Cameron sets June for EU referendum. So what?

Fakes: A fake prime minister makes an announcement about a fake issue. So what? [Image: Getty.]

Many people – including the BBC – will tell you this was a historic announcement. It wasn’t.

Questions around the UK’s membership of the EU are part of a sideshow – a distraction from the hard issues facing the country today. David Cameron knows this and is playing on it for all he’s worth. The last thing he wants is for you to see what he’s really doing.

This Writer was on the doorstep last week, and the EU was one of the topics I asked people about. Most of them have already made up their minds.

The really eye-opening part of it was that very few had any understanding of the real issues.

They knew that Cameron’s ‘renegotiation’ was a silly smokescreen, of interest to nobody other than Tory MPs.

But they didn’t know anything about the benefits EU membership brings direct to them – or, indeed, of its drawbacks.

Perhaps this is why Cameron wanted the June date. He knows people are very busy – either in their working lives or trying to keep ahead of the government as it pursues benefit claimants (many of them to their graves); they don’t have time to research the real issues around a minority-interest vote.

Also, he wants to rid UKIP of its reason for existing as soon as possible and regain some Tory voters.

Britain will vote on whether to remain in the EU on Thursday 23 June, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.

The prime minister made his historic announcement in Downing Street after briefing the cabinet.

He said he would be campaigning to remain in a reformed EU – and described the vote as one of the biggest decisions “in our lifetimes”.

Ministers immediately divided up into the leave and remain camps as the campaigns got under way in earnest.

Source: EU referendum: Cameron sets June date for UK vote – BBC News

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25 thoughts on “Cameron sets June for EU referendum. So what?

  1. Neilth

    You’re quite right Mike a few people bring up Europe when I’m out canvassing though when they do it’s usually in reference to immigration. When pressed to explain its ‘them coming here taking our jobs and only wanting our benefits and swamping our schools/health services ” etc.
    They seem unable to see a difference between economic migrants, refugees, migrant workers, asylum seekers etc they’re all either “black” or “East European”.
    They don’t believe you if try to explain the net benefits of migration, it’s irrelevant that hundreds of thousands of British citizens are living and working or retired in Europe.
    They talk about a lack of ‘room’ as though we all live in our own square yard etc.They don’t believe that immigration creates more jobs etc.
    CaMoron has set a date for the referendum so that it effectively hijacks the devolved government elections and will distract from the far more current threats to Wales posed by a potential Tory UKIP coalition due to our ridiculous party list second vote system. We could potentially end up with Andrew Rich Tosser Davies as first minister despite him not receiving a single vote in his own name, he’s too cowardly to face the electorate in his own name but instead puts up a moronic whipping boy in the shape of Ross England knowing he’s bound to lose to ensure that Davies gets back in.
    None of the list candidates have majority support but we are all likely to find that we are paying the wages of UKIP AMs in May. This is a corrupt, fundamentally Undemocratic system that needs immediate reform to represent the true wishes of the electorate. How about an “under no circumstances” column so we can block the racists etc? (I’m joking of course in case anyone missed that).

    1. Tony Dean

      Britain can only in the long term sustainably support a population of 22 million. Britain is not only full up, it is over full.
      At some time in the not too distant future a British government is going to have to address that problem before nature does it the hard way.

    2. Tony Dean

      Mike there is a lot of research and information to back up the population carrying capacity of Britain being in the long term only 22 million. (Ask David Attenborough and James Lovelock)
      But is would be too lengthy a process to post here and based on past experience people are in complete denial.
      But one fact is that London on its own now consumes the equivalent of ALL British agricultural production. Even that level of UK production is NOT sustainable in the long term.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dzi3GyU5zY

  2. Hairyloon

    If we have got the people coming out for a referendum on this, can we hold votes on some other matters at the same time?
    Take for example the matter of the NHS, voting reform, or a general vote of confidence in the government…

    1. Mike Sivier Post author

      I don’t think a huge proportion of the population will come out to vote on Europe. Maybe 30 or 40 per cent.
      If we were all members of a trade union having a vote, then under Conservative-imposed rules it wouldn’t be valid.
      So I don’t think voting on these other things would be particularly productive either – other than as a way of getting people to come out.

  3. Gary Aronsson

    The European Union is the political equivalent of a gangrenous limb,we need to amputate the bloody thing before its poison spreads elsewhere and kills us.It can’t possibly be saved and trying only allows the poison to spread and do yet more damage.Chop the damn thing off and bury it deep.

    The British Government has no right to abrogate its duties to a foreign government that views the British people as some kind of Cash Machine and Britain as some kind of hostel for their unemployed,and often unemployable.

    1. Mike Sivier Post author

      What about all the benefits we get from being in the EU – things that the Conservative Government want to end? Like holiday pay, maternity and paternity leave, health and safety at work… it’s a very long list. What about them?

      1. Roger Solomon

        The EU did not provide these benefits, they already existed under British law, stop scaremongering traitor.

      2. Mike Sivier Post author

        Right, that’s enough of you.
        If you can’t discuss a topic here in a civilised way, you’ll be banned from discussing it here at all.
        Enjoy reading the site because it’s all you’ll be able to do from now on.

