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Stephen Tall

EU treaty referendum: the Davey defence

By Stephen Tall | Tue 22nd January 2008 - 1:27 pm

I’ll readily confess to remaining uncomfortable with the Lib Dem position on opposing holding a referendum on the EU reform treaty. I do not like to see banner headlines on the BBC News Politics website proclaiming: Lib Dems oppose referendum vote.

It does not sit well with the widely-proclaimed belief of both candidates during the leadership contest that the party needed to become more spiky, anti-establishment, and to put the people – not politicians – in control of their own lives. Nor does it sit well with our previous, principled stance (alone among the three mainstream parties) that the Maastricht treaty should be subjected to a popular vote. On principle, and in campaigning terms, I think the party has made a mistake.

However, credit where it’s due to Ed Davey, our new shadow foreign secretary, who put forward a trenchant and persuasive argument in last night’s House of Commons debate on the Lisbon treaty. Read it for yourself, and judge it for yourself…

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Recent Comments

  • Big Tall Tim
    VERY well said James and Tristan....
  • tom arms
    And is it or is it not a perfect opportunity for Ed Davey to make waves, political capital and foreign policy? And-- given his past pronouncements on Trump-- is...
  • paul barker
    I agree with almost every word of this but I must point out that The Green performance involved a great deal of luck, in getting a winnable By-election at the r...
  • Hywel
    Nicely played David Green :-)...
  • Peter Davies
    @David Allen: Indeed. writing good articles for LDV is an ideal way to start....