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Offering the public a referendum on Europe would be 'silly', says Ed Balls
deptfordbaker
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Mail wrote:
Offering the public a referendum on Europe would be 'silly', says Ed Balls after Labour's biggest union backer demands vote
*Unite chief Len McCluskey said Labour should match Cameron's referendum
*He said Labour risked looking like a 'political elite' which did not trust public
*But shadow chancellor Ed Balls said copying the PM would be 'bad for jobs'
Promising the public a referendum on the EU would be 'silly', Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls has claimed.
Mr Balls' remarks came after he accused the trade union Unite of supporting a Tory policy that would be bad for jobs after it urged Labour to offer voters a referendum.
The shadow chancellor dismissed the warning from Unite chief Len McCluskey that the party risked being 'boxed in' at the nexy general election unless it matches David Cameron's promise to give voters a say.
It came after Unite called on Labour to 'urgently reconsider' its opposition to a referendum. But the union insisted it would argue for a vote for Britain to stay in the EU.
Asked if Labour would consider going into the election promising a vote, Mr Balls told BBC2's Newsnight: 'That would be a silly thing for us to say. 'We made a very clear commitment: if there is any proposal in the next parliament for a transfer of powers to Brussels we will have an in/out referendum.
'We are not proposing a referendum now because we think to spend two or three years blighting investment and undermining our economy on the prospect of a referendum which David Cameron says he is going to have after he gets an unknown package of reforms would be bad for jobs and investment.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2679257/Offering-public-referendum-Europe-silly-says-Ed-Balls-Labours-biggest-union-backer-demands-vote.html#ixzz36PkAohRJ
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I thought that Ed Balls was one of the Labour front bench MP's in favour of Labour offering a referendum?
The Tories will be pleased, the last thing they want is for Labour to change it's policy. The Conservatives have a unique and popular policy to sell, but no one really believes that they will get the majority they will need to implement it.
Why is it that these politicians always talk as if they are being asked to leave the EU, rather than being asked to let the voters decide.
The EU is like your cable company, they never come up with a better offer until you inform them you wish to leave, then suddenly they have a load of better deals to offer you.
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What "better offers" did the EU member states offer Greenland when it announced it wanted to leave the EU?
Greenland? Call me thick if you like but since when was Greenland a member state of the EU?
Greenland was never part of the EU.
You got UKIP, Conservatives and even the Lib Dems coming round to it. On top of that, you have the Unite Union pushing for one, it seems it's just Ed 'excluded with no friends in the room' at the moment. It seems more and more likely at this point that Labours landslide victory isn't going to materialize as people have seem to have accepted majority of the cuts.
If Ed wants to stick his head in the sand then it's fine but this is the same party who gave away half the rebate so it wouldn't shock me if they gave away the other half if they get back in. The things Labour can't be trusted with is increasing on a weekly basis it seems.
They're running out of time to do so. Even if they did it tomorrow it people would wonder why the sudden change of heart. One might conclude it was nothing but a desperate attempt to con the electorate into voting for them because I'd have serious doubts that they'd ever honour that commitment. Let's not forget they weazled out of the one they were supposedly up for.
Labour is not where it should be if they want to win in the polls. Millipedes approval ratings are appalling. They will offer a one.
Should that happen do you believe they'd honour it? I wouldn't hold my breath
I get why people are sceptical as we have been lied to in the past, but I believe it will be virtually impossible for any party that promises one to escape having it, should they take office. The problem is, whether they load the question. EG, they should ask, Would you like to leave the European Union? Yes or No? My suspicion is they will ask something along the lines of do you agree that we should stay in the EU if the government manages to get powers back, therefore loading the question.
It would be nigh on impossible for the tories because they've been banging the drum in favour for ages and set a provisional date.
Labour I'm not so sure of. For one thing they aren't offering one yet anyway so you'd have to question the sincerity should they do a massive u-turn on the subject and I'd fully expect them to try and wriggle out of it by blaming Cameron for supposedly having burnt the bridges they'd claim they'd have needed to enter into negotiations claiming that the repair job would take longer than a single term in office to get to the point where they felt it would be the right and proper time to pop the question.
I'd even go as far as to contemplate betting on it should the offer ever be made, that's how little faith I have in Captain Bandwagon and his Labour crew.
It's not unique, UKIP also want a referendum.
perhaps they have a good idea about popular opinion and can guess what the result would be?
I thought Cameron's "Referendum bill" would commit the Government of whichever political party in 2017 to holding a referendum,
Is Ed Ballsup basically saying that Labour would revoke this bill if they came to power?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_from_the_European_Union#Greenland
That's true. The Issue is here is get the referendum bill through Parliament/The Lords with the help of the Lib Dems who have apparently had a change of heart since they killed it last time. Or David Cameron can just use the Parliament Act as PM to get it through virtually on his own.
The problem with the first option is, can the Lib Dems be trusted on this? How do we know they aren't just going to say "yeah, we'll vote for it this time" and then kill it off with the help of Labour down the road and pretty much killing any chance of it becoming law before the G.E.
If Cameron is serious, he should ram it through. There isn't a huge amount of time the Election and Nick Clegg throwing his toys out the pram at this stage won't make a lot of difference. All the laws/parliament business is almost over so it's a good time to do it.
Cameron knows very well that it would be a disaster for Britain to leave the EU and that a referendum would be a huge waste of time and money, but he's played along in an attempt to appease some of the Party faithful and in an attempt to hold on to Ukip swingers, and now it's coming back to bite him in the proverbial.
Farage is just a rebel rouser who wants to get into the limelight as much as possible, i.e. a complete waste of space who is setting back Britain's recovery.
The EU is the disaster for Britain. Not the other way round.
You are missing the point - I don't think Cameron is expecting any referendum to come out and say leave the EU. There are a few advantages to Cameron by having it, even if it comes up with stay in.
1. It will shut up his own backbenchers who are clamouring for us to leave
2. It will pull the rug from underneath UKIP who can hardly claim that the country wants to leave the EU if a referendum says otherwise
3. It will act as a leverage to the EU that they need to change. Indeed it could be argued that asking for change before hand is premature.
Of course I could be wrong and we vote to come out in which case you watch the EU machine move to keep us in, because they need the money we pay them as one of the few countries who are net contributors to the EU budget.
As an aside I fall into the stay in the EU but it is desperate for reform camp and I'm fairly certain that most of the 'anti-EU' camp are the same.
It won't ever reform though.
The problem is Labour were on 37 and the Conservatives on 35 in the last poll. According to journalists that is 30 - 40 seat majority.
Miliband can win by doing nothing and relying on the electoral systems bias towards Labour to deliver him the keys to no 10.
How much trade do the EU do with Greenland compared to the UK, we are the second biggest contributor aren't we, what was Greenland?
Wasn't Greenland part of Denmark?
Tropical at one time.