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Originally Posted by Steel_Tomb
Its disgraceful, the Government really needs to get its act together. What gets me is how wrong the system of so called "democracy" is used in this country. The political parties beg us for their support, and then after that they leave us high and dry. Even though 95% of people who participated in a survey said that we should have a referendum on the EU Constitution... oh sorry I meant "treaty" the Government along with the Lib Dems (thought they were all for liberal stuff and standing up for the little guy???) block it so there won't be any say for UK citizens, wheres the democracy in that?
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The democracy in it is in Parliament. The Lisbon Treaty is exactly the kind of issue that parliaments are designed for.
The UK is not used to having referenda, they are sly, cynical devices that rarely have anything to do with the will of the people. For large, nasty, complex things like treaties, the elected government decides.
The row over this referendum is due to government mishandling and opposition opportunism. Playing the "democracy card" is useful for the Tories; there's nothing Labour can say against it and come off the better - which doesn't make it a good idea. Don't believe for a minute if the Tories were in power would you get a vote on Lisbon. Here in Ireland we're having a referendum, and I'm terrified that the public will screw up.
In countries like Switzerland, they have plebescities all the time, and they
know how to vote. They vote on the issue at hand.
The UK (and Ireland) have rare referenda, and we don't have a bloody clue what to do. A vote on Lisbon would turn into a vote on Gordon Brown's performance so far. And that would be an unmitigated disaster for Britain as a whole, and a hell of a victory for the Tories.