Mail turns on Cameron. The Sun next?
A sorry day for Britain, democracy and the Tories
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1225317/A-sorry-day-Britain-democracy-Tories.html
This a desperately sad moment for British democracy and sovereignty - a moment when the great majority of voters have been disenfranchised and left with no serious political party to represent their views.
The implications of David Cameron's retreat over Europe are as simple and devastating as that.
The fact that he has behaved as cynically as New Labour on one of the great issues of today is a bitter disappointment to his admirers, including the Mail.
It is an ineluctable fact: poll after poll has shown that most Britons are strongly against the expansion of the EU's power - and an even greater majority demand the referendum promised by all three main parties in their manifestos at the last General Election.
Of course, it goes without saying that the true scoundrels in this debacle are New Labour.
Once safely re-elected, they chose to ignore their unequivocal commitment to the electorate, hiding behind the lie that the Lisbon Treaty was substantially different from the EU constitution that Tony Blair had promised to put to voters.
Mr Brown, to his eternal shame, also reneged on his promise of a referendum.
Then at 3pm this Tuesday, when Czech president Vaclav Klaus gave up his lonely resistance and added the final signature to the treaty, the betrayal was complete.
After eight years of anti-democratic plotting and bribery, the empire-builders of Europe had finally got their way. The European superstate was born, with all the trappings of an imperial power, from a president and a foreign minister to a defence policy of its own.
Only one hope remained that the voice of the British people would be heard - and that the EU might yet be forced to repatriate some of the powers that Gordon Brown had signed away.
Hadn't David Cameron offered us his solemn promise that he would give us that referendum we demanded?
To quote his very words, which he wrote in the Sun newspaper in September 2007: 'Today, I will give this cast-iron guarantee: if I become PM a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations.'
Not much room for doubt there, was there?
But yesterday, the Tory leader's 'cast-iron guarantee' melted away like wax. True, a referendum after the treaty has come into force would present certain practical difficulties of wording.
And no doubt Mr Cameron feared that a referendum campaign would distract him from the pressing crisis in the public finances.
But if this is the case, he should not have raised people's expectations by promising a referendum.
For great leadership is about honouring pledges and acting on conviction and belief - not the laws of short-termism and expediency.
The cancer destroying faith in modern politics is that the ruling class keep going back on their word and denying voters their say.
Put simply, this paper cannot understand why we can't have a referendum, even now that Lisbon has been ratified.
As former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis argued so powerfully in yesterday's Mail, it would greatly strengthen Britain's hand at the negotiating table if our Prime Minister could claim a popular mandate for opt-outs on such issues as justice, asylum, immigration and human rights.
But instead, Mr Cameron pledges only to put any future treaties to referendums, while saying he will introduce a 'Sovereignty Bill' to ensure the supremacy of UK laws.
With our system of government at stake, this is pretty sorry stuff.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1225317/A-sorry-day-Britain-democracy-Tories.html#ixzz0Vyawk092
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This is bad. My own view was that a refendum - In or OUT - would have been possible, even if the Tories then Campaigned for "IN". But clearly Cameron is right: a referendum on Lisbon is pointless now.
If there really is any benefit to our Kingdom from participation in this undemocratic EUSSR, then surely a referendum campaign would make it clear. Myself, I have often asked for this explanation and it has never been forthcoming.
As for Lisbon, if it was so bad before ratification, how much worse now it is part of the Treaty of Rome? So perhaps we should be asked if we want to stay under these conditions.
But Europe is only a small part of the mess Brown has left for Cameron, and if polls are to be believed most voters are not too concerned about being governed by unelected officials in Brussels. But some voters - Tory voters - are steaming mad and looking towards UKIP.
How tragic it will be if this failure to give the voters some sort of a say leads to a hung parliament, and another five years of Brown, sustained in office by the despicable Lib Dems... :cry:
Of course, Cameron NEVER promised to give a referendum on a ratified treaty .... but if the Mail readership comments are anything to go by, the voters didn't spot that distinction.
Maybe it will all blow over before May, or June, or whenever. But if ever there was a case of a shot to the foot, this must be it!
