Labour is heading for a drubbing in next week’s European elections and appears to have been worse hit than the other parties by the expenses scandal, an exclusive poll for The Times finds.
Gordon Brown’s party is trailing the Conservatives - and astonishingly - UKIP, according to Populus figures. The Liberal Democrats, also suffering as a result of the expenses row, appear to be in fourth place.
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.
So, no, he’s not going to have a referendum, is he?
ANDREW MARR:
When I was talking to Nigel Farage of UKIP, I said to him, “But the Conservatives are offering a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty even…” And he said, “No, no, no, no, they’re not because if the Irish allow the Treaty to be ratified, that’s it, over, and you won’t get a referendum from the Conservatives”.
DAVID CAMERON:
Well what we’ve said is that we support a referendum, we want a referendum. We want that referendum to happen now. It can happen now because the Treaty is still being discussed and debated elsewhere in Europe. It hasn’t been signed and ratified by everybody. And the more people who vote Conservative on June 4th, the greater the pressure there will be on Gordon Brown to hold that referendum that he promised. And if we get the early election…
ANDREW MARR:
(over) It sounds like UKIP are right.
DAVID CAMERON:
Well no, if we get the early election that I’m asking for - either in July or in September, the Treaty’s still there - we could have a referendum before Christmas. So that is what we should have.
ANDREW MARR:
But you know it’s likely that Gordon Brown will hang on and won’t call an early election. And if the Irish then vote for the Treaty and it’s ratified, we will be in the position that UKIP talk about, which is that if you get a Conservative government afterwards, it will have been ratified. What I’m asking is in those conditions, will you hold a referendum?
DAVID CAMERON:
Well there are awful lot of ifs.
ANDREW MARR:
Yes.
DAVID CAMERON:
That’s if we don’t have an early election; if the Irish vote yes when last time they voted no; if the…
ANDREW MARR:
(over) They’re quite likely ifs.
DAVID CAMERON:
… if the Czechs and others all actually put the Constitution through. If all of these things happen, then what happens?
ANDREW MARR:
Yes.
DAVID CAMERON:
What I’ve said there is we will not let matters rest.
Nope, he’s not promising a referendum at all.
The Daily Sport runs some of the creative ideas for billboards that have been floating around.
The Hungarian one amuses me the most. The Hungarian Prime Minister did in fact say something along the lines of, unless the country (or maybe it was all the Eastern countries) got a lot more financial support then the western countries would end up with a lot of eastern unemployed.
Nigel at the politics.co.uk site. On the launch of Libertas and what distinguishes them from us in UKIP. And what doesn’t distinguish Libertas from the Tories.
Libertas launches in the UK this morning and it’s going to be interesting to find out whether people understand the basic point about Declan Ganley. He’s not against the European Union, far from it. He’s very much a supporter of the project, just wishing to change very slightly the direction it’s going in, that’s all.
There’s a rather bewildering assumption that because Declan campaigned so successfully for a No vote in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty that he’s therefore against further integration, ever closer union and the rest of the federalist claptrap. We in UKIP stood alongside him in that campaign and thoroughly admire what he achieved. However, we’re also very much aware that he’s in favour of much of what makes up the European Project. It’s really just the Lisbon Treaty he doesn’t like.
With the European parliamentary elections taking place in early June there is every likelihood that the fury of the British public will see pro-Brussels parties such as Labour and the Liberal Democrats hammered, while Eurosceptic parties such as the Conservatives and the hardline UKIP make big gains.
Although I’m not sure that “hardline” quite describes us. Realistic perhaps?