At least, so I most fervently hope.
It's time Britain came first
There are moments in the lives of our elected representatives
when everyday, petty, party concerns should take a back seat in favour of
the greater national interest. This is one such moment.
After all the bargaining, the obfuscation and deception of recent months, our
MPs will finally vote in the Commons on whether or not to allow what the
overwhelming majority of voters in this country want: a referendum on the
ratification of the EU Constitution. Masquerading as a treaty, it removes
another slice of British sovereignty and pulls more power to the centre in
Brussels.
The odds are in the Government's favour, as the brave group of Labour rebels
led by MPs Kate Hoey and Frank Field is almost certainly too small. The
Conservatives will vote, overwhelmingly, for a referendum and have fought
valiantly.
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The Liberal Democrats, under Nick Clegg, are in the tightest spot of all.
If, as their leader wants, they betray their manifesto commitment and their
country, there are many voters who will neither forget nor forgive.
If there are MPs of any party unsure what course of action to take, it is
quite straightforward. Vote to put country ahead of party. Vote for a
referendum.
But things really aren't looking good. It looks like the pivot is that party that no one seems to know how to define, the Lib Dems. If ever there were a political party that Gary Trudeau would love to portray as a disembodied voice coming from nowhere and saying much of nothing, it's these guys. They seem to exist only to split important votes to give Labour whatever it wants. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say that the Lib Dems were an idea cooked up at a frat party one night by Blair and Brown to siphon off votes and make sure Labour never had to relinquish its grip on this Sadde Olde England.
Today is the day that MPs vote themselves closer to obscurity if, as
is widely expected, they defeat an amendment for a referendum on the constitutional
Lisbon treaty.
If they needed any reminder why they should allow a referendum to go ahead – the
last, best hope of slowing down the encroachment of European integration - they
need only look to Brussels where our supreme government was hard at work yesterday,
achieving nothing at all.
With the "growing" revolt from his own party and the Tories uniformly in favour of a referendum, Brown doesn't have enough to cover it with just his own MP's but it's the LD's who are going to give him what he wants.
[Lib Dem leader] Nick Clegg this morning on the Today programme wriggled
and wriggled, faced with Sandra Gidley saying Lib Dems promised a referendum on the
Constitutional Treaty in 2005 and should honour their pledge. He sounded even worse
when the BBC managed to ask him if he would vote for a double referendum,dealing
both with the Constitutional treaty and with In-Out.
Why can’t he bring himself to vote for that? Because he is Euro Clegg, and is
petrified that the British people if ever given a vote on Europe will show how much
they distrust federalist MPs like him. He wants to avoid a referendum at all costs.
So we now have this pathetic leader putting his own MPs on a three line whip to
ABSTAIN! Worse still for him, a number of them will understand just how angry their
voters are about their conduct, and will vote with the Conservatives for the
referendum we all promised at the last election.
Lord what fools these mortals be! If you kept your word and said what you mean
you wouldn’t get into these difficulties, Mr Clegg. Does he really think these
contortions are the way to help restore faith in politicians?
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