    2. Daniel

      The British Government has not abrogated it’s duties to a foreign government, in spite of popular opinion, any law proposed by the EU parliament must be ratified by the domestic government before it’s put on the stature books, meaning the domestic parliaments in each EU member state can refuse to implement any EU “law” in it’s domestic market. The only laws that don’t apply to this are ones involving trade and relations between all member states, such as tariffs and such. Additionally, of all the laws passed by the UK parliament (including ratification of EU rulings), less than 20% come from Europe (not 97%, as UKIP would have you believe).

      The worry I have about the referendum being called so close is that it makes it very difficult for the Pro EU campaign to counter the lies and propaganda pushed by the Eurosceptic parties and the right wing media, meaning most will continue to believe the falsehoods you just repeated (not necessarily your fault – that’s what the tabloids want you to believe) rather than being able to make an informed decision for themselves.

      For the record, I’m currently undecided. The EU has been a force for good in the past, but the way they are behaving recently (regarding Greece, protecting and advancing the interests of the financial services to the detriment of the majority of it’s citizens and the drive to implement the corporate land-grab that is TTIP) troubles me.

  4. John

    “They knew that Cameron’s ‘renegotiation’ was a silly smokescreen, of interest to nobody other than Tory MPs.” – So, Mike, what Cameron is doing then is pretty much wasting his breath then ? In other words, they can see through him? I hope that applies up and down the country!

  5. diet650

    I is truly amazing that Gary can feel so strongly against the EU. Neilth has it right. We do now live in a multicultural society. Together with this we must learn to live, and dare I say, share with those worse off that ourselves. Refugees need support,

    1. solly

      We were never asked if we wanted a multi-racial society and the majority certainly do not want one. We might want to live together and integrate but Muslims certainly do not want this. How many immigrants does traitor diet650 have in his home if he feels they need support or is he like Mrs Balls and full of it?

      1. Mike Sivier Post author

        Are you a Muslim, then, since you seem determined to speak for them?
        The British Isles have been multi-racial, at least since Biblical times. The Romans were from what is now Italy, you know. The Angles, Saxons and Vikings – all foreign. The Normans were relatives of the Vikings who had settled in France. Ever since England became a seafaring power, we’ve had Africans and Asians living here. It is extremely unlikely that anybody living on these islands now is a pure-bred descendant of the first people ever to do so. We are all immigrants. We were born into a multi-racial society and form part of that multi-racialism ourselves.
        I should also remind you that This Blog does not permit attacks on commenters. You discuss the issues, not the other people on this site.

      2. Neilth

        Multi racialism has always been a feature of these islands going back to prehistory but in more modern times many of our major cities particularly our ports eg Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and of course London have been well integrated, multiracial communities. There is no need to ‘ask’ anyone as this is just the way things have developed over the centuries. You’ll notice from the inclusion of Bristol and Liverpool in this list that there is also a historical link to the slave trade so if we’re talking about who asked whom I guess we should reflect on that a moment.

      3. wildswimmerpete

        @Mike.
        If I’m not mistaken, the very first inhabitants of what became the British Isles were the pre-Celts who crossed the dry basin that became the North Sea as the glaciers retreated at the end of the last Ice Age, when sea levels rose.

  6. Kosko Kos

    So what? Corbyn is finished. Cameron’s popularity will increase. The Labour Party will shrink and extinct. Why you don’t see that the British public doesn’t buy your old fashioned left-wing cults? Corbyn expresses only a tiny minority of far-left supporters. He will never get anywhere. Cameron’s popularity will soar after that. He already leads the polls and the LP is 11% below. But ignore the statistics. Labour will win because its supporters say so.

    1. wildswimmerpete

      Kosko Kos seems to be either a Tory or one of those easily led by the Tory-controlled press, and should try reading something other than The Stun, Daily Heil or Excess. Could I suggest the Mirror, or look at Russia Today?

  7. mohandeer

    “Also, he wants to rid UKIP of its reason for existing as soon as possible and regain some Tory voters.” Mike. He might be very disappointed if he thinks the majority who took up with UKIP are Tory inclined. Most of the ones I met were Labourvoters traditionally and only voted UKIP because Labour wouldn’t give them a referendum (a bit of “up you then”). It has to be said though, that too many of them were screaming I’m not racist but quite obviously were, possibly even unbeknownst to themselves.
    “I’ve got nothing against the immigrants, but they keep taking our jobs”
    “No, the government is giving them our jobs with their austerity poverty imposing policies”
    “well if they don’t get a job they just take our benefits”
    Sheeeeesh! Any excuse will do.

    1. Mike Sivier Post author

      Then the former Labour voters who will be abandoning UKIP will be welcomed back to the fold (as long as they leave any racist opinions at the door).
      Remember, UKIP is a party created to advance the interests of a gang of bankers and financiers who are more right-wing than the Conservative Party. Their interests, and those of the people they tricked into supporting them, are very far apart.

  8. CLARE ROBERTS

    Ignore the Tory trolls Mike. If anyone has anything bad to say, do it on another board,
    Mike talks sense,

Comments are closed.