A Referendum On The EU Constitution

Frank Field and Kate Hoey, two Labour MPs, continue to be persecuted by their party on supporting a referendum on the EU Constitution.

The group "I Want A Referedum" is holding mini-votes in ten marginal constituencies (including those of cabinet members, e.g. Jacqui Smith in Redditch, here in the West Midlands).

On the group's website, a Green MP in Sweden, Max Andersson, points out that:

The EU does not need a constitution to fight global warming – it needs the political will to develop policies that work, but that has nothing to do with the Lisbon Treaty. Yet the promotion of global warming policies is but one of the inconsistencies and half-truths propagated by EU leaders in their efforts to mislead the public and bypass democratic processes for ratification.

It seems as if the political elites are afraid that if they let the people have a say in the future of the EU, they are not going to like what they will hear. The distance between EU leaders and their 490 million constituents will only continue to increase if citizens do not make their voices heard.

Back in September 2007, the Green Party backed the TUC in calling for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty:

Caroline Lucas, Green MEP and advisor to the pro-European Centre for a Social Europe think-tank, said: "It's clear that the proposed EU Reform Treaty is substantially the same document as the EU constitution, on which Tony Blair promised the British people a referendum. Now Gordon Brown wants to deny us a say on whether to adopt it or not - and that's fundamentally undemocratic, whatever you think about the rights or wrongs of the treaty."