Europe referendum - help draft the question

If there was a referendum on Europe, what should the question be? 

As regular readers will know, I've a Bill in Parliament to give the people a direct vote on Britain's membership of the European Union; the European Union Membership (Referendum) Bill.   

The Electoral Commission has contacted me to advise on the precise text of the question to appear on the ballot paper (Under the Political Parties, Election and Referendum Act 2000, they’ll be helping in any future plebiscite, so it's good due dilligence to prepare the ground for an in/out vote and work with them early on).  

So what are the options?  Bear in mind that the vote will be on the Rome Treaty, not just Lisbon.  

"Should the UK remain a member of the European Union?"  Or maybe, "Do you believe that the United Kingdom should become an independent self-governing country, or remain a member state of the European Union?"

Please use the comment thread to let me have your suggestions for the referendum question to appear on the ballot paper. 

If, after decades of leaving it to the politico-diplomatic elite to determine our Europe policy, they've done a great job, they'll have nothing to fear from the people's verdict. If, on the other hand, voters suspect that the passing generation of ministers were about as effective at managing our affairs with Europe as they were at running an expense system for MPs, then the sooner we open it all up to scrutiny, the better.  

Posted on 22 December 2009 by Douglas Carswell

Comments

CI call formy local parish to secede from Europe, Britain, England and the county, you can manage that using your faulty logic right?

Posted on 22 December 2009 12:28 by Thomas Byrne

Are we in or out of the EU ? Our membership has to be adressed 1 day

Posted on 22 December 2009 12:31 by Sam Hargreaves

Bearing in mind the state of our education system, use the KIS principle.. keep it simple, words of 2 syllables and no ambiguity! Your first offering seems to fit the bill nicely

Posted on 22 December 2009 13:53 by martha

While I agree with the sentiment of your second example, I think that any phrasing that could be construed as being intended to lead the public could result in a ready-made excuse for the pro-integrationists to reject the validity of the referendum. I suggest:

- Should the UK secede from the European Union?

or

- Should the UK recalibrate its relationship with the EU to ensure a mutually beneficial freedom to trade, without any additional political obligations?

Posted on 22 December 2009 14:09 by Will S

I wish to live in an independent self-governing country with no need for MEP's. Douglas your the expert I'll leave the wording upto you.

Posted on 22 December 2009 14:39 by Simon Kerr

The government should commence negotiations for a withdrawal from EU membership to be completed within three years. Agree / disagree.

Posted on 22 December 2009 14:49 by Julian

Here's a suggestion for a completely neutral question:

Do you wish the UK to remain a member of the money-hoovering, totalitarian, undemocratic, swindling, anti-historical, corrupt, anti-third-world, protectionist gang known as the EU, which has so far destroyed our fishing industry, marginalised our parliament, corrupted our courts, bribing us with (some of) our own money;

OR: Do you wish to recover our ancient freedoms, with a democratically elected parliament, having the right to trade freely with any country in the world (including the EU, which needs us far more than we need it), restoring our sovereign waters, making our own laws, and having our own weights and measures, and our own legal system, answerable to nobody else?

There: I hope that question puts the case with a reasonable degree of unbiased fairness. It may need some slight editing, but something like that should do it.

May we also have a guarantee, should it ever come to a vote, that the government of the day will not so arrange matters that there are three campaings: a Yes camapaign, a No campaign, and a government Yes campaign? That's what happened last time.

Keep on fighting, Mr Carswell.

Posted on 22 December 2009 15:38 by Shakassoc

I'd steer clear of the "should the UK remain" formula or anything similar because it's human nature to lean towards Yes rather than No. I like the "Do you believe that" formula but it's vulnerable as framed to the charge of being a leading question. Perhaps "withdraw from the EU or remain a member state" is a good balance to strike.

Posted on 22 December 2009 15:46 by David Cooper

Why only three comments? This is the most important question to be asked on ANY blog.
"Do you agree that Great Britain should be forthwith freed from all provisions of both the Treaty of Rome and the Treaty of Lisbon?"

