The Luton EU Referendum 2008
19 October 2008

ITV's Tonight programme is staging an
EU referendum in Luton. The edition of the programme about the referendum, EU Decide, will be shown at 8pm, Monday 20 October.

Three thousand Luton residents have been given the chance to vote 'Yes' or 'No' to the Lisbon Treaty, and whether to stay in or come out of the EU.

See a video clip of the launch of campaigning on ITV's Anglia News.

The Democracy Movement is leading the 'No' side and supporting DM activists on the campaign trail have been the Labour MP for Luton North, Kelvin Hopkins, together with Thomas Rupp and Gayle Kinkead from the European Referendum Campaign.

Music producer and Pop Idol judge Pete Waterman has also pledged his support for a 'No' vote, as has Bob Crow - RMT union leader and chair of Trade Unionists Against the EU Constitution.

We're making the case that:

• The EU costs Luton. Britain pays far more to the EU than we get back - £6 billion more every year, from 2007, equivalent to £115 million every single week. This means that for any money a Luton project receives from the EU, our government has sent more than twice that amount to the EU in the first place. It's ridiculous for the 'Yes' lobby to claim that paying ten pounds to be given back less than a fiver is a 'good deal' we should be grateful for.
  
  The EU loses so much public money in fraud and mismanagement that its auditors have refused to approve the "majority" of its spending for what looks set to be 14 years in a row. Despite this, the government recently agreed to increase the amount we hand the EU by more than 60%.
  
  Only a 'No' vote will send the strong message that the scandal of this huge waste of public money has to stop. Support greater investment in local public services, not waste on the EU. Click here to read more about the recent EU budget deal.
  
  
• The Lisbon Treaty is about centralising even more important decisions in unelected Brussels institutions.
  The treaty will mean ...
  
  ... more interference by the EU in how we manage big issues like our energy supplies, National Health Service, criminal justice, sport, transport and much more. EU interference typically places heavy burdens on job-creating businesses and often has disastrous side-effects. This has been seen over EU laws on postal services and chemicals, action on high mobile phone charges for holiday-makers causing call charge hikes for pay-as-you-go users, and in how the EU-managed Common Fisheries Policy has decimated Europe's fishing resources and is causing an environmental disaster.
  
  ... a significant loss of influence over new EU laws due to increased majority voting in the Council of Ministers and a 30% cut in our ability to block EU laws we disagree with;
  
  ... the EU becoming more like a country in its own right with the creation of a full-time 'President of Europe' and foreign minister;
  
  ... more powers for the EU's embryonic police force Europol, including to 'implement' operational action. Europol will retain its immunity from criminal prosecution.
  
  Yet the Lisbon Treaty will do nothing to reform the EU's failing environmental policies, won't solve widespread waste and corruption and doesn't make the EU more democratic.
  
  Vote 'No' to say you want a better deal. Click here to read more about the Lisbon Treaty and its "substantially equivalent" predecessor - the EU Constitution.
  
  
• There is a better way. Trade and co-operation between European countries is perfectly possible without having to pass ever more decisions over our lives to remote EU institutions in Brussels. Trade between countries existed long before the EU and the idea that we would "say goodbye" to trade if the EU did not exist is irresponsible scare-mongering.
  
  Countries that have decided not to join the EU like Norway, Switzerland and Iceland successfully trade and co-operate with those countries that are EU members. More importantly, they can look beyond the EU to greater opportunities worldwide. Britain needs to co-operate with countries right around the world to solve common problems to do with the environment, the economy and the fight against crime. To do this successfully, we must first prevent ever more decision-making being centralised in Brussels.
  
  Click here to read more about our Vision Europe.

MPs reject a referendum on the
re-named EU Constitution Treaty
5 March 2008: updated 6 March 2008

A majority of MPs voted yesterday evening against a referendum on the
re-named EU Constitution Treaty, despite having promised one at the last election.

A Conservative amendment for a referendum was defeated by a majority of 63 votes - 311 votes to 248. A second referendum amendment, put down by rebel Labour MPs, was defeated by a majority of 64 votes.

Click here and enter your postcode on our dedicated ReferendumList website to find out whether your MP voted for or against a referendum.

The way that this treaty has been forced through Parliament lacks all legitimacy. Government promises of a public vote, of 'line-by-line scrutiny' and then of plentiful time to debate the treaty have all been broken. Large swathes of vital powers the treaty gifts to remote EU institutions - such as in defence, borders, future treaty revision and voting weights - have been blocked from Parliamentary debate.

The verdict of the cross-party House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee that the Treaty is "substantially equivalent" to the EU Constitution has also been completely ignored by the Government and large numbers of MPs.

Most serious of all, various polls show that the Government has utterly failed to convince the public that the Lisbon Treaty is not the EU Constitution re-named, yet have still refused to honour their clear manifesto promise of a public vote.

In the vote, the bulk of the Conservatives were supported by
29 Labour MPs, 15 Liberal Democrats, the Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties and some independents. But this was not enough to overcome the Government's majority.

A breakdown of how those referendum rebels we had identified actually behaved during the vote is as follows:

- of the 29 Labour MPs we had recorded as supporting a referendum, three did not vote and three voted against a referendum. One who voted against actually supported a referendum amendment at the Second Reading of the treaty Bill, and voted against its Second Reading, so his switch is inexplicable. The remaining two who voted against a referendum have evidently been writing misleading letters to their constituents stating that they would support a public vote. Six additional Labour MPs voted in support of a referendum.

- of the 10 Lib Dem MPs we had recorded as supporting a referendum, one abstained and one did not vote. An additional seven voted in support of a treaty referendum, totalling fifteen rebels against Nick Clegg's policy.

The Democracy Movement has responded to the vote by announcing the launch of an 'Integrity Fund' to finance local campaigning in marginal constituencies between now and the next general election, which could now be just over a year away.

The fund will target MPs of all parties who have voted against the referendum they promised at the last election, and will finance the distribution of thousands of leaflets, advertising and other campaign activities in each target constituency. Funds have already been pledged to cover more than a dozen constituencies.

Democracy Movement director Stuart Coster said:

"Those MPs who hoped this issue would go away once they had voted contrary to their election promises have made a huge miscalculation.

"On the basis of how MPs have voted on a Treaty referendum relative to their election promises, between now and the next general election we intend to ensure local voters know who they can and cannot trust."

After the remaining stages in the Commons, the Bill ratifying the Lisbon Treaty will move to the House of Lords where there will be further debates about a referendum.

If the Lords pass a referendum amendment, the issue could be put to the vote once again in the Commons.

The matter of this treaty and broken promises of a referendum is very far from over.