Today sees James Wharton’s European Union (Referendum) Bill reach its report Stage in the House of Commons. Many people doubted the Bill would ever get even this far but there is no doubt this is the stage when a Private Members’ Bill is at its most vulnerable.
Any member can suggest an amendment to the Bill and indeed dozens of amendments have been tabled. Not all have been selected by the Speaker for debate but those which have been split into four groups for debate.
The first dealing with who will be eligible to vote in the referendum, the second on the date of the referendum, the third on the actual question which should be used and the fourth on the conduct of the referendum
The European Union (Referendum) Bill commits a future Government to an in-out referendum on whether the UK should stay in the EU before the end of 2017.
Many people feel that the EU has been heading in a direction that they never signed up to.
If the Conservatives win the next General Election there will be an in-out referendum before the end of 2017.
Some have claimed that it is pointless trying to pass a Bill which seeks to bind the next Parliament but this Bill does not seeks to do that. It does make a provision which extends into the next Parliament but that happens all the time in Parliament. If this Bill becomes law there is no legal impediment to the next Parliament repealing it. Clearly the Conservatives will not repeal it as we are working so hard to get it on the Statute book. The question for the Labour and Liberal Democrats is will they repeal it?
David Nuttall 
Promises, promises. From what we ‘the public’ know a referendum will not happen. This proposal you outlined above will get talked out – we know how the parlimentary system works. After May 10th 2015 it’s VERY unlikely the Tories will have an outright majority – Labour buggered up the constituencies and jeremandered them in their favour. The Lib Dumbs this time wouldn’t let you lot, quite reasonably, make them all the same size. It’ll be some sort of coalition and that solves that.
Overall the last thing the political classes want to do is let us ‘the peasants’ have a say.. They know the answer – GET OUT. OHH but Nissan will bugger off to Germany – OK sell the Sunderland factory to Jaguar/Land Rover (India) then. India’s a bigger market anyhow.
Watched the question time debate – noted how all of you (the politicians) turned the overloading of our (we the taxpayers pay for it) infrastructures question into an immigration issue. GROW UP PLEASE and smell the coffee. Labour let in 800,000 East European souls when they budgeted for 13,000. How many of the 20 odd million Romanians/Bulgarians have you bodgeted to feed/educate/give health care for and house in 2014?? I’ll bet you don’t know.
As I have said before, we need three choices on the ballot paper. To be in the EU, to be out of Europe altogether and to be in the EEC (or similar) which we voted for a short time ago in the 70’s.
Anything else will be forcing us into something we do not want to vote for or not voting at all !
I do hope this piece of party propaganda gets talked out. Not least because of your complacent attitude to private members bill reform and your talking out of a perfectly decent bill earlier in your parliamentary career.