IWR in the news

23/02/08

Let the people decide

Dan Munford, writing for the Western Mail

The people of Aberconwy are being balloted on the Lisbon Treaty, which is the EU Constitution under another name, according to Dan Munford, chairman of the I Want a Referendum campaign,

THE has a more mature approach to politics than we do.

Sitting in a bar last week as CBS charted the progress of McCain, Obama, Clinton and Romney in the primaries, one thing was clear to me. US citizens distinguish between their political system on one side and the individuals and governments who operate within it on the other. We cannot. Their flag unites them. The office of President retains their respect while their lame- duck President faces their overwhelming scorn. Their patriotism and their political heritage and democratic republican tradition is either side of the very same quarter dollar.

Unfortunately, much to our cost, we have forgotten how important the maintenance of this distinction is to our rights as citizens. Politics is unanimously derided as bad and as a society we have no interest and no concern with its outcomes. Because we have as little respect for our institutions and our political processes as we do for hate-figure politicians, we fail to hold our leaders to account properly.

We find ourselves subject to establishment figures who compete to sell our country down the river and express shock and surprise when their judgment and motives are questioned.

The common law, product of centuries of sophisticated Western civilisation can be abandoned on a whim by the leader of our established Church. And the ancient democratic rights fought for by ordinary men and women long dead can be signed away in European treaties without our approval.

Now citizens in Aberconwy are themselves being tested in their ability to distinguish between a respect for country and their cynicism for individual governments and politicians.

Alongside millions of their countrymen and women they will have the chance to participate in the largest vote on since 1975. The Lisbon Treaty is the EU Constitution under another name. As the man who wrote it, former French President Giscard d’Estaing, says, “We have maintained the substance but changed the packaging”.

Despite attempts to halt the Aberconwy ballot, the vote is going ahead and, in so doing, will hold local MP Betty Williams and all the MPs in the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties to their 2005 manifesto commitments to a referendum on the subject.

Some 43,000 eligible voters in Aberconwy are getting a bilingual postal ballot from the I Want a Referendum campaign explaining the vote, and providing information both “for” and “against” a referendum, with the European Movement given a fair chance to put forward their case. They then have until Monday to send in their free postal vote. The result will be declared next Friday.

Voters have the chance to answer two questions; should the hold a national referendum on the EU’s Lisbon Treaty? And, if so, should the adopt it? Their votes will hold no legal status. But, by participating, they will send a message to the Labour Government that it must honour its promises.

We think that our citizens have a right of opinion on the creation of the office of a powerful EU President, a de-facto EU Foreign Minister, the transfer of substantial new powers over our law courts and police to European judges, the loss of our veto in 61 further areas and less control over immigration.

Do citizens want Tony Blair back as our European President? Should we acknowledge the legality of a knock on the door from Europol, accompanied by our local constabulary? Should we look forward to more examples like the recent Chindamo case where the found it impossible to deport the convicted murderer of school headmaster Philip Lawrence due to EU law?

I think we should give a damn about these things.

But let’s let the people of Aberconwy have their say.

Dan Munford is chairman of the I Want Referendum campaign, Wales