Think Wisely Mr. Blair

Fire of Liberty

While the Blair government continues to publicly deny it will kill the EU referendum for the sake of the EU, it has become clearly evident via various government sources and press reports that UK foreign minister Jack Straw will go before the House of Commons and call the 2006 treaty referendum dead. This demand for the delay or even termination of the EU referendum within the UK government is due to the fact that the Blair government is so closely tied to the promotion of the EU and would find it a terrible embarrassment if the same results occurred in the UK like it did in France and the Netherlands. (Blair doesn't want to end his tenure as PM in a failed "yes" vote.) Unlike the French and Dutch who were slightly optimistic about passing the EU referendum, the Blair government realizes that the UK public is adamantly opposed to a further intergration into the EU. As with all politicians who promote a "third way" (Bill Clinton, Blair), the Blairites are always calculating the odds of success and failure and are constantly monitoring the polls to see how their policies/ideas play with the public. I guess Blair's poll watchers got a early preview of a Mori poll conducted by The Sun, which shows that if a vote were conducted 56% would vote "no," 22% "yes," and the remaining 22% undecided. To make matters worse for Blair, when you remove the "undecideds" from the equation, some 72% would reject the poll while only a paltry 28% would vote for it. Seems to me that the Blair camp has gotten very scared with the mere thought of letting the people crash his farewell party too soon by rejecting the EU Constitution.

While the Blair government is more than likely set to push for a hold or cancellation of the EU referendum this Monday, it would be better if they would listen to the voters before making such a hasty decision. If the poll watchers would take a deeper look into the Mori poll conducted by the UK's number 1 newspaper (The Sun, which has sided with Blair every election), they'd discover that some 67% of British people support having a vote on the referendum. You'd think that the folks in the government would stand by their promises of holding a referendum next year even if the people end up voting it down. In a nation that brought the world John Locke, Edmund Burke, John Stewart Mill, the Magna Carta and the modern day model of government by the consent of the people as well as the rule of law, I'd find it very perplexing that Blair would push a tabling of the referendum. Luckily, the people of the UK have several champions within the business community who urge the UK government to rethink its plans to abandon the EU referendum. In a letter to The Financial Times, senior directors from eight major UK enterprises called on Blair to hold the vote in order to ensure he doesn't do an end-around on the UK public by pushing it through Parliament or enacting some EU Commission clause that supersedes the will of the people. Here's a sampling of the letter below:

The EU needs to start listening more, and doing less. That means accepting both referendum results for what they were - powerful expressions of unease about the current direction of the EU. There must be no attempt to ask either country to vote again - as has happened in past referendums in Ireland and Denmark.

Nor should any elements of the constitution be ratified by the back door. Indeed the government should commit itself to hold a referendum in the UK before implementing any substantial part of the constitution.

As business people operating across the UK, EU and rest of the world, we are well placed to understand why Europe is not working. Thanks to over-regulation and a one-size-fits-all monetary policy there are now 19m unemployed in the EU. Without radical action many member states face a medium-term crisis as a result of their unfunded pension systems and deteriorating demographics.

Although the UK government admits Europe needs to reform, so far it has come up with nothing more than rhetoric. Instead of continuing to argue in favour of transferring even more powers to EU institutions, it is now time the government began to question the logic of further integration.

I just hope that Tony Blair and his ministers put a considerable amount of reflection time on the overwhelming support from the populace on the continuation of the referendum and the sound advice from the business community before they make their final decision. Blair could have an even greater legacy within British history by giving the people of the UK a voice in the preservation of their national sovereignty and political liberty. This might be popular within the Labour, Liberal Democrats, and Tory party headquarters but it would be a blockbuster hit amongst the people (not as big as Gladstone, Disraeli, Lloyd George, Churchill or Thatcher).