In the UK, referendums are usually nothing more than opinion polls. They are not legally binding and therefore not capable of making decisions.
Indeed, both the 1975 and 2016 referendums on whether the UK should remain a member of the European Community were not binding votes, but simply a ‘poll’ of the country’s ‘opinion’.
A general election has far more democratic legitimacy and legality than a referendum.
In this country, it’s our Parliament that is sovereign and Parliament gains that power through the voting public.
General elections represent legally binding votes that give authority to a party or parties to form a government.
REFERENDUMS VERSUS PARLIAMENTReferendums are flimsy affairs compared to general elections.
Parliament had the legal and democratic power to reject the ‘advice’ of the 2016 referendum if it so chose.
Even if we’d had another referendum, it would have been another advisory vote. Only Parliament can make the final decision (a key point confirmed by a ruling of the Supreme Court).
Since it is Parliament in our country that is sovereign, it is clearly the case that a vote to give power to one party or another in a general election is far superior to an ‘advisory’ referendum result.
And there’s another thing: Referendums are lousy ways to make democratic decisions, especially compared to how our representative Parliament works.
That can hardly be described as a democratic process, let alone a good way to make big decisions.
MANIFESTO PROMISESThe decision to join the European Economic Community (now called the European Union) was confirmed by ‘the people’ voting for parties that offered that in their manifestos in general elections.
WHEN IN 1961, Conservative Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, applied for the UK to join the then European Economic Community, ‘the people’ had given him a mandate to do so in the 1959 general election.
The Tory manifesto for that election stated:
‘our aim remains an industrial free market embracing all Western Europe’.
WHEN IN 1967, Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, applied again for the UK to join the European Community, ‘the people’ had given him a mandate to do so in the 1966 general election.
The Labour manifesto for that election stated:
‘Labour believes that Britain, in consultation with her E.F.T.A. partners, should be ready to enter the European Economic Community, provided essential British and Commonwealth interests are safeguarded.’
WHEN IN 1973, Conservative Prime Minister, Edward Heath, negotiated Britain’s membership of the European Community, ‘the people’ had given him a mandate to do so in the 1970 general election.
The Conservative manifesto for that election stated:
‘If we can negotiate the right terms, we believe that it would be in the long-term interest of the British people for Britain to join the European Economic Community, and that it would make a major contribution to both the prosperity and the security of our country.’
The manifesto added:
‘The opportunities are immense. Economic growth and a higher standard of living would result from having a larger market.’
PARLIAMENT’S DECISION TO JOINHaving negotiated the terms of membership, Edward Heath could not then unilaterally make the decision to go ahead and join.
The Tory manifesto promised:
‘As the negotiations proceed, we will report regularly through Parliament to the country.’
Ultimately, it was the decision of Parliament – not Mr Heath – on whether to join the European Community.
Following 300 hours of debate, Parliament voted for the UK to accept the terms of membership as confirmed in the European Communities Act 1972.
Consequently, Britain became a member of the European Economic Community (EEC) from 1 January 1973.
Was it a legitimate, democratic decision? Yes, of course.
Decisions in the UK are decided by our representatives in Parliament; a system of democracy that has served this country relatively well for hundreds of years.
After all, we have not had referendums to decide whether to join or leave the United Nations, or NATO, or the European Convention on Human Rights, or to agree to over 14,000 international treaties, including EU treaties.
These were rightly decisions of our democratically elected Parliament and government*. If not, the British public would have to spend almost every week of their lives voting in referendums, and what then would be the point of MPs?
(*Albeit, still using an outmoded voting system of first-past-the-post, which can mean election results that are not representative of the nation as a whole.)
RECENT MANIFESTOSWhat about recent decisions regarding our membership of the European Union? This is where the track record becomes murky.
WHEN IN 2016, Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, organised an in/out referendum on our EU membership, ‘the people’ had given him a mandate to do so in the general election of 2015.
The Conservative manifesto for that election stated:
‘We will legislate in the first session of the next Parliament for an in-out referendum to be held on Britain’s membership of the EU before the end of 2017…
‘We will honour the result of the referendum, whatever the outcome.’
