Give us promised EU Referendum

Patently, over the last 20 odd years, something radical has gone wrong, but then for the last 20 odd years our Parliament’s decision making has become largely irrelevant under the EU!

Take for instance unregulated EU immigration, yet severely regulated non-EU immigration into our over-crowded island!

Roy Jenkins’ Report of 1998 and the independent ‘Power to the People Report’ of 2006 both recognise the absurdity of New Labour gaining, and returning to, power with under 30 per cent of the vote.

Jenkins’ AV+ retains a local, named, MP but adds additional MPs based on a select bank of counties allowing for Proportional Representation in these additional ‘local’ seats.

By his own reckoning this is a compromise which brings about smaller majorities and a form of coalition government with minority party representation.

However, whereas the wartime coalition national Governments worked in the national interest, I am not sure that peacetime coalitions do, for there is too much trading of policies which alienates the electorate – as we are now seeing in this, minority, Lib-Dem dominated coalition.

The Power Report suggests PR should be adopted in the House of Lords which moderates and oversees poor legislation from a power hungry House of Commons.

The fundamental flaw in both Jenkins’ AV+ and Labour’s AV systems is that they fail to curtail the power of the Executive and Party Whip which intentionally denies the electorate their voice.

This was evident in Nick Clegg ‘whipping’ his Lib-Dem MPs to prevent a referendum over the Lisbon Treaty (aka EU Constitution).

Such is his hypocrisy that his demand for a referendum on AV voting to gain him even more power was conditional upon him forming a coalition.

No wonder Labour now opposes their preferred AV system!

The trouble with any type of formulaic system to get the results one wants is that they go wrong!

The infamous hockey-stick graph politicians use to ‘prove’ man-made global warming has been soundly denounced as total bunkum by every mathematician, statistician and sane scientist.

Labour’s Electoral College system (in which the higher up the hierarchy you are, the more votes you cast) has ended up with the least favoured Miliband!

So what is the answer?

The Power Report recognises that fundamental flaws do not lie in the voting system but in the power exerted by the Executive (political dogma) enforced by the party whip.

Unless these powers are controlled to allow MPs free, independent, representation of all their constituents, that the best MPs for the job (regardless of party, race, creed or gender) are chosen as ministers in the national interest, allied to independent Parliamentary Committees, then AV will make no difference to the political mess we now have with a subservient parliament at Westminster answerable to an unelected supranational EU government which does not believe in democracy by the people!

Don’t forget what Emma Nicholson (Lib-Dem MEP) told us:

“Our Houses of Parliament are no longer needed”.

So first, give us our promised EU referendum on who governs Britain! Only then will party politics and democracy at Westminster become relevant.

Barry M Jones

Beckley, Rye