Is Con-man Cameron trying to rig the EU referendum – or are his backbenchers?
Image: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
These party games will test David Cameron’s stamina.
Today’s jape involves 50 of his own MPs who reckon he is rigging the rules of the European Union referendum and want to force through their own changes.
The sad fact is that the rebels’ amendments seem more likely to create bias than anything Cameron wants to do. Moves to prevent the referendum taking place on the same day as other elections may be reasonable, but trying to ensure that the Government cannot publish pro-EU reports “on the eve” of the vote seem intended to promote anti-EU sentiment when a level playing field is required.
But Cameron’s response, it seems, is not to reassure them of his good intentions at all – they’re Tory MPs; he might be able to fool the public that way but he won’t fool them. Instead he is resorting to bribery.
According to the Torygraph, he’s hoping rebels including former Cabinet ministers Liam Fox and Owen Paterson can be “bought off” with “credible assurances” ahead of a vote on backbench amendments to the EU referendum bill tomorrow (Tuesday, June 16).
A rebellion by 50 Tory MPs, if supported by Labour and the SNP, will overturn the Conservative Party’s tiny majority in the House of Commons and make it impossible for Cameron to have his way.
If it succeeds in changing his mind, you can rest assured it will be the first of many more such party games.
Cameron is a lame duck who has already been shot. Before you know it, he’ll be plucked and roasted.
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He’s a real Tinpot Dictator!
The facts are the public will vote to stay in the EU so i cant see why the prime minister is at all troubled by the referendum
His main problem is he is classed as a outsider by the other EU countries and that has always been the uk’s problem. He doesn’t speak any of the languages or involve himself on a personal basis to improve that image and therefor trying to negotiate a so called better deal will always be difficult
It takes a certain sort of person to be seen as the real deal on the world stage and with regret David Cameron is not that man
Tories trying to “rig” something? Surely not.
If his MPs do get away with pushing him around, they will smell blood and rip his career to bits.
Cameron is a lame duck who has already been shot. Before you know it, he’ll be plucked and roasted………… ooo yes please/ though i wouldn’t give the meat to my dog or even a hungry 3rd world person(well dunno bout the latter. better than starving i suppose)
“Cameron is a lame duck who has already been shot. Before you know it, he’ll be plucked and roasted.”
I wouldn’t get so excited, there were a lot of commenters saying the coalition wouldn’t last, but it did.
Things seem to happen to make things muddle through.
I said the Coalition would last; it was obvious from the moment the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act was first mooted.
This one will probably go the full term but he’ll be entirely beholden to his own backbenchers and I reckon the country will be sick of the lot of them long before the end.
I don’t think enough people will get fed up, remember my prediction of a Tory victory, I was right.
The attitude of the electorate needs to change dramatically, especially if Labour do move to the left. A result of how divided we have become as a nation.
Remember, right leaning parties got over 15 million votes.
Labour would impress me if they came out in support of full PR.
Don’t be fooled by UKIP spitting their dummy out about it, if things would have gone in their favour, they would be silent.
I didn’t hear Carswell supporting PR or reform as a Tory.
I will also make the prediction that if they are not careful, Labour will lose the Welsh Assembly, they have already lost two MP’s in Wales.
You may remember my comment about Labour needing to rid itself of Blairites, Brownites and gobsh*tes.
I still think that, but I also know that by keeping Blairites especially, it is the only way they think they will see power again, and I will repeat again, that is what 98% of politicians want, and they will make sure nothing stands in the way of them getting it.
I don’t think the people will acually be given the chance to vote because he will try and lie THIER way throughout and to make us think we’ve got a better deal from the EU and decide to stay in it.
Spot on…any Tory Leader who screwed -up the Landowners Annual EU Tax free cash bribe to Aristo swine, would not be given time to grab his Hat, before been evicted from office.
The eurofederalist traitors will not worry about how low the have to stoop to keep us in the most corruption ridden democratically deficient body in the world just as they did in the 70’s when they spent huge amounts of public money to rig the referendum vote in their favour. We already have the mass media perpetuating the lie about the eussr being the biggest trading bloc in the world and that we have to stay in to trade with it, untrue, and that it is the most important market for us, also untrue. No one with half a brain would consider this body to be worthwhile, unfortunately that is what the politicians base their actions on the amount of brain dead easily lead donkeys, that will have the vote.
Let’s see you back up those claims.
Please show evidence that huge amounts of public money were used in the 1970s, and that this was for the purpose of ensuring that the referendum vote was in favour of joining the then-EEC.
Please show evidence that the EU is not the biggest trading bloc in the world.
Please also show evidence that it is not the most important (by which I take it you mean both lucrative, and also that it is claimed that British trade would be crippled if we left it) market for the UK.