An 'In/Out' EU Referendum

Edward is one of my regular readers and contributors.  He offered this preview, which I am pleased to share with you, of an article that will be published next month in the Euro Realist. If you would like to receive a copy of the publication please email eurorealistnl@aol.com.

Thinking It Through

This is a critique for quiet consideration within the pro-independence movement . An “in/out” EU referendum may well be part of the mechanism by which Britain eventually leaves the EU but we know that the EU protagonists regard “in” votes as final and binding and “out” votes as merely provisional. For some idea of the likely forces of manipulation which would be available to the “in” side, I ask people to refer to the Eurofacts Document “How they swung it in the early Seventies” and to the Anthony Royle report, now released under the Thirty Year rule, of the press and public relations campaign waged by HMG to influence public opinion in favour of EEC membership at that time.

1. Firstly I acknowledge the contribution which the Democracy Movement has made to the pro independence cause. I have distributed many of their leaflets, arranged meetings at which they were represented and have been very grateful for their input over the years. The DM has been the prime mover of the People's Pledge campaign for a referendum.

2. My main concerns about an “in/out” referendum are set out in my September letter which appeared in “The Euro Realist” and they apply just as much to the People's Pledge campaign as to any other.

3. Before writing that letter, I consulted Dr. Anthony Coughlan of the Irish National Platform who has experience of both winning and losing  referendum campaigns concerning the EU. I did not put the question to him directly but he did not mention receiving any approach from British referendum campaigners (which he surely would, if he had). I am sure our country's foes will have learned the Irish lesson of what wins and what loses a referendum and was rather surprised that the independence campaigners had not thought to do so.

4. Dr. Coughlan gave his opinion that the weight of outside money and influence rather than the information for and against the referendum proposal, which used to be produced by the Referendum Commissioner before the poll, was what decided the result. In a time of economic uncertainty, it was the fear of the people, not the will of the people which determined the result. Whilst he was careful not to try to tell us what to do, he gave his opinion that an “out” referendum could only be carried with any certainty by the whole-hearted support of the party in government, using all its many influences. If a referendum campaign were to be fought, he believed it would be wiser to campaign for the referendum on the Lisbon treaty (promised by all parties) or (say) The European Arrest Warrant or the Common Fisheries Policy (from which the Conservatives once promised our release). A favourable vote in such a referendum would (I paraphrase) throw such a spanner in the works as to come close to an “out” vote. Yet, if lost, it would merely be a lost battle and not a lost war - which would certainly be the case if an “in/out” referendum resulted in an “in” vote.

5. To fix wholly and solely on an “in/out” referendum is to declare the chosen means of fighting to an enemy who will have the advantage of making the dispositions of his far superior forces of money, influence and persuasion well in advance and of fixing the time of the engagement to his best advantage. It will not be a fair fight. Most of it will take place long before the immediate campaign before the poll - without rules and with all the advantage to big money and entrenched influence. Reports of the way in which this was done in the Seventies are available but I have seen no evidence that they have been taken into consideration by any pro-referendum campaigner. The responses I have heard or had  reported to me are “Public opinion is moving our way” (equivalent to “we hope something will turn up”) and “That is a completely separate issue” (to actually getting a referendum).

6. Now, I think that a referendum - or pressure for one - may well be part of the mechanism by which we leave the EU - but it is not essential nor the only one. A parliamentary majority of one would be sufficient. As far as I know, nobody has given thought to an American-style write-in campaign to MPs, maintained and sustained over time. All eurosceptic organisations have urged their members to speak and write to their MPs but there has never been any serious organisation to build a disciplined core of (say) 2 dozen people in every constituency to keep the issue before MPs and media perpetually. Individuals have written, gone to see their MPs, asked a question at a meeting and usually got a dusty answer. Then they have retreated to the comfort zone of like-minded eurosceptics to complain about it and the MPs (for the most part) have heard nothing more. So they can say with all truthfulness (or as much as can be expected) that “Europe” is not an issue which troubles their constituents.

7. I am writing this personally and not as a

 view of CIB but I can assert this. CIB has for years 

issued invitations for the Democracy Movement to 

attend its committee meetings. They have always 

been declined. 

Perhaps this is unfair, but I get the 

impression that they feel that we volunteer 

provincials are beneath consideration though 

worthwhile summoning as spear carriers when our 

betters have decided what we should do. 

Nonetheless, if I had thought the campaign was the 

right thing to do, I would have supported it to the hilt immediately.

CIB also tried repeatedly to arrange discussions with the other main referendum campaign but appointments were either refused or cancelled after having been made. I was horrified to hear of the attempt of Daniel Hannan and Douglas Carswell, in front of press representatives, to bounce the Better Off Out Campaign into disbanding and joining with Keith Vaz, Caroline Lucas and other choice europhile specimens in a “Better with a Referendum” campaign. Whilst the Better Off Out campaign does not commit its members to any binding course of action, MPs who join it know that they do so at the cost of forfeiting any prospect of promotion. With the commitment downgraded to merely demanding a referendum, that might no longer apply. If pro-independence MPs were persuaded join the government, they would be lost to the movement. The Pledge campaign makes no distinction between MPs and candidates who are committed to EU withdrawal and those who believe deeply in EU membership and think that a referendum is a good way of locking us in. It will therefore promote rabid federalists as being equally as desirable candidates as solid sovereignists. Similarly, Keith Vaz is such a known careerist that he would not have offered his support to the People's Pledge without clearing it with the top leadership of the Labour party. One of the Democracy Movement's best leaflets was in the style of a detergent advert - “New miracle Vaz won't  wash”! He still doesn't. I think it possible that Labour may use the campaign to show “Tory splits” on Europe. Mr Cameron might then “do a Wilson” and call a referendum earlier rather than later to lance the boil of Tory euroscepticism - and he could easily win. He nailed his colours to the EU mast on Al Jazeera.

