一不舉行民眾投票的理由是，因為你可能不喜歡那結果 - 這在一個民主是不值得反對的。
In the early 1970s, there was a campaign for a referendum on the Common Market. While it was ultimately unsuccessful – Edward Heath broke his word, and joined without a vote – it came remarkably close. Many MPs felt honour bound to oppose EEC membership because they had signed a commitment not to join without a referendum, and Heath’s Commons majority fell, on more than one occasion, to single figures. In the 1990s, Sir James Goldsmith launched a new referendum campaign. It was widely dismissed as quixotic, yet it soon forced both John Major and Tony Blair to promise that they would not join the euro without a popular vote. More recently, there was a campaign for a referendum on the European Constitution. Peter Hain, then the Europe Minister, told its supporters to “put away your banners and save your money” but, by the subsequent election, Tony Blair had promised a referendum on the document. (The French and Dutch “no” votes, paradoxically, allowed him to wriggle out of his commitment.)
It’s simply not true that such campaigns don’t work. No elected representative can afford to be indifferent to his constituents’ wishes. More to the point, we have a reasonable and persuasive case. So, please, visit the website and sign The Pledge.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100052768/the-eu-referendum-campaign-is-launched/
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