The Daily Echo 24 January 2008

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Wed 23rd Jan 2008

At the beginning of the week there was a debate on the Second Reading of the European Union (Amendment) Bill. Some will tell you that this gives Parliament plenty of time to debate the Lisbon Treaty whilst others will tell you that this is a cynical attempt by the Government to avoid having a referendum. The Speaker did not call the amendment which would have given us an opportunity to vote on a referendum. Some were angry at this decision but on reflection it is probably better to debate more of the arguments before voting on this. This means that the vote on Monday was about whether to allow the Bill to proceed. As I believe it is important that Parliament devotes time to this issue I voted in favour of the Bill proceeding.

I shall be following the proceedings very closely but there is a problem whenever any discussion takes place about Europe because most of the available information is written by people with fairly entrenched views on the subject and it is sometimes difficult to establish the reality. I say this as someone who represents a party which is generally in favour of the European Union. This does not mean blind and unthinking devotion as we are very aware that it is an institution that has its faults.

The political heat appears to be around how similar the Lisbon treaty is to the recent Constitution - which slowly died a death as some EU countries voted against it. This is important because, at the last election, many MPs (myself included) stood on a platform of promising a referendum on the EU constitution. It may surprise you to know that some of us like to keep our promises.

I have been taken to task by some for not coming out with an early view but I do think it is important to take some time to look into these matters very carefully before committing to a decision and it is problematic when MPs are expected to have an instant decision on everything.

I have to live with my conscience and if, after listening to all of the arguments, I feel that the Lisbon Treaty is not sufficiently different to the previous constitution then I will have to uphold the promise I made to the electorate. What I promise is that this will be my decision and mine alone - whatever the official party lineas promises come before politics

Published with kind permission of The Daily Echo