8. A referendum has beeen held on the”Alternative Vote” system. The Electoral Reform Society funded the “yes” campaign massively with money and with the loan of staff. This is a straw in the wind. The society has a commercial subsidiary which offers “electoral services” to public authorities. My own council uses it for part of the registration of electors. It is highly

profitable and would get massively more so, if a more complicated voting system were introduced. There are hundreds of such “Third Sector” organisations (as officialdom calls them), now with greater freedom to promote political objectives thanthey had under the old Charities legislation. Many are lavishly funded by the EU. As far as I know, there has been no attempt to list, quantify and evaluate the electoral pressure which such organisations could apply in an “in/out” EU referendum - on either side. It is worth noting that there are moves in the EU parliament to allow EU funds to be used in referendum campaigns within member states and that the proposals for pan EU political parties are quite well developed.

 It is worth noting that there are moves in the EU parliament to allow EU funds to be used in referendum campaigns within member states.

9. Neither, as far as I know, has anybody  considered institutional bias in the electoral process  itself. The postal voting system is known to be demonstrably corrupt, especially in culturally enriched areas. The few cases that have come to court are probably just the tip of an iceberg. There is a widespread feeling that the process of voter registration may have been compromised by outsourcing to private companies. Private Eye identified one such company with close links to the Labour Party. Then there is the Electoral Commission itself. There is a statutory requirement in the Elections Political Parties and Referendum Act for the Commission to “inform” people about the institutions of the EU. That can be interpreted in various ways and anybody who has received the reports of the Irish National Platform on the extreme partiality of the Irish electoral authorities would feel uneasy about the possible behaviour of this archetypal New Labour quango in a crucial referendum.

10. In my opinion, anybody starting out with the intention to win a referendum to get us out of the EU would have begun by dealing with such considerations as a first priority before even thinking of campaigning for a referendum. It is the elementary duty of any commander, who means to win, to “appreciate the ground from the enemy's position”, work out what forces the enemy may reasonably be expected to have and to assure himself of having at least local superiority to defeat them decisively. If he hasn't got that, he may fight a spoiling action or retreat - but that is not a possibility in a referendum campaign which is a win or lose, frontal assault. On present showing it could easily turn out like the Charge of the Light Brigade. As a French general remarked of that occasion “C'est manifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre”. We cannot afford such an heroic failure, however magnificent.

11. None of the proponents of an “in/out” referendum appears to have given any thought as to how the process of disengagement from the EU would be carried out, if an “out” vote by the electors were achieved but the government in power remained composed of “old style” politicians who were reasonably comfortable with life under the EU and not passionately and totally committed to leaving it. Even with a firm political commitment by a majority of MPs to independence, the degree of stubborn inertia in government departments and official bodies would be enormous with huge numbers of civil service apparatchiks and quangocrats able to ambush even an enthusiastic government into repeated pitfalls and disasters. With a less than enthusiastic government and parliament, the situation would be a happy hunting ground for functionaries of the “Yes, Minister” type to wrongfoot their nominal political masters repeatedly in the highly intricate business of disentangling constitution and administration from the EU web, which has been woven for over fifty years to prevent any such thing from happening. We now have politicians and officials who look like us and talk like us but whose

main loyalties have been elsewhere for decades. The present situation could not have occurred without them. 

The inertia of vested official interests in (say) the Foreign Office would be enormous. The extent to which long-established official attitudes within departments can frustrate even a determined government with a large majority has been demonstrated repeatedly over the years. To take a  domestic example, the Thatcher government set out to reverse declining standards in state education with the idea of insisting on a basic national curriculum to ensure that, at least,  the “Three Rs” were taught in schools. The “progressive” educational establishment was able to ambush this simple idea and turn the national curriculum into a complicated, prescriptive, jargon-laden  monster which is  now a major part of the problem. The doctrinaire educational establishment was able to divert and defeat the attempt to raise standards and to deceive not very bright politicians by “rising standards”, manufactured by making the exams easier. How much greater is the opportunity for that sort of obstructionism in untangling a project like the EU which affects so many departments of state and entrenched official interests? A referendum victory would be entirely hollow without MPs or government committed heart and soul to making independence a success and willing to confront and, if necessary to sack, obstructive officials - even if they are Permanent Secretaries. 

12. If a referendum is called, whether soon or late, you can be assured that CIB will strain all its energies and use every available penny provided by the generosity of our members, living and dead, to achieve a vote for independence but that alone will not deliver independence. It will only be the beginning of an almighty struggle, amounting to revolution against the new system of government, created in the last forty years. 

In the meantime, I believe it is best to continue our efforts to influence opinion in favour of independence - both within Parliament and elsewhere, taking every opportunity from the increasingly desperate and ultimately unsustainable crises to which the euro currency will be subject. We should also seek help from our members and the wider movement to develop a positive vision of an independent Britain and its place in the world. 

This is a plea for a pro thinking campaign not an anti referendum one.  The independence movement has not thought strategically or tactically.  It is perhaps personified by that rather splendid crusader knight of  the Daily Express, standing on the white cliffs of Dover. Our enemy is not across the Channel but here amongst us in our own political and official class. It is only by their actions and policies that the EU has any sway over us at all. It is against them that the knight must wield his sword.

Edward Spalton is vice-chair of the Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIB)

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