It has been a historic day. The Prime Minister’s announcement that if the Conservatives win the next General Election there will be an In/Out Referendum in 2017 has settled one of the biggest questions in politics. I am glad to have played a small part in bringing the change of policy about. Back on 24th October 2011 it was my motion that called for such an In/Out Referendum that despite being opposed by all three main Parties front benches attracted 111 votes.
I wish the Prime Minister well in negotiating an EU lite package to put to the British people. The main thing is the British people are going to have their say after over 4 decades.
More importantly, unemployment is down again with more people in work in December than in November. No doubt there may be ups and downs on the road to recovery but the fact remains that even though it is a difficult path the Government are making the right calls on the big decisions. Of course Labour are opposing these decisions that is their job. The same few Labour Councillors and supporters who post on my blog are doing their job but the vast majority of the public know in their heart of hearts that even though they might not like the medicine in the long run it is working. There really is no alternative but to cut Government spending so the Country is living within its means. Labour’s answer is always to spend more but no one will forget that it was the ‘spend today’ policies of Labour that got the Country into this mess.
David Nuttall 
The Bury Times printed a letter of mine today written in favour of UKIP which may have seemed quite inspired had they printed it when i sent it weeks ago, before Cameron’s speech. The question now – can Cameron be trusted? I like the idea of UKIP going after the Labour vote since the engineers of our economic downfall (Ed Balls et al) are still at their helm (what they didn’t cause they failed to protect us from during 13 years). My vote for the next election is now back “in play”. I think Westminster lacks talent in depth and we’re still very much in the mire. Cameron’s promise may not be enough for me, he could still fit in a re-neotiation and bring us to a referendum before the term is out. That would secure my vote for the Tories. It would be cost effective and politically expedient to have it along with the next general election (when the coalition ends anyway). I think Farage is a useful steer on the trust issue concerning Cameron. Also – a £20k pay rise for MP’s ?..forget it! There’s still abuses going on, just a different shade to the expenses scandal. Those bankers still deserve jail-time too. Weak politicians.
Tom you hit the nail on the head because if there was to be a referendum cameron would vote for staying in the EU even though he wouldn’t get anything he wants re negotiation because the other nations won’t agree to anything of major importance. As i write i can see that you look extremely bored and disbelieveing in the house today,monday 28 january, the failure of the transport secretary to give proper answers to questions by both sides of the house particularly to his colleague re who will build the line, provide the rolloing stock etc, his answer was, it will go out to tender in the usual way, in other words to foreign companies. David if you believe we should not spend more than we can afford why does your crackpot government plan to spend £33bn and rising 3 fold is my guess, and £20bn again rising to probably double or treble on a trident missile system, which will never be used, but we can’t afford to build houses for social need something we wouldn’t be short of if thatcher hadn’t sold of our housing stock only for people to sell on at a fat profit. The prime minister admitted on tv the deficit would be wiped out by 2017 but he, clegg and osborne all said it would be done by 2015 but it is actually rising also you yourself have said we cannot go on borrowing at the rate we were doing under the last government but this complete shambles of a government are borrowing billions more than labour and why, the answer is obvious if you put people out of work you get less tax and have to pay more in benefits, a bit too simple for this thick government. I would like people to know that if they rely on housing benefit and they have a spare bedroom maybe because someone in the household has moved on or has died then their housing benefit will be reduced, commonly called ‘ the bedroom tax ‘, how low can this government get, also would this ‘tax’ be on MPs second homes, which we pay for, or is there one law for the MPs and one law for the plebs.One more thing David, when Fairfield Baby Unit closed in february last year you said it was closed by the local health authority and NOT by Andrew Lansley which i said at the time he, as secretary of state had the final say and was his responsibilty, well well well, on tv last week he said the secretary of state was responsible for decisions taken , and i quote, ‘as he was when he was health secretary’, now people will know he lied then and as did you and you should both resign. If you don’t take my word for it read Hansard for last week re business questions and maybe you can come up with another excuse as to why the unit closed, he was the boss and in any business the boss is responsible for the actions of his subordinates, your reply, if any will be ‘interesting’ to say the least.
Mr Nuttall – you can bet your European made car on this topic, There will be no such a Referendum in 2017. I suspect you that as well.
PPS and I see Fraser Nelson has some doubts as well ?
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2013/01/fraser-nelson-is-right-the-tories-should-stop-saying-that-theyre-paying-down-britains-debts.html
PS – you can fool some of the electorate some of the time but not all of the electorate all of the time. Debt getting really scary and AAA rating looking dodgy – could we end up like Greece shortly ?
http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/cameron-busted-on-debt-claims/12556
‘Historic’ – maybe in the Westminster bubble you seem to so enjoy whilst ignoring much of what concerns people in Bury. (Heard of Gin Hall)
‘Settled’ – you must be joking. If the electorate (those interested enough too vote, probably slightly more than elected the new PCCs) ) decide to stay in the EU would you then drop the issue – and your interest in ‘independent nation states ( Scotland excepted) ?
The in/out referendum won’t happen – heard it all before.
In 1974 I bought the ‘common market’ message – I voted in the last referendum to have an ‘open’ (ha) market.
Joe Public doesn’t understand the difference between deficit and debt. I’m like millions of others in this country – my income is greater than my outgoings ergo I’m not in deficit and in consequence I have no debt. The only debt I have is to voting for politicians off all persuasions who are thicker than the millions of us who are NOT IN DEBT and could make a better job of it.
The referendum would have to be a three way vote. Completely in, completely out or, as we already voted for, to be a member of the EEC but not The EU !