We want to allow you vote over EU (VOTE)
TWO MPs say it is time to leave the European Union – and have backed a campaign for a referendum on Britain's membership in it.
The People's Pledge campaign asks voters to sign up to its promise only to support candidates at the next General Election who back a binding public vote on whether the UK should stay in the EU or leave.
Supporters of the EU say it has massively improved trade links between states and brought stability to a continent ravaged by conflict in two world wars.
Scunthorpe MP Nic Dakin says we should remain in the union and that a referendum is unnecessary. But critics think its influence has spread too far. And Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy and Barton MP Martin Vickers were among the first MPs in the country to put their names to the call for the first UK poll on EU membership for more than three decades.
And both say it is now time to withdraw from the EU.
Mr Percy said: "I will be voting in a referendum to leave the EU.
"I want there to be a referendum so that people of my generation, who were not born when the last one took place, can have their say on Europe and all its awful unaccountable organisations.
"Personally, I think that referendums don't necessarily sit well in our constitution, but given that we are having one of the voting system, I think it is high time we had a straight in or out referendum on Europe, especially now Europe is having more and more of an impact on everything in our lives – even social issues like prisoner voting rights."
Mr Vickers believes it is now time to withdraw from the EU.
"My inclination is that we should pull out," he said.
"The British people are sovereign and they should have a say on who governs them.
"Since the last referendum on this issue, more and more law-making powers have been handed over to the European Union and it is important that the people are consulted on that.
"It may well be that the people vote in favour of staying in the EU and if that is the case then so be it, but at least they have had their say."
The campaign's website – http://peoplespledge.org – will break down voters' pledges by parliamentary seat, enabling MPs and candidates to see the level of support in their constituency.
A YouGov poll of 2,436 voters carried out for the campaign found that 61 per cent of voters would support a referendum, against 25 per cent opposing it.
3 Comments
by Yellowbelly, N Lindasey
Friday, March 18 2011, 7:38AM
“Nik Dakin implies that we have had a referendum on Europe and we don't need another because HE thinks we should stay in.
We have never had a referendum on the EU. Many years ago we had one on whether we should stay in the EEC which had no resemblance to what the EU has become today.
Mr Dakin, democracy is about the people telling politicians how they feel and what they want, not the other way round! Let us have a referendum now on our continued membership of the EU. On such an important issue it is the only way we can judge what direction the people in this country want to take, it is not one that politicians can decide on our behalf, if they knew which direction the EEC was heading for when we had the last referendum, then they should hang their heads in shame as we were conned/deceived!”
by Jock, Oxford
Thursday, March 17 2011, 8:26PM
“Whilst I agree with his sentiment that we should be out of the EU, the EU is quite bad enough without Mr Percy making up stories about it. I assume it is ignorance, rather than downright lying, that makes him say that the prisoner voting issue has anything to do with the EU. But with MPs you never really know - "when can you tell a politician is lysing"? and so on.
It does not. We would have to also withdraw from the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights, entirely separate organisations with 47 member states encompassing such far flung Europeans as the Russians, Turks and Georgians to get rid of that judgment.”
by Steve, Scunthorpe
Thursday, March 17 2011, 2:50PM
“So Mr Dakin knows what's best for us does he?”