That 2015 manifesto, however, didn’t specify at all what kind of Brexit Britain would have in the event of Leave winning.
On the contrary, the manifesto promised:
‘We are clear about what we want from Europe. We say: yes to the Single Market.’
The other problem with the 2015 manifesto is that whilst the Tories could make a political pledge to honour the referendum, they could not bind Parliament to agree to the result of an advisory-only referendum.
This became an issue when the next Conservative Prime Minister, Theresa May – still acting under the auspices of the 2015 manifesto – tried to treat the EU referendum as if it had made a legally binding decision.
Consequently, Parliament was not given an opportunity to have a specific debate and vote to decide whether to accept the ‘advice’ of the referendum for the UK to leave the EU.
The then Brexit Secretary, David Davis, erroneously advised Parliament that such a Parliamentary decision wasn’t necessary, as ‘the decision’ to leave had already been taken by the referendum. [Source]
Even though the Supreme Court had already ruled that the referendum was not capable of making any ‘decision’.
WHEN IN 2017, Conservative Prime Minister, Theresa May, promised to deliver Brexit, it’s a moot point as to whether ‘the people’ had given her a mandate to do so, as in the 2017 general election, the Tories lost their majority entirely.
The Conservative manifesto for that election promised:
‘The best possible deal for Britain as we leave the European Union delivered by a smooth, orderly Brexit.’
The manifesto also pledged:
‘a deep and special partnership with the European Union.’
In that manifesto there was no mandate sought for Britain to leave the EU without a deal, let alone to suffer a ‘disorderly’ Brexit.
It meant that the next Tory Prime Minister, Boris Johnson – whilst still under the auspices of the 2017 manifesto – had no authority from ‘the people’ to state that Britain would leave the EU, ‘do or die, deal or no deal’.
WHEN IN 2019, Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, promised to get Brexit done, ‘the people’ had given him a mandate to do so in the general election of that year.
The Conservative manifesto of that election promised on Brexit:
‘a great new deal that is ready to go’.
In that manifesto there was no mandate sought for Britain to leave the EU without a deal.
The ‘great new deal’ – which was passed by Parliament in January – included a political declaration promising close collaboration with the EU and a ‘level playing field’ to enable free and fair trade between the UK and the EU.
Boris Johnson personally signed the agreement.
But now the government has retracted on that deal.
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said last month:
“In all areas, the UK continues to backtrack on the commitments it has undertaken in the political declaration.”
The UK is now rapidly heading towards a no-deal Brexit – an outcome for which there is no mandate from the British electorate.
WHAT NEXT?The next general election is to be held on 2 May 2024.
That is the next scheduled democratic event when the Brexit decision could be legitimately challenged, changed, or even overturned by a vote of ‘the people’.
Could a general election reverse Brexit, or at least forge a closer relationship with the EU than the one now being instigated by the Tory government?
Yes, of course.
In less than four years, the course of Brexit could be turned on its head if a political party wins power with a manifesto pledge to do just that.Photo: Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath, on the steps of 10 Downing Street, after winning the 1970 general election.
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The post In Britain, general elections are how ‘the people’ decide appeared first on Ideas on Europe.
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Polish Presidential run-off will take place on the 12 of July, that is tomorrow, between the incumbent President Andrzej Duda, who won the first round of the presidential election on the 28 of June, and Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who is the Civic Platform (PO) candidate, finishing second.
The question is what will be the future of Rule of Law in Poland in light of who gets elected on Sunday’s election.
The current state of Rule of Law in Poland under the Law and Justice Party’s ruling since 2015 is far from offering any hope for the future. The current government through series of measures and legislation has undermined and eroded the Rule of Law in Poland.
V-Dem Democracy Report of 2020 refers to Poland as having autocratised the most over the last ten years among other countries like Hungary and Turkey. The ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), in power since 2015, is forcing legislation that is not complying with the EU’s Rule of Standards, and ultimately is eroding democratic standards in Poland. On the question of whether it has a independent Judiciary, Poland scored 1 on the scale of 4 in Freedom House’s annual report of 2020, which is pretty dismal.
