Roger Helmer MEP

The issue of a referendum on the Treaty has also been raised. I have made it clear whenever we have debated this issue in the House that I am strongly against the whole idea of referendums (my 1992 speech on this question is on my website). I believe in parliamentary democracy yet the only purpose of a referendum is to get around a parliamentary vote.

I assume you recall that you were elected in 2005 on a manifesto commitment to a referendum?  Did you make it clear then that you opposed party policy?  Your attitude to referenda fails to take account of the constitutional context.  (One might be forgiven for saying that you are being self-serving and partisan on this issue).  Of course parliament should decide on our laws in our country without referenda.  But a parliament cannot bind its successors.  It is loaned power by the people for up to five years.  There are almost no limits to what it can do in that time, provided it returns its power to the people at a General Election, complete and uncompromised, at the end of the parliamentary term.  The one thing it cannot do is to give that power away in perpetuity, which is what the Renamed Constitution effectively does.  That power is not yours to give away: it belongs to the people.  That is why they have a right to a referendum before such a transfer of power and governance can be sanctioned.

By convention, we have undertaken referenda wherever an essential shift in the way we are governed is contemplated, whether devolution, or the abandonment of our currency, or the adoption of an EU constitution — or even a Mayor for Hartlepool.  Since it was the policy of all major parties (and 98% of current sitting MPs) to offer a referendum on the Constitution, it is a bit rich now to argue that it is an unparliamentary procedure!

You may argue that we had no referendum on Maastricht or other treaties.  Just so, but perhaps we should have done.  If we got it wrong then, that is no excuse for getting it wrong again.  Moreover we know now that the issue is causing far greater concern.  We also know, from the largest polling exercise short of a national referendum, that 88% of the people want a referendum and that 89% would vote NO.  Now we get to the heart of the matter.  You oppose a referendum not because of high parliamentary principle, but because you know you would lose.

Best regards.

ROGER HELMER

www.rogerhelmer.com