VOTE NO

VOTE NO “The Vote No Campaign” has apparently decided to use the slogan "Europe yes, constitution no" in their well funded fight against the EU Constitution. On past experiences we can expect that “Vote No” will be designated as the official no campaign and then any other voices no matter how well informed will be struggling to make themselves heard. As happened in the North East Referendum once NESNO was selected by the Electorial Commision the media only wanted to hear what they had to say and ignored the well founded people’s campaign run by Neil Herron. In that case Mr Herron and his team had for two years been doing a great job of opposing the yes camp and exposing the government plans. Only to be usurped by the jonnie come lately NESNO who are all now back in their London bases after claiming a great victory on the back of someone else’s hard work. This sidelining of Neil Herons campaign was obvious when he was not even allowed in to hear the deputy prime minister`s acceptance that he had lost. Vote No, one would have thought, would be welcomed as an added weapon in the fight against this EU Constitution, but already there is controversy growing, because their slogan, "Europe yes, constitution no" if it becomes the basis for a no result is in fact also a yes to the EU. One can then imagine the morning after the no vote is announced our esteemed leader, if in fact he is either by then, will be making much of the massive yes vote for the EU, saying on the back of that massive mandate for further EU integration, just shown by the British people he will be in Brussels for a day or two to negotiate an opt out for Britain from parts of the Constitution with which we were not happy, and will then announce the date for the next referendum. For those of us who do not believe the EU is good for Britain, good for democracy or in my case good for anything, the danger of giving the government of this country any encouragement to back up their intention to give away more of our sovereignty to the unelected and unaccountable EU is to great to accept. Many Eurealists would like the question to be on Britain’s place in the EU in or out, there is a very good case to be made for Britain to leave the Union and make its own way in the world, without having to become a state in the Greater EU. Unfortunately we are just not being asked if we want to leave the Union or our thought on any of the treaties, so a no vote cannot be construed as a wish for the people of Britain to leave. If the campaign is fought on the question of leaving, I feel we will be playing into the hands of the government who want to make that the question, because they know that will frighten the children and then out of fear they will vote to stay in. That is one of the ploys already much in evidence from the Europhiles we will be sidelined in Europe and so on. To fight a campaign that is based on leaving the EU we need to then, if we win, have the authority of demanding of our government to comply with the wishes of the people, as expressed in the vote. As the question is only about the Constitution there will be no proof that anything other than that question was answered. The important fight is to get a no vote to the question asked, not the question we would like asked. But it is also vitally important not to allow the impression that we accept anything else from the EU. If however we fight under the slogan “Yes to the EU but No to the Constitution” that is also wrong because we are then confirming that we want the EU, and that will be used by governments as a mandate from the people for further integration, they will also have an answer against the case for leaving, “But the people have made it clear they want to stay in the Union”. So the question needs to be asked of the Vote No campaign why are they going to be pouring money into a campaign which has the clear possibility of being misinterpreted as a vote of acceptance of all the EU treaties that our governments have signed us up to without our agreement up to this date, because the outcome of a no vote can and will be taken as such. If the government wished to create a situation in the knowledge that they do not have a cat in hells chance of winning the referendum, but wanted to create the impression that we the people agreed with Britain being in the Union, this is exactly the situation they would love, because it turns a massive defeat for their policies into a massive vote of confidence for the EU and for Britain being a member of the EU.