In 2017 the Justice Minister was given the power to appoint and dismiss presidents and deputy presidents of courts, instead of them being elected by the Judiciary. Furthermore, lower retirement ages for the Supreme Court came into force, effectively meaning that 27 out of 73 judges had to step down in July 2018.
Other parts of the new Supreme Court law created powerful new chambers—the Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs (responsible for declaring the validity of elections), and the Disciplinary Chamber.
Furthermore, in 2019, the Supreme Court’s Labor Chamber promptly ruled that the National Council of the Judiciary is not an impartial and independent body, and the Disciplinary Chamber is not a court within the meaning of EU and national law. In response, the PiS rushed legislation through the Sejm, the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland, to strengthen and expand disciplinary measures to punish individual judges who questioned the validity of the National Council of the Judiciary.
In academic circles, as well as at the EU institutional level and among policy analysts, the situation in Poland concerning the independence of Judiciary and other policy choices made by the PiS related to the media and academia, which are not in the remit of this blog, is alarming. ‘Backsliding on democracy’, ‘drift towards illiberal democracy’, and ‘rule of law crisis’ are some of the adjectives used to describe the situation in Poland.
My first question is if Trzaskowski wins the run-off on Sunday, can he stop PiS in eroding the independence of Judiciary in Poland?
The short answer is: Yes.
The supporting conditions and constitutional powers granted to the President of the Republic of Poland could make Trzaskowski’s significantly strong and effective in ste
Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski is supported by Civic Platform, a liberal right-of-centre party © Omar Marques/Getty
ering Poland to an opposite direction. To one where fundamental principles of Liberal Democracy are respected and protected, like the Rule of Law.
The paragraphs 3-5 of the Article 122 of the Constitution of Republic of Poland stated: (3)The President of the Republic may, before signing a bill, refer it to the Constitutional Tribunal for an adjudication upon its conformity to the Constitution. The President of the Republic shall not refuse to sign a bill which has been judged by the Constitutional Tribunal as conforming to the Constitution. (4) The President of the Republic shall refuse to sign a bill which the Constitutional Tribunal has judged not to be in conformity to the Constitution. (5) If the President of the Republic has not made reference to the Constitutional Tribunal in accordance with para. 3, he may refer the bill, with reasons given, to the Sejm for its reconsideration. If the said bill is repassed by the Sejm by a three-fifths majority vote in the presence of at least half of the statutory number of Deputies” .
The above means that when Trzaskowski receives a bill from the Sejm, he has the power, granted by the Constitution, as shown above, to refer the bill to the Constitutional Court to check it is in conformity with the Constitution. Additionally, because the PiS government does not hold a majority of 3/5 in the Sejm, the President’s veto of the Government’s bills could not be overturned. Thus Trzaskowski could block the PiS’s bills that are not in conformity with the Constitution, as well as those against his liberal values. Ultimately he could protect the fundamental values of liberal democracy; with this assured, optimism about the Rule of Law could be reinstated in Poland.
However, Trzaskowski’s vetoes of the PiS’s bills or legislative initiatives could force Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński’s hand, Chairman of the PiS, country’s de facto ruler, to call for an early General Election. Dr. Ben Stanley, a political scientist at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, said that Kaczyński would have little patience for Trzaskowski’s vetoes and predicts escalation of hostilities between Trzaskowski and Kaczyński, if the former is elected on Sunday. By this, a brake on backsliding on Liberal democracy would be achieved. However, conflict, hostility and disunity between the President and the Government would take root in the Polish politics that could produce a dysfunctional government.Â
My second question is if Duda wins, will he stand against the PiS’s policy initiative that is not compliance with the Rule of Law standards of the EU?
My short answer is: No.
Andrzej Duda, incumbent PiS President and seeking re-election © Wojciech Olkusnik/EPA-EFE
If Duda is elected on Sunday, I think the PiS’s administration will first take a deep breath since the neck and neck race between Duda and Trzaskowski made them extremely nervous in that they run a smear campaign against their opponent, something academics will write about for a long time coming.
