Deciding on a referendum
Peter Hoskin 8:31am
The big Parliamentary event of the day is undoubtedly the vote on whether to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. The outcome's expected at about 1900 this evening.
It should mark another chapter in Nick Clegg's turbulent start as Lib Dem leader. His call for an in-or-out referendum was trampled on yesterday – 68 MPs supported it, 471 voted against it. And today he wants his fellow party-members to abstain from the voting. He's even put them on a three-line whip.
If Lib Dems rebel en masse, then Clegg's grip on the party could be irreparably undermined. On the other side of the same coin, a smaller number might make him feel vindicated. At the moment, around 3 Lib Dem front-benchers – and 12 Lib Dem MPs overall – are expected to go against the party leadership. That's about a fifth of the party.
Much may depend on how Clegg deals with the rebels – although I suspect it's a no-win situation for the Lib Dem leader. Sacking front-bench rebels for upholding a manifesto commitment will hardly play well. But a failure to impose any punishment may just leave Clegg looking weaker than ever.
Despite the challenges facing him, Clegg's unbowed. He fought his corner on the Today Programme this morning. No real surprises. Although he did call Ian Davidson's proposed amendment “a complete distraction ... an utter red herring”. Funny, that...
P.S. Today also had a good exchange between David Miliband and William Hague at 08:10.
Previous
Comments
Denis Cooper
March 5th, 2008 10:27amDuring his Newsnight interview last night, 27:32 in, here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm Clegg blurted out: "Jeremy, am I supposed to be surprised that the Labour party, that has reneged on its commitment to a referendum, and doesn't want to have a referendum of any sort ... " As the Lib Dem commitment was the same as the Labour party commitment, this is an admission that the Lib Dems are also reneging on their commitment - notwithstanding all his sophistry about the Lisbon Treaty being very different to the Constitutional Treaty, not being the treaty mentioned in the Lib Dem manifesto because it didn't even exist at that time, etc etc.
Paul Cadier
March 5th, 2008 4:20pmIf the EU's founding constitutional treaty lacks legitimacy, does it mean we are not obliged to obey its laws? The 1791 French Bill of Rights, states that: "It is the right and indeed the duty of the people to overthrow any government that refuses to acknowledge the legitimate rights of the people". Perhaps French jurisprudence will afterall be called upon to resolve this problem of EU legitimacy. Vive la Révolution!