The EU Reform Treaty

Links to the daily debate in Parliament on this important Bill will appear here as well as my personal views. I will blog the important days and you can follow the links below to Hansard to see exactky what was said and how we all voted.

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Blog

Monday 21st January and we kick off the debate with a 2nd Reading of the Bill.

Despite months of campaigning by the Murdoch media in particular to stir up this issue I have only had about 6 or 7 constituents contact me. Four opposed the Treaty and wanted a referendum. Two wanted further information and one was in favour.

In 3 days I have had four times that many representations about Japanese Whaling from constituents. Intersting isn't it?

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After 5 hours of debate on the Second Reading we finally voted. There was an overwhelming majority in favour - including the Lib Dems and some pro European Tories like Ken Clarke.

I listened to the debate and particularly sat in for the so-called wind up speeches. I agree with the final speech by the Europe Minister Jim Murphy in particular.

My personal view is that we must be part of the European Union - Britain playing a major role in one of the most important strategic alliances in the world and on our doorstep.

If you are eurossceptic none of this matters and probably nothing I or others say will change your mind. The same goes for those of us who firmly believe that greater and deeper cooperation has created peace in Europe for a generation over closer and closer ties. By my nature I am a co-operator - and that means locally in local communities right up to internationally. The world would be a much better place without anti social behaviour at the end of your street right up to internationally. I liken being Eusrscpetic to being the grumpy neighbour. The world is so interconnected these days we can no longer sit on our island and wish it were all different.

On the referendum I am also equally clear. First it is worth noting I did rebel on top up tuition fees because of the 'trust' thing based on what we had said in our manifesto. So when I personally believe something I will not always tow the party line. However, I have studied this carefully and in detail and firmly believe the Constitution is dead. Therefore we start from a new point and an amending Treaty is NOT a constitutional matter and therefore I don't for one moment think there should be a referendum. In fact I never thought there should be - I was forced to fight an election with it in the manifesto!

You can see from the arguments put by Jim Murphy why this is so compelling. The Tories have a few quotes from some politicians in Europe - whilst we have a long list of detailed reports which have independently studied the new Treaty and all (not just in the UK) have concluded this is not the constitution... and it does not need a referendum. Of the 9 countries who planned a referendum on the Constitution 8 are now not holding one (Ireland will but only because their Constitution requires one on Treaties). There are no other major, serious political parties in Europe demanding referendum on what now is obviously an amending Treaty to make the institutions of Europe work better.

Now I fully understand if you want to work in cheap headlines these arguments may appear to subtle. But the long term interest of the UK are not about big and popular headlines - they are about mature debate. That is why I am more than happy to explain my position to anybody who is willing to engage in the debate at a rational level. I fear from tonights performance the British Tories and some of my colleagues on the back benches are not willing to engage in anything rational because of the word Europe!

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Monday 28th January

We start in earnest today. The debate is predictable and tedious. We have heard it all before. Nothing said is earth shattering enough to make you sit up and take notice.

What has been really interesting for me though is the difference in opinion from my friends on facebook. There is a clear message that they don't want a referendum - isn't our job as MPs to scrutinise these things in detail they ask? Yes I reply and thanks for the support. They seem to understand the principle of a parliamentary democracy and their role in it. Very refreshing.

Andy

Wednesday 30th January

It is Wednesday already and I can't see how we make this last another few weeks. The debates are interesting when they are not specifically about Europe and they are tedious and repetitive when they are about Europe! The Eurosceptics rehearse the same old tired arguments that they have rehearsed for 20+ years.

Wednesday 13th February

We had several more days on the Treaty last week. Again somebody pointed out that Bill Cash MP has been given license in this process to make the same speech on Europe that he has made for 20 years on 20 different days.

I have still had very little correspondence. Despite all the media hype - all the newspapers and advertising and a willing anti European constituency willing to believe eventing is a conspiracy what have we had - silence. As I have always suspected our anti europeanism as a nation is skin deep. We love to travel in Europe - indeed millions of us retire to Europe and 2 million of us have foreign holiday homes mainly in Europe. So we just like to moan about things in life and some parts of the media like to blame the EU. Even those of us who are pro Europe don't agree with everything that comes out of Brussels. I am pro UK democracy but I certainly didn't like anything that came out of Westminster between 1979-1997!

At each of the last 3 elections I have been told by anti Europeans that their cause is the one that will bring down the government. Yet on the doorsteps nobody really cares. I have just looked through my last 2 months correspondence and casework today and none of the issues raised has anything to do with European matters. It doesn't mater to people in their daily lives. They care about the CSA, their tax credits, housing, the economy etc etc.

So we return to parliament again next week for more of this - yet the major arguments have been made and won. Whilst I originally thought having days of this was good for democracy I am no longer convinced. I was always taught to make your arguments in 5 minutes - not 5 weeks!

PS. Interesting to note again that my facebook contacts have a completely different take on the Lisbon Treaty. They all htink it should be left to parliament to decide and they all love Europe. Its clearly a generatoinal thing. Is it time people stopped whinging about the war and the French and got behind our EU.

Referendum debate come and gone...

So we finally got to the bit everybody said they were waiting for..and what an anti climax for all those who ferment at the corner of their mouths at the sounding of the word Europe!

Whilst the best speech of the day was William Hague - it was not for his content but for style.

Comprehensively it has been demonstrated that Europe considers the Constitutional process dead. (Frankly I was never convinced there was a constitution in the format Eurosceptics over hyped) It was killed off - and European leaders rightly went back to the drawing board. What we now have is what it says on the tin. We have an amending Treaty that tidies up the rules that help Europe work.

I am sure if you are a fervent anti European nothing anybody says will ever convince you about any merit of the EU. I know there are a hardy bunch of people who think like this. I don't agree with a word they say and worry more about their obsession - but at least they remain convinced of the conspiracy theory they have consumed and remain consistent.

So when it came to the vote there were no surprising elements. The Lib Dem decision to abstain became the story of the day. A strange decision which of course backfired.

The one patronising thing I got fed up with was hearing people suggesting Labour MPs should vote with their hearts and consciences. As I have always opposed having a referendum I was always acting on what I believe are Britain's long term strategic interests.