eurealist.co.uk

For some time now I have had on several occasions to differ with Pro Europeans about the governments rights or otherwise of using public money to promote a yes on the constitution.

For some reason any thoughts of fair play goes out of the window when this subject is aired. It has been suggested that the EU and the Government have every right to use our money to rebut stories in the British Eusceptic Press? No they do not, nobody is forced to pay for any newspaper if they do not wish, so any argument those outlets may decide to promote, does not require the government to spend our money to rebut, that is logical nonsense, and would only make sense if the newspapers concerned were also using public money, in any event government minister have a much greater ability to get their message across to the public, all they have to do is call a press conference, and every media outlet will attend and every medial outlet will subsequently print or broadcast the governments s side.

Each side in the debate will receive public funding to enable them to promote their arguments, there will be an official Yes and official NO campaign who will receive an equal amount of funding the reason advanced for this is to ensure a fair debate. In the 1975 referendum the Yes side backed by the government practically all of the press and the BBC outspent the No side by 10 times. The Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act has made it supposedly impossible for this to happen again, but although it has limited the spending, the official sides can use, (5million each) it has no cap on government or EU spending up until 28 days before the referendum for the government, of course this does not apply to the EU who are free to spend what they like.

What we discovered in the NE Referendum was that government Ministers were campaigning right up to the referendum date supposedly in their capacity as labour party members? This broke their own code of conduct so they said they were campaigning as private citizens and members of the labour Party and not government ministers yet their press pulling power is still that of a Minister, so if someone could explain at exactly what stage a government minister become a private citizen, in the middle of a campaign when their or at what stage their government travel arrangements and their police protection is no longer paid for out of the public purse and becomes their own responsibility perhaps they could explain it to the Electorial Commision who’s job it is to see a balanced debate and who failed miserably in the North East .

For a referendum to have any value, it is vital for the losing side to accept that it was on the whole fairly conducted. That would not be the case if; the government used the machinery of government to promote one side or the other.

What is important is that this is a referendum for a constitution it is not about Labour v Conservative or Liberal Democrats against UKIP, the referendum is not based on party policies, but on direct democracy, the people must agree to give the politicians the power to change our Constitution for the EU constitution. In this debate the EU has no place, it is the supplicant it has set out its stall asking for more power and more control, it is up to us to decide if we wish to grant it that power. We do not need MEP`S explaining the Constitution for us or putting an EU spin on the debate, it will be their fault if they have made their Constitution to difficult to understand. But they have no right to spend taxpayer money on propaganda in order to see their demands met.

A fair and balanced debate is not on the cards, these people have set in train a step in EU integration that has finally been too large for a British government to ratify without a clear mandate from the people. After 30 years of step by step integration we have this one opportunity at to last have our voices heard, but do not for one second believes the EU wants us to have this voice they do not and they will do everything they possibly can to keep their constitution, they will do everything they can to get us to vote yes.