February 4, 2008
Labour party and the Lisbon referendum
It’s 8pm and Frank Field has just emerged from the weekly Parliamentary Labour Party meeting with the threat of disciplinary action hanging over him. His supposed wrongdoing? Lending his name to a campaign for unofficial referendu
ms on the Lisbon Treaty run by a group called "I Want A Referendum" (Iwar).
Iwar are spending £300,000 carrying out a handful of ballots (asking if people agree with the treaty) in marginal constituencies around the UK.
Field (pictured left), along with Gisela Stuart and Kate Hoey, has been hauled over the coals by Geoff Hoon, Labour’s chief whip for stepping out of line.
Tonight they were referred to the Parliamentary Committee, a body elected by the PLP, which will by Wednesday decide on any appropriate punishment.
Field’s point is that Labour (along with the Tories and Lib Dems) promised at the last election to have a plebiscite on the European Constitution, which has since morphed into the Lisbon agreement.
He doesn’t sound very conciliatory. "I said the idea of trying to maintain an election pledge by having mini-referendums is nothing compared to the general drift of this government," he says.
Incidentally, I asked Gwyneth Dunwoody - another Eurosceptic Labour MP - about the issue this morning. Her reply: She would have been in trouble along with the other three if only she had been sufficiently "organised" to join the Iwar campaign.
Save our freedom,
good women and men of ireland.
In god’s name vote NO to this anti-democratic EU treaty.
Don’t be fooled. Your No vote is not against EU at all,
it is against a european military superstate with too little
democratic instruments to be controlled by the people.
Please also think about your responsibility for anyone
of the 27 other nations which dont have the opportunity
to vote about their future.
I write this from germany, but we are not the only nation
that has been fooled into accepting the lisbon treaty
without voting.
Please people of ireland, do the right thing tomorrow.
Vote NO
God bless you ..
Posted by: James Connolly | June 11th, 2008 at 11:22 am | Report this comment