Holding a referendum

Alan Johnson suggests that we should hold a referendum on the same day as the next general election.

Instead Mr Johnson’s allies insist that the suggestion — to hold the referendum on the same day as the poll — could help Mr Brown to catch the public appetite for radical change and outflank David Cameron. The referendum could help to drive a wedge between the Conservatives, who oppose proportional representation, and Liberal Democrats, they claim.

Sadly, no, he’s not talking about the European Union. Rather, about whether to move to a system of proportional representation rather than the first past the post system currently used for Wesminster elections.

However, this is rather one in the eye for those who insist that we are a parliamentary democracy, rather than a plebiscitary one. For, in changing the rules about how Parliament is elected, everyone agrees that there must be a referendum.

That is, that we distinguish between the laws that are made: that is what Parliament, however elected, does, and the way that the laws are made, which is something that the people must be consulted directly upon.

The Lisbon Treaty changes the way that the laws are made: thus the people must be consulted directly.