EU REFERENDUM – HOW THE HOUSE OF COMMONS VOTED

On Monday the 25^th of October 2011, The House of Commons held a vote on whether the British people should have a referendum on Great Britain’s membership of the European Union.

The motion was defeated by 483 votes to 111.

To download a list of how the MPs voted please click here for a pdf version, and here for a Word version. Please feel free to distribute these documents.

The result of course came as no surprise, but the party distribution of the for and against votes is worthy of note.

79 Conservative Party MPs (including 2 who also voted against), 19 Labour Party MPs, 8 Democratic Unionist Party, 1 Liberal Democrat MP, 1 Green MP and 1 Independent MP voted for the motion.

208 Conservative Party MPs (plus the 2 who also voted against), 215 Labour Party MPs, 50 Liberal Democrat MPs, 3 Plaid Cymru MPs, 3 Social Democratic and Labour Party MPs, and 1 Alliance MP voted against the motion.

The question of whether the result of this vote is representative of the views and wishes of the British people obviously arises.

The author of this post is of the view that it clearly is not.

How did your MP vote? Why not drop him/her an email or letter asking for an explanation of how they arrived at their decision.

EU Referendum Debate Special

On Monday the 24th of October 2011, in the House of Commons, the 650 men and women elected by the British people to represent the British people will debate and vote on whether the British people are to have a referendum on Britain’s continuing membership of the European Union.

The current Prime Minister of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Mr David William Donald Cameron (Conservative Party), has made it clear that he is not in favour of this referendum being held, and has indeed ordered all Conservative Party MPs, by way of a three-way whip, to vote against it. The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Nicholas William Peter Clegg (Liberal Democrats),  has also made it abundantly clear that he does not favour a referendum, and that he fully supports the view of the Leader of the Coalition Government of which he is part. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr David Wright Miliband (Labour Party) has also ordered every Labour Party to vote against such a referendum.

The author of this post is of the view that every currently serving Member of Parliament must have a free and independent vote; one which fully takes into account the wishes of those that they are there to serve, namely their constituents.

The British people must be referred to on Britain’s future membership of the European Union

The Referist awaits the outcome of tomorrow’s events with great interest.

I shall finish this post with a quote from the author of the British political blog Autonomous Mind

On Monday set aside the hot air and judge the MPs by their actions – or what will prove to be a lack of them.

CQ de The Referist

Firstly, a warm welcome to The Referist at WordPress, one of a pair of blogs dedicated to the subject of “That “ism” again”, to quote Dr Richard North at the EUReferendum blog, where I first came across the word:

However, before broaching the subject, for those of you who may not get the gist of the title of this first post, it is of nautical origin; CQ de The Referist means “Calling all ships (Referists), this is (the good ship) The Referist” in Morse Code (me being an old sea dog).

On reading “That “ism” again” and the ensuing debates at Dr North’s forum, and on many other mainly British quality blogs, (please forgive me for not mentioning you all by name but you know who you are), though the term even came up on far-flung WUWT, I came to the conclusion that this subject was worthy of a home of its own. Hence this blog and its sister blog which can be accessed by clicking the link on the right.

CQ de The Referist also means that the good ship has to be well founded, serve a useful purpose and be manned by a good crew. So this first post is a call to all referists. Not an SOS, but a general call; if the project is to fare well, then it needs people to man it. I cannot do it alone for various reasons, and neither do I wish to nor do I consider this to be in the best interests of the project. This therefore means The Referist needs administrators, moderators, editors, authors, contributors, people familiar with the WordPress platform and, of course, commentators. It also needs feedback: is it worth doing?; if so, how?; by whom?; who decides?; what for?; why two blogs?. The questions go on, and I probably have as many if not more than you. On the technical side, please feel free to add any constructive comment and criticism concerning layout, colouring, etc. I am using the WordPress Twenty Ten theme. The header is 940 x 198 pixels. If there are any good photoshoppers out there, feel free, I’m up for an exibition and a referendum for the final choice!

So that is what this first post is really all about. It is an open thread, but more importantly it an appeal for help and guidance in getting the project going. In addition, it is my way of saying thank you to Dr Richard North for having brought this important emerging subject to my attention, and to the attention of the blogosphere and beyond.

The sister blog I have left closed for comments for the moment for no other reason than one step at a time is probably the best course of action for the moment. Your comments, particularly Richard’s, are more than welcome in this first thread on what shape her future might take.

Until there is a page setting out the terms of use of the blog, the normal and accepted rules applicable to civilised and open political blogs and forums shall apply. As the launchpad is Richard’s forum, I am hoping that the initial readership and commentators will be genuine, grow naturally and that I will not be inundated with an initial onrush of spamming and trolling (links limited to two, first two comments always approved by a moderator). Reply nesting has been enabled (up to 3 replies to one comment for now, but that can be changed) This set-up will no doubt evolve if and when the project takes off and more people are involved, but for the moment I am applying the strictest rules WordPress allow for. If for some reason, you find your comments are not getting through, please drop an email in the strictest confidence to:

the.referist@gmx.com.

As a contributor to Dr North’s forum, Richard is aware of my identity and email address. I mention this simply to reassure you that I am not some kind of troll, mickey-taker or plant.

Over to you, fellow Referists.

For Referism

Referista