A private members bill by Conservative MP James Wharton to force a referendum on Britain’s continued EU membership has been rejected by the House of Lords, principally by members from the Labour and Liberal-Democratic parties.
Ultimately the lower house is capable of finding away around the Lords but due to the convoluted system of approving legislation it must be completed in the current session (that has just over a year to go) and there is now not enough time for the Bill to get through all its stages in both the Lords and the Commons in time to become law; subsequently it has died a bureaucratic death.
David Cameron and the Conservative Party ran on introducing an EU referendum in 2010 but when forced into a coalition government, were unable to get their Liberal-Democratic party members to go along with it. After waiting three years Cameron supported the idea of a Private Members Bill (by James Wharton) to try and force the issue, but opposition from The Lords caused the play clock to expire.
Despite his recent push for the referendum, similar to the lead up to the last election, Cameron’s sincerity has to be seriously questioned. The strategy could have been employed earlier, leaving time to push this through but the Prime Minister waited so that this scenario would play out.
Growing pressure from inside his party, spurred by the 114 Conservative MP’s who opposed his legislative agenda last year, and driven on by the growing strength of the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP), and the PM’s hand was forced into concession.
Cameron’s actual agenda, as he has spoken of at length with US President Barack Obama, is to remain in the EU with a re-negotiated treaty giving Britain greater strength. He and Obama then favour the idea of going forward with an EU-NAFTA bi-lateral agreement possibly moving toward a merger.
Cameron hopes to complete such a renegotiation before a referendum is staged, giving him the political capital to campaign to stay in Europe, and subsequently to move on towards the unified world that he apparently has vision as well as the appetite for.
The failure of the Wharton bill though has seen new Tory election guru Jim Messina take a page from his former colleague Rahm Emanuel. Messina worked for Emanuel in the White House when Emanuel famously stated that you shouldn’t let a good crisis go to waste.
Subsequently we see the Prime Minister in defeat tweeting "As Labour and the Lib Dems have killed the Wharton Bill, the one way to guarantee a referendum is to vote Conservative at the General Election." Wharton followed up with “Labour and the Lib Dems have conspired in the House of Lords to kill this important piece of legislation, doing the bidding of their political masters in the Commons. It's now clearer than it has ever been that it's only the Conservatives who will give people a choice on this important issue. I think many people will be disappointed by what has happened today.”
Now that is some quality misleading spin! What is actually clear is that UKIP is the only political force that, given a majority, would look for the people’s opinion in exiting the EU. It’s likely they wouldn’t even bother with a referendum, rather seeing an election victory as a mandate and making EU exit their first priority.
UKIP and disgruntled Tory backbenchers are part of Cameron’s problem. A second part is whether the Prime Minister will have a US President to work with after 2016. The more immediate problem though is the unwillingness of the EU, particularly the French, to renegotiate anything to do with Britain’s membership conditions.
Socially embattled French President Francois Hollande told David Cameron renegotiating the EU treaty is not a priority for France. The French president made his views known at a joint news conference with the British Prime Minister at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire (take-off point for the Falklands Air-Link).
Hollande said: "France would like the UK to remain within the European Union (and) would like to have a more efficient Europe which can attain the objectives which we consider to be essential - growth, employment, energy, and of course, the capacity to bring in the techniques for tomorrow and to protect our population."
Now other than the first eleven words that statement says absolutely nothing. Even President Obama usually suggests ways, no matter how illegitimate, to accomplish what he’s saying. But then being non-committal while sounding statesmanlike is probably a key to success in French politics.
Clearly Cameron and his Conservatives cannot execute their plan! Which makes us ask, is the Prime Minister a) devoid of understanding this or b) fully aware and doesn’t care? In the end it seems he is pursuing his progressive vision to the extent that he can. And that definitely involves remaining in the EU.
