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Miliband: Labour government will allow an In/Out referendum on EU membership...
..as long as certain powers are moved from the UK to the EU:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26538420
Is this a game changer for how the other parties may respond?
Would this make you more likely to vote Labour at the next GE?
A future Labour government would give an in/out referendum on the UK's membership of the EU - but only if more powers were transferred from Britain to Brussels, Ed Miliband has said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26538420
Is this a game changer for how the other parties may respond?
Would this make you more likely to vote Labour at the next GE?
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Comments
Maybe that is the plan. Match what the Tories have promised and you either negate that impact or force them to up the stakes a little more.
Risky strategy by Miliband; feeds into the Tory line that voting UKIP is an obstacle to having a referendum. I suspect the Tories will be very happy with this news. But it also shows that Miliband is confident he is going to win outright in 2015.
So we didn't have a referendum.
Once bitten...
Pretty much this.
As if Labour would ever run the risk of the people deciding that we should leave.
It has been damaging for the Scottish government and it will be damaging for any UK government who introduces any "uncertainty" via an EU referendum. Lets face it, it is a business led world these days and what they say goes.
It won't make a difference to how I vote. I don't think it's an issue.
I'm convinced we will look back on this era in politics and wonder why so much airtime etc was given to this subject.
Not entirely. The current law says any treaty which proposes a transfer of further powers to Brussels will be subject to a referendum; Labour's new pledge is that if such a treaty arises they will give the public an "In or Out" referendum. But Miliband said in the same breath that he doesn't believe it will happen, so Labour are effectively opposed to holding a referendum.
It's laughable to trust any of our politicians on the EU including UKIP.
Lisbon is self-amending, isn't it?
Yes, but the European Union Act of 2011 already covers any amendment to the Treaty of the European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. If I understand correctly, Lisbon is the most recent addition of the latter. So any amendment to either will have to be put to a referendum. Labour now supports this legislation, despite voting against it in 2011, but have also added that in the "unlikely event" (their own words) of further powers being transferred they will offer an in/out referendum.
Not going to happen - ever . I wish the British parties would stop this mindless posturing and positioning over the EU and start to make it work for the UK, e.g. the UK hasn't applied for Solidarity Funds for the recently flooded areas, it's not cooperating with the those states that also want reform to deliver meaningful change, it's refused to cooperate on initiatives to clamp down on tax avoidance thus cutbacks in the UK have to be harsher than they otherwise would be and so on. Britain's only role seems to be to play the whingeing biatch in the corner.
Why not? Greenland left the EEC in 1985 after holding a referendum in 1982.
I think I saw someone sum up Ed's position very well:
'My European policy is definitive in that I'm not sure, and that I am 100% not sure that I need to be sure, or indeed when I will need to be uncertain about it. But you can be sure of one thing - it will be paid for by bankers bonuses.:D"
Of course it's great news for UKIP as now they can play both the Tories and Labour off against each should the Lib Dem vote collapse and UKIP receive a larger share of the vote replacing them as the third party.
UKIP are finding that there's a large untapped electorate out there who feel disenfranchised by all the other major parties. It appears to be working and the more the media try to discredit UKIP the more votes from that electorate they'll attract.
If the people of Norway and Switzerland can have fair referenda and be allowed to refuse joining the EU then why can't the UK? If we did leave the EU there'd be a domino effect across the EU and it would have to re-form and start again. A united Europe doesn't mean a forced and homogenised continent involving political, economic, monetary and military union. If the EU continues riding roughshod over the electorates' wishes then a pressure cooker environment is being created.
We will just have to wait and see how the anti EU parties do in the European elections. No doubt they will increase their share of the vote.
When Gordon Brown signed the Lisbon agreement giving even more power for the UK away. Trust Miliband, I don't.
Isn't that what Cameron is trying to do.