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Blairâs Referendum Gamble
This may have a real impact on the WOT insofar as it impatctâs Britainâs role in the EU and in common EU defense mechanisms.Speculation is growing that prime minister Tony Blair will give in to public pressure and call a Europe referendum this autumn. However, it might not be the referendum voters have been demanding. Instead of the referendum on the European constitution which voters across the political spectrum have called for, Blair is reported to be considering a wider vote on Britainâs place in the European Union. The terms of the referendum are still not clear but according to a report in The Sun any such vote could go well beyond the question of whether or not Britain should sign the constitution. The Guardian reports that some opposition MPs are speculating that Blair might go for the ânuclear optionâ of basing the vote on British membership of the EU itself - a ploy designed to isolate what the PM sees as a tiny group of "withdrawlists." If Blair won such a vote he would claim public approval for the constitution and perhaps even membership of the single currency. Critics accuse the PM of staging a âfraudulentâ debate on EU membership: Conservative foreign affairs spokesman Michael Ancram said that a wider EU vote would be a gimmick and that if Blair called a referendum it should be on the constitution alone. Blair could be playing with fire here. He is probably right to believe that at this stage only a minority of British voters approve of wholesale withdrawl from the EU. However, much can happen in six months and the PMâs approval ratings are not so high that he can afford to risk holding the British people hostage with an "all or nothing" Euro vote. Opposition leaders might spot an opportunity to unseat Blair, who has made Britainâs closer integration into the EU a cornerstone of his premiership. It would be fairly easy to persuade Britons to vote for a semi-detached à la carte version of EU membership along Danish or Swedish lines, and opposition parties would do well to present this vision as their alternative to Blairâs federal referendum. Sounds like a sane option Links to original Sun and Guardian stories are in the online article Posted by: rkb 2004-04-06 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=29851 |