Posted on 22 December 2009 15:57 by Mike Stallard

Should Britain remain a member of the EU.

Yes

No X

Posted on 22 December 2009 16:21 by Johnny Norfolk

I would probably struggle with the exact wording. I think we should be honest what staying in the EU actually means, ie. if we stay in then we are commited to furtehr integration:

1. To continue in the EU and commit the UK to ever further union towards a Federal States of Europe.

2. To maintain the UK as a sovereign nation and allow the government only to negotiate terms and extent of our cooperation with Our European neighbours.

That seems quite reasonable to me.

Rob.

Posted on 22 December 2009 16:52 by Rob Havard

How about:

Should we take back powers from the EU fascist superstate and hand them back to the good people of the UK?

Or something else just as impartial.

Posted on 22 December 2009 17:32 by chefdave

Can I suggest that the options be framed in a few words as possible? I you were to start using terms like 'Independant Self Governing' etc, I would'nt put it past the pro' lobby to try to pretent that thats what we already have. It has to be a question of being simply in or out of the EU.

Posted on 22 December 2009 17:49 by Spent Copper

What type of relations should be maintained between the UK and EU

1. Continue as an EU member and integrate further.

2. Join the EFTA and be subject to large areas of EU Law.

3. Leave the EU and manage our relationship with the EU through several trade agreements and assert that these agreements may be subject to changes by our national parliament as it is our sovereign law making body.

Posted on 22 December 2009 18:08 by Matthew Riley

As the majority of Britain's laws (75%)are now and will continue to be in future made by the EU and so cannot be directly changed by the British Parliament, do you want Britain to end this arrangement by leaving the European Union and replacing EU membership with a simple free trade agreement and co-operation?

Posted on 22 December 2009 19:00 by Yorkshireman

Do you wish to end political union with other European countries, by replacing our membership of the European Union with a free trade agreement.

Posted on 22 December 2009 19:25 by David Hannah

EU: in or out?

(doesn't have to be yes/no - I think this deals with David Cooper's objection)

(or 'EU: out or in?' if you like)

Posted on 22 December 2009 19:28 by George Wells

On all deep philosophical matters I always defer to those wonderous philosophers of punk...The Clash

Should we stay or should we go now?

As Mick Jones would have said about this Douglas

Always tease tease tease

Posted on 22 December 2009 20:25 by libertarian

In 2009 The Lisbon Treaty was passed. This made the EU into a State with power to rule Britain.

Do you wish 1. the UK to stay a Member of the EU?

Or do you wish 2. Britain to remain an independent country and leave the EU?

You must vote either 1 or 2.

Posted on 22 December 2009 20:25 by Tapestry

Do you agree that Tory Edward Heath told the truth when he told the British Parliament joining the EEC "There will be no loss of essential soveriegnty". If so should we stay in the EU or leave the EU and join the trading bloc known as EFTA.

Posted on 22 December 2009 20:31 by APL

Simply stated 'Should the UK remain a member of the European Union' Yes or No. But prior to this ,a Tory manifesto pledge to hold this referendum with no ifs or buts would avoid a hung parliament.

Posted on 22 December 2009 20:37 by Peter Mulliner

Keep the campaign positive. Withdrawal needs to be the YES option:-

Should the United Kingdom withdraw from the European Union and regain its independence?

Yes X

No

Posted on 22 December 2009 20:45 by jaybee

1. Continue as we are doing, stay in the EU and accept that most power now resides outside of this country and always will.

2. Leave the EU and regain the power to throw out of office at election time, if we so wish , the people who make most of the laws which govern our life.

A bit long I know ,but most people just don't KNOW that their votes count for so little now, and if that simple fact is in the question it can't be ignored.

Posted on 22 December 2009 20:49 by Joe Moran

Applying the KISS principle and as a first step in what will definitely be a very long drawn out campaign/argument;

"Are you satisfied with the United Kingdom's current relationship with the European Union"

YES or NO?

Start with a