eurealist.co.uk

EU Referendum: “The People’s ‘No’ Campaign

At last, we’re ready. The official launch of The People’s ‘No’ Campaign (against the European Constitution) is to take place at 2 pm Wednesday 25th May 2005. It will be held at The Conference Room, Abingdon House, 13 Little College Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3SH. The launch has been sponsored by Lord Stoddart.

The ‘No’ Campaign has been created as a genuine non/cross-party grassroots coalition to help deliver an overwhelming and emphatic rejection of the European constitution. Campaign Director, Neil Herron states:

It is essential that a genuine grassroots campaign helps to deliver the reasons for saying ‘no’ in a plain, no-nonsense style, free from party politics. We are creating the broadest coalition from across the socio-political spectrum and intend to replicate the achievement of the North East No Campaign which rejected the Government’s and John Prescott’s proposals in the recent Regional Assembly Referendum by the biggest margin in modern political history.

The Constitution represents further surrender of power to Brussels and this is quite simply unacceptable. The debate preceding the referendum will be the first opportunity for the British public to examine the true nature of the whole ‘European Project’. A full examination of the consequences of political and economic integration. A debate that we have been denied for over thirty years.

Dr Richard North, Research Director, states: ‘This is a genuine, important and fundamental move by the people of Britain to reclaim their own destiny.’

The timing of our launch is to show solidarity with the French ‘No’ Campaign, and to send a message to our domestic politicians that they will not be in for an easy ride. If the French vote ‘oui’ on 29th May then it is ‘game on’ for our domestic Constitution referendum battle.

Details of the growing alliance will be posted on the website shortly, where we have a full analysis of news and events as they unfold. of news and events as they unfold. More statements to follow.

Contact: Neil Herron, Campaign Director. Office 0191 56517143; Mobile 07776 202045. Registered Office: The People’s No Campaign, 12 Frederick Street, Sunderland SR1 1NA.

Eurealist :: Main Page: “EU French Referendum
by Eurealist on May 17, 2005 08:55AM (BST)

With two of the latest opinion polls released Monday indicated that a majority of French voters would reject the EU constitution, as official campaigning opened and with less than two weeks to go before a May 29 referendum it is looking like a nail biting wait is in store for all us EU watchers. The No campaign has been steadily gaining ground since March, but along with the increased yes campaign spending in late April came a lift for yes campaigners, this seems to be now dropping back a bit, giving the No`s a two per cent increase since early May.

Of seven other surveys since the start of May, three predicted a win for the “yes”, three for the “no” and one an even 50-50 split. Once the margin of error is factored in, the polls suggest a statistical dead heat.

We should bear in mind that within 10 minutes of the Maastricht polls closing the French government had already informed No. 10, that the official figures showed the yes side had squeaked in by 51% of the vote. It is obvious that the French have a super fast counting system, we can only hope that speed does not incur a penalty on accuracy.

One thing that intrigues me is that opponents have repeatedly argued that the treaty could be renegotiated should the “no” camp prevail, this has been steadfastly denied by the yes campaigners, almost that is, until this weekend when according to EU Referendum, Jacques Delors let “Le chat out of le sac” by admitting that the EU constitution can be rewritten, if it is rejected at the 29 May referendum. But Convention leader and some say the main instigator for the whole constitution, former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing squashed that idea and ruled out rewriting when he said

“There will be no new text because it will be impossible to ask all the other countries - the majority who ratify the constitution - to forget their votes,”

To me that argument holds no water, because what the other states decide, has no relevance to the French vote, if the French do vote no, it matters not one jot that some others have voted yes, the whole thing must go back to the drawing board for renegotiation. Giscard d’Estaing may want immortality and statues himself in village squares all over Europe, as the man who produced the first Constitution for Europe, but telling obvious porkies like this will mean that those statues will have some very long noses.

British EUsceptics are divided on the issue of the French Referendum, many feel that a French no will mean that the Constitution will be shelved for the time being, but the main parts will be accomplished by inter government cooperation, thus we will not have a chance to put down a marker against our own governments involvement in the project, it is quite certain that Blair will drop the referendum at the first chance he gets, for him it’s a no brainer.

I do not belive that Blair offered us a referendum because he believes in democracy, or out of the goodness of his heart. In the early days he was absolutely set against a referendum “it was just a tiding up operation” “those who are campaigning for a referendum might as well put away their placard now because they are wasting their time” Pressure was applied to our Prime Minister, and that was the only reason he suddenly found a reverse gear. Perhaps his legal department pointed out that if he were to ratify without a referendum, as the decisions of one government cannot bind a future parliament the constitution could be challenged at a later date, this argument loses it potency if he ratifies after a referendum. Or, and I personally think much more likely, the pressure was applied by the palace, this is not as far out as some would think, the Monarchy although denuded of most of its powers, still has a residue of influence, and there were newspaper reports around the time of the change of Blair’s policy, that the palace was becoming concerned, and had asked for the papers relevant to the Constitution, since then we have heard not a dickey bird.

Even if the French do eventually accept the Constitution, three days later on June 1st the Dutch people have a chance to throw a spanner in the works, and that one is looking even dodgier for the yes men. One thing is a fairly safe bet, that is at some time one country or other is going to vote No, and then we will see, depending on which country has the honour of slaying this particular beast, how certain those claims are that there can be no renegotiation.