Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 19 February 2008.
Andrew Robathan
Opposition Deputy Chief Whip (Commons)
2:30,
19 February 2008
May I quote from a piece in Saturday's edition of the Financial Times on the European Parliament and its legislation? The author writes:
"If we intervene as voters, we get spat on...I realised how cross I felt about the inter-governmental plot—there is no other word—to deny everyone a say on the new Lisbon Treaty, the rebranded version of the failed constitution killed off by French and Dutch referendums...The underlying assumption is that we're far too stupid to understand."
Does the Minister think the British people are too stupid to have the referendum that he promised them in his manifesto in 2005?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
Annotations
Peter Slee
Posted on 21 Feb 2008 2:04 am (Report this annotation)
I find it chilling that Matthew Engel - in the same article - also says this: "Until the late 1980s, it was assumed that the Soviet bloc would go on forever getting bigger and more powerful. But all its power was built on sand and rubble. And the further Europe’s leaders distance themselves from their voters, the more likely they are – not now, not soon, but one day – to meet the same fate." I am a voter - and I do not like being treated like an imbecile. When will MPs of all parties stand up and be counted - yes even defy the whips for something they personally believe in? Where's the integrity, the courage even, to give the people of this nation a choice?
Paul Peros
Posted on 21 Feb 2008 2:14 pm (Report this annotation)
While I disagree that a referendum is necessary, and find that in general those who insist on a referendum, such as Andrew Robathan MP, are not as upset about defending democracy as they suggest, but are in fact looking for an opportunity to snub the EU, I do agree with Peter Slee's comment that MPs are showing little integrity and courage on this issue. I don't think a referendum is necessary, but the Government is behaving badly in dropping its own manifesto commitment because it is not confident of victory. This is negative opportunism. It is also a symptom of the party system, however, that MPs are not generally willing to vote as their constituents would wish. There is no reason in principle why an MP should not go with what he or she judges to be the majority opinion in his or her seat, but unfortunately decisions on voting come from the party leadership and not from the public. If an MP makes bad judgements about the majority view, or decides to vote cynically on the basis of self-interest, that should be judged by the voters at the next election.