The Daily Echo 6 March 2008

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Thu 6th Mar 2008

This week there has only been one subject on the agenda - Europe. We have been debating the Lisbon Treaty, which replaced the previous attempt at a constitution. I am writing this shortly before the vote on what has become the touchstone issue - namely, whether we should have a referendum on the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

At the last election all three major political parties promised a referendum on the constitution. Opinions differ on whether the Lisbon Treaty amounts to the same thing as the Constitution. There are some important differences between the two documents but many of the knock on effects remain the same.

The public by and large tend to regard the Lisbon Treaty as The Constitution in Sheep's clothing. The Government have done little to persuade the public of the differences.

So, the ultimate question for me was to ask whether I could look the electorate in the eye at a future election and ask them to trust me to keep my promises. This is harder to do if they feel that you have let them down on a fundamental promise. As I have always taken the view that we should probably have more referenda I could not see the problem in supporting the idea that we could let the public vote on this matter.

The party line is a different one. For the first time in my parliamentary career I was faced with a situation where I wanted to vote against the agreed line. I listened to the arguments and was clear to me that other colleagues felt they were not breaking a promise as the Lisbon Treaty _is_ different to the Constitution. Whatever my colleagues decided, for many it was a close call either way.

However, we are as one with our support for a vote on membership of the EU as the festering discontent is seen as a boil that has to be lanced. We would probably then have a sensible debate on Europe. The other two parties are reluctant to support this and the only reason I can see for this is that the divisions between the pro and anti Europe factions in the Labour and Conservative parties will be truly exposed. It is a subject they simply can't unite on.

I am pro Europe and it does make me uneasy that so many supporters of the referendum are anti Europe. Voting with them feels wrong - but a promise is a promise and if the Lisbon Treaty is a good thing then what is the problem with giving the people a say?

Published with kind permission of the Daily Echo