I haven't thought particularly of how often or what should trigger an EU referendum. There is the idea that any time any new powers in the form of a treaty are signed over to the EU that we should have a referendum. Though many things can change without a treaty and of course that could leave any time frame between referendums. Or every X amount of years though I'm not sure what a reasonable time frame would be. I think given the change in the EU there has been since it's beginnings, from a trade focused group of countries working together, to the current EU which is heading towards a more federal state role, that people should be given the opportunity to have there say on whether that is something we want to be part of.
If people vote against membership of the EU in 2017 when do you think we should have a referendum to see if we want to rejoin 5 years,10 years,15 years etc ?
If we leave the EU then I'd hope we have a period of time where Governments of either party give it a fair chance at success before trying to go back on the decision, same if we vote to stay in. But rejoining the EU if we left wouldn't just be us having a referendum, it would require a renegotiation of our entry, hopefully followed by a referendum if a government chose to go down this route. But it would be a very different process to leaving and only necessary to have that referendum if and when a government decides it might want to take that course of action. However I expect we would be better off outside the EU and not want to be going back
The argument of eurosceptics is the referendum on Europe was 40 years ago and many of today's UK population were either too young to vote in that referendum or were not born at the time.If forty years is too long then surely if we voted to leave the EU then surely we should a referendum in less than 40 years to see if we want to rejoin
You asked me a question and when I didn't give the answer you expected, you've given me a different argument for the referendum and replied to that instead! But if 40 years after leaving there is significant interest in re-joining and people of a new generation wanting a say then why not? A referendum is an important tool of a democracy I think
Go back and read my first response and I've explained my position that I don't have the answer to precisely how many years it should be in between referendums on the EU, or whether having a set number is even the right way to approach the issue and that there are multiple possibilities from having a referendum upon any new treaty where powers are handed over to the EU, to having a referendum on our membership every X number of years. But that given the huge change in the EU from what it was at it's beginnings and what it has become now, it seems fitting to hold a referendum. That's pretty much the same as my first response to your question just with a poorer choice of words I think lol In fact the first message on this page is my immediate reply to your question.
So we have a referendum on EU membership. Fair enough. I have no argument with UKIP. We know what they stand for. My argument is with the directionless PM. The Eurosceptic Tories should have been shepherded out of the Conservative Party a long time ago. Now the Tories are UKIP in disguise (a wolf in sheep's clothing) Real Conservatives would usher the Party to re-join the EPP grouping (Merkel et al) where real Conservatism lies. It is my belief that any minister who is in any way Eurosceptic should be shoved out the door. This Government should be campaigning very strongly to persuade the electorate that the UK should stay inside the Union as should the Labour opposition.
So your not a corbyn supporter then? Edit: also, no MP should be pushed out the door for not holding a certain view, that's the whole point of politics. Good old democracy where people can have different views!
The Government Party has a duty to the country and as the UK is at present a member of the EU then the members of it should not do or say anything detrimental about it. It just causes problems. As far as I am aware, Hammond, May and Gove are all Eurosceptic and should not have ministerial jobs. If Cameron can't find Europhiles within his party he should have appointed some from outside. IMO he should have invited Peter Mandelson to the post. An intelligent and sophisticated man, who does not curry favour with anyone (except himself), knows the machinations of the EU having been a commissioner so could secure the best deal possible and has links in the wider international world such as Russian businessman.
PS AFCFTW Like a lot of people on this site, it is good to be critical of the party in power. Their indifferent stance on the EU is just not good enough and quite frankly Cameron dug himself a hole and to get out of it, he has handed responsibility over to the electorate who will have a limited knowledge of the advantages of being in the EU. I do not pretend to have that either. With me it is ideological and comes with the concept of the free movement of people and money throughout a large community of nations. The problems stem with the different states having different fiscal systems and legal systems. It shouldn't be too difficult to implement a common one. Also I would hope Jeremy Corbyn is Europhile as it is very much in the interests of the working man to be in the EU with its systems of workers' rights legislation.
I'm a Corbyn supporter (you may have noticed ;p) and very much pro-EU as I can see how many huge beenfits it brings, both socially and economically. Even more so for deprived areas such as South Wales. It also gives us huge protection against extreme governments (such as Thatchers and this one) and inhibits those governments from taking away certain human and workers rights from us. Corbyn is all for staying in Europe, unlike what has been reported in the press, however he wants to renegotiate the principles of the Union to better protect workers across Europe, and make it less about free-capitalism, he is also really worried about what has been done to Greece. But I'd strongly suspect that come a referendum he will be campaigning to vote Yes to stay in the EU.
* A silly mistake, but I didn't mean South Wales, or to generalise the whole area as South - the objective one area is of course the South Wales Valleys, and West Wales also receives objective one funding. Other deprived areas in the UK are South Yorkshire, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly, Merseyside; Northern Ireland, Highlands and Islands. There used to be a lot more (indeed Wales used to be the 2nd poorest country in Europe following the Thatcher and Major governments, but the living standard had slowly come up - taking 20 years to recover in some places. But now, of course, it's dropping rapidly again - with millions relying on food banks, and even more in poverty.
Maybe, but should have been appointed Foreign Secretary but then Cameron lacks vision and is not as inclusive as he claims to be. After all TB appointed a high ranking Tory to be the Governor of Hong Kong which proved his astuteness at the time.
Good for him and the Labour Party if he is campaigning for the UK to stay in. It is disgraceful that the Conservatives have totally ducked the issue and given no leadership. Not a UKIP supporter, (I'm Labour but would be SNP in Scotland and SDLP in Northern Ireland) and in Spain I'd be Catalan Nationalist but at least Farage has given a direction in which he would like to lead the UK, but the Tories are just a disgrace and very underhand. Do you think Merkel likes DC, or finds him shallow and opportunistic as he is always trying to appeal to his party and his core voters back in the UK rather than acting in the best interests of the UK?
Considering that Merkel, Hollande, Mattarella and others don't seem to seek Cameron's ideas or support much, or at all, and I can't remember any of the major players praising him - you'd have to assume that his so called 'leadership' isn't held in high regard in Europe. Though I have seen parties like the True Finns being quite warm to him...
It's very easy to find pictures of politicians in the company of the reprehensible, even if you don't include their fellow MPs under that heading. Perhaps more bizarrely: please log in to view this image
