MPs to vote on EU referendum

[dipsydoodle]

MPs will vote next week on whether Britain's continued membership of the European Union should be put to voters in a referendum, it was decided today.

The Commons backbench business committee has ordered a debate on the highly-charged issue for October 27 after more than 100,000 people signed a petition demanding a choice.

Although approval of the motion would not be binding, it would place enormous pressure on David Cameron to respect the will of the Commons and seek the public's verdict.

The Prime Minister, who has expressed his desire to take back some powers from Brussels, is publicly opposed to such an in/out referendum.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-to-vote-on-eu-referendum-2372328.html

Backbench MPs have agreed to hold a debate and vote on calls for a referendum to be held on whether the UK stays in the European Union.

Members of the Backbench Business Committee agreed to hold the debate on October 27 on a motion calling for a referendum by May 2013.

Tory MP David Nuttall's motion says the public should have three options put to them in the nationwide vote - keeping the status quo, leaving the EU or reforming the terms of the UK's membership of the European Union.

The government would not be bound by the result of the vote but it could prove politically tricky for David Cameron.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15354203

[dipsydoodle]

1. Cameron rejects EU referendum call ahead of MPs debate

David Cameron has rejected calls for a referendum on Europe ahead of a Commons debate on the subject next week.

At Prime Minister's Questions, he said he shared MPs' frustrations with how the European Union worked but would oppose calls for a vote on whether to quit the EU as it was "not our policy".

Up to 50 Tory MPs could potentially rebel against the government.

The BBC understands the debate has been brought forward by three days to enable senior ministers to attend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15373005

[fedsron2us]

2. The EU is one of those rare political issues

that tends to slice right across party boundaries.

Needless to say because it is actually a genuine topic for debate and divides people up along lines that dont match the anodyne pseudo democracy that is fed to the people of the UK the public are rarely given a chance to discuss it let alone vote on the subject.

Any way good to see Cameron reneging on his pre-election pledges just like his coalition buddies.

[LeftishBrit]

3. I think that part of the problem here is that the UKIP types are so extreme and paranoid on the

topic, that they make it difficult to discuss the issue rationally. There are IMO plenty of real problems with the EU, its bureaucracy, and our relationship to it; but the debate generally ends up being taken over by the ultra-xenophobes, right-wing Tory fringers, and fifty-first-state teabaggers.

[fedsron2us]

4. Tony Benn and the late Peter Shore

plus quite a few Trade Union leaders from the 1970s thought the EU was an undemocratic rich mans club dedicated to to protecting entrenched political, corporate and financial elites. The recent events in Greece suggest that they might have had a point. Anyway the main purpose of of democracy is to test ideas and beliefs before the people not to ram it down their throats because a certain section of the political class think its good for them. Setting a three line whip on MPs on a non binding Parliamentary vote makes a mockery of our supposedly representative democracy.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Wouldn't disagree on that...

In fact I think it's only quite recently that the Euro-sceptic issue has become so identified with the loony right.

I was moderately Euro-sceptic until Blair ganged up with Bush and got us into the Iraq war. Then I decided that at least EU membership might at least be a bulwark against our being the 51st state under assorted Republican presidents. But I certainly think that EU expansion happened too quickly and without much planning; that the bureaucracy is fairly horrendous; and that no one really gave enough consideration to the economic inequalities between the member states and how these would affect and be affected by membership.

'Setting a three line whip on MPs on a non binding Parliamentary vote makes a mockery of our supposedly representative democracy.'

I agree; but I think that the Party discipline is excessive on lots of issues. Always was (in the 19th century, Gilbert and Sullivan wrote 'When in that House MPs divide/ If they've got a brain and a cerebellum too/ They've got to leave that brain outside/ And vote just as their leaders tell 'em to'.) But I think it's got even more extreme since we've had a hung parliament and Cameron and Clegg want to keep power at all costs. E.g. I think that the Party whipping on the NHS was a mockery of democracy, and that the votes wouldn't have got through if not for enormous party bullying; otherwise far more LibDems and even a few Tories would have voted against the lunacy. I often think that it would be better if MPs were elected separately from their leaders - modern Prime Ministers act like presidents anyway, so why not make it more official and give the MPs a bit more independence? Admittedly I might change my mind if a lot of right-wing Tory rebels then got the bit in their teeth and voted to deport all the 'immigrants' and restore the death penalty, etc.

[ikri]

6. The EU Debate

Is something where even the Tory party are aware just how poisonous the press are in this country. No real debate is possible simply because the press would distort opinion to such an extent that it would make the reporting on the voting referendum look balanced.

[T_i_B]

7. MPs who backed EU referendum motion

Interesting to see my Labour MP Natascha Engel voted in favour of the motion. Other notables include 1 Lib Dem, and from the Tories a mix of Euro-sceptic stalwarts and new MP's who appear to be looking to put a marker down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15438557

[LeftishBrit]

8. My Tory MP Nicola Blackwood voted against it; next door's Labour MP Andrew Smith (Oxford East)

voted for it.

[fedsron2us]

9. There were 19 Labour MPs voting for the motion

including Dennis Skinner and John Cruddas. They are not isolated figures in the Labour party. In a recent Council by election near where I live the local Labour candidate did not hide his hostility to the way the EU is currently run, particularly its huge democratic deficit. Cameron is not the only leader who has trouble carrying all his party on this matter.

In a way I am quite glad that the topic is creating a few ructions because I am sick and tired of MPs who are mere lobby fodder, tamely obeying the whips while picking up their salaries and expenses. They are elected to represent us not just to do the bidding of ambitious leaders and their party machines.

[tjwmason]

10. Would have made for interesting conversation in the voting lobby

With Dennis Skinner, Jeremy Corbin, and Caroline Lucas standing alongside Ian Paisley Jnr., Peter Tapsell, and Nadine Dorries.