While one would expect the PiS to moderate their policy plans so that they could accommodate the rest of the country in their ranks, I do not anticipate that to happen. Not only because I feel the sense of deja vu when I am questioning if the PiS would moderate, but because of my expertise in Turkish and Hungarian politics, countries that are not regarded as democracies by the Freedom House anymore. I feel that the PiS would only impose its illiberal legislation proposals on the Poles in many areas of life in the coming 3-5 years to enhance their grip on power, which inevitably result in weaker democracy and the Rule of Law.
The post Should you feel Optimistic or Gloomy about the Rule of Law in Poland in light of Presidential Run-Off appeared first on Ideas on Europe.
Fxpro est un site de trading qui a vu le jour en 2006. En effet, ses services sont focalisés sur le Forex et le CFD. Ses tâches consistent à mandater ses clients au sein du Forex, mais également à négocier des actifs financiers grâce aux CFD. Pour ce faire, cette plateforme joue deux rôles principaux comme celui d’un broker « No Dealing Desk » et celui d’un « market maker ».
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Comment s’organisent le dépôt et retrait auprès de Fxpro ?Cette plateforme met à la disposition des investisseurs diverses options de dépôt et de devises. A priori, tous les sites de trading adoptent cette stratégie afin d’attirer plus de clients et de les motiver à s’investir auprès d’eux. De ce fait, afin de générer des profits au sein du courtier, vous êtes tenus à payer une somme minimale de 500 euros. Pour cela, le virement bancaire, les cartes bancaires et les comptes virtuels comme Skrill et Neteller sont tous acceptés.
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Frais de transaction déduits chez FxproForex est un lieu sûr pour les marchés de changes. Tous les courtiers en ligne trouvent leur place auprès de celui-ci, y compris Fxpro. Quant aux frais de transaction pour le trading, chaque plateforme de change fixe des spreads et commissions pour chaque opération effectuée. Ce qui lui permet d’avoir plus de trafic sur le marché organisé. Ainsi, le spread fixe au sein de Fxpro est de 1.6 pips contre 2 pips pour d’autres courtiers en ligne. Pour les spreads à compte variables, le nombre de pips est de 0.3.
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Every reason given to leave was a stinking falsification. When, one day, there is a public inquiry into how our country was conned, there will be gasps into how conniving, cunning politicians managed to get away with it.
Lies, lies and more lies. That’s how Leave won.
In summary:
MORE SOVEREIGNTY? Nonsense. We’ll get less. In the EU, we gained a share of sovereignty of our continent. Outside the EU, we’ll still live on a planet and have to obey thousands of international laws and treaties.
We share sovereignty with NATO, for example. Is that a reason to leave it?
FEWER MIGRANTS? Really? Just think about it. Most EU migrants in Britain have been in gainful employment, doing jobs that we simply don’t have enough Britons to do, and making a massive NET contribution to our Treasury and economy.
Migrants come here for jobs – and if there are no jobs, they mostly don’t come, or don’t stay.
MORE HOUSES, SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS? Think again. Britain has a chronic shortage of skilled workers. Without EU migrants, we’ll have fewer builders, teachers, doctors and nurses.
Migrants are not the cause of our problems. Blaming them just excuses successive UK governments from investing sufficiently in our country.
GET OUR COUNTRY BACK? We never lost it. If being in the EU means losing your country, why aren’t the 27 other EU member states planning to leave?
(Really, none of them are: support for the EU is the highest it’s been in 35 years).
OUR OWN LAWS? The vast majority of laws in the UK are our laws and passed by our Parliament in Westminster, otherwise it would have nothing to do.
But in the EU, we benefit from laws and regulations for our continent that no single country alone could ever achieve.
Could our UK government have got mobile phone companies to scrap exorbitant roaming charges across the entire EU? To take Google to task for “abusive practices”? To ensure generous compensation for delayed flights across our continent? Of course not.
It took the might of 28 EU countries working together to achieve that, and so much more.
THE EU IS RUN BY FACELESS BUREAUCRATS? Another lie. The EU is a democracy, run and ruled by its members, the 27 countries of the EU, along with its democratically elected European Parliament.
The European Commission is the servant of the EU, not its master, and the European Parliament has the power to choose, and dismiss, the entire Commission.
