Referendum Blues

Despite the 88% of people who are calling for a referendum on the EU treaty, it appears that the government is still hell bent on ignoring the voters they nominally serve:

Europe Minister Jim Murphy told MPs it was up to Parliament to decide "the right thing to do".

Smashing. With the current high regard parliament is held in, and the commitment to integrity shown by MPs, no-one should have a problem with them Parliament making such crucial choices without consulting the electorate. And no-one does. Except for those who lobbied at the Houses of Parliament. And those who scaled a crane to protest. Perhaps these protests may make the government question policy?

Sadly not.

But as the ninth day of debate on the EU (Amendment) Bill got under way, Mr Murphy said: "The place to make these decisions is in this chamber - not on a crane half way above the city sky of London."

Yeah, but the only reason why people feel the need to scale a crane and unfurl banners is because they don’t feel their voices are being heard. What does Murphy think – that these protestors were just looking to an excuse to go up that crane? That they were sat in a pub somewhere, scouring the papers for a reason to climb a crane, and breathed a sigh of relief when they realised that they could use the EU referendum as an excuse? Or do we think that the reason why they climbed that crane is because they passionately feel the need to have a say on who controls the UK?

The arrogance of the Labour government (and it is Labour, because all the other parties seem to support a referendum on the EU now, for whatever reason) is astounding. They are happy to ignore the feelings and demands of the electorate, because, fundamentally, they think they know best. Yet there will be those in the government who wonder why the electorate appears to have lost faith in the Labour party. If they want to know one of the reasons, then they should look at the way they have handled the EU Treaty. They have patronised and ignored the electorate. They have swept aside their manifesto pledge, and turned their back on honest protests from those who know their voices are not being heard. They have shown themselves to be egotistical and deceitful.

Seriously, the question isn’t "why wouldn’t we trust them", but rather "why would we trust them?"