THE CASE FOR BRETURN Before Brexit, no member state had ever left the EU. And no other member state is planning to leave now.That’s hardly surprising. All the reasons to be an EU member are based on true, tangible and tested benefits over many decades.
In summary:
PROFITABLE: EU membership is profitable – in real terms it cost Britain nothing to belong to the EU. On the contrary, we got back many times the cost of the annual membership fee. Being in the EU made us better off.
The CBI has calculated that EU membership was worth around £3,000 a year to every British family — a return of nearly £10 for each £1 we paid in.
[Source: CBI Report: Our Global Future, page 11:]
PEACE: It’s the structure of the EU that has helped to ensure that no shots have ever been fired between member states. That’s an enormous achievement for a continent that was previously used to violence, wars and subjugation as the way to ‘settle’ issues.
In 2012, by a unanimous decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the causes of peace, democracy and human rights in Europe for over 60 years.
FREEDOMS: The EU gives members freedom across much of our continent.
EU citizens enjoy the right to live, work, study or retire in any EU and EEA country – including access to state healthcare and education when working in those countries. That’s a precious right, that took decades to achieve.
The EU also gives members the right to free AND frictionless trade between member states, which has helped to maintain Europe as the planet’s richest continent.
The loss of these freedoms will be increasingly devastating for Britain and Britons.
Almost half of ALL our exports, and just over half of ALL our imports, go to and come from the EU. Nowhere else in the world comes even close.
The EU has an iron tariff wall against non-members. Outside of the EU, we are on the wrong side of that wall.
Even non-European countries that have negotiated ‘free trade’ agreements with the EU don’t enjoy full free trade access to Europe’s internal market, as Britain did as an EU member.
DEMOCRACY: EU members have a democratic say, votes and vetoes on the running and future direction of our continent.
Outside the EU, Britain can only look on as those decisions are made without us – even though those decisions will affect us just as much, whether we’re in the EU or not.
Leaving means losing sovereignty, not gaining it.
POWER: The EU is the world’s largest and most successful trading bloc, and the world’s biggest exporter and importer of manufactured goods and services.
The EU is one of the world’s top three economies, alongside the USA and China.
The Euro, in record time, has become the world’s most traded and trusted currency, alongside the US dollar.
All that gives the EU huge power, reach and muscle – enabling it to negotiate the best free trade agreements with other countries on behalf of its members.
Outside the EU, Britain is unlikely to get trade deals as good as, let alone better than, the free trade agreements we had as an EU member covering over 70 countries.
In any event, it will take years, maybe decades to find out.
PROTECTION: EU laws protecting the rights of workers, consumers and travellers across our continent are probably among the most important EU membership benefits.
For example, 4-weeks paid holiday a year; the 48-hour working week; anti-discrimination law; guaranteed rights for agency workers; guaranteed worker consultation – all of these protections largely exist because of the EU.
No single national government can assure safety and protection across our continent. It needs the reach of a pan-European intergovernmental organisation to achieve that (albeit with the democratic consensus of member states).
Britain enjoys cleaner beaches as a direct result of EU directives on protecting the environment. Before those directives, successive British governments were not interested in cleaning up our beaches.
In addition, the EU is leading the world in tackling climate change – something that individual countries alone simply can’t undertake.
The government’s post-Brexit plan is to take away the rights of British citizens to sue them over issues such as workers’ rights, environmental policy and business regulation. This right to sue our government on these issues was something we only enjoyed under EU law.
There will be many other rights lost as a direct result of Brexit.
STRENGTH: In a world dominated by the USA, China and Russia, Britain is dwarfed on its own. Being part of the EU gives us a bigger say and more strength on the global stage than as a small country out-at-sea and going-it-alone.
We could instead become closer to the USA – but is that what we really want?
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When Brexit arrives for real, from 1 January 2021 onwards, we will be poorer, and with less sovereignty, fewer rights and protections, restricted trade, and diminished power.The case for Breturn – Britain returning to the EU as a full member – is overwhelming.
It may take years to achieve a democratic reversal of Brexit, but it’s a worthwhile fight.
In a democracy, losing doesn’t mean having to give up. Ask Brexiters, they know.
We can win next time. We just have to ensure we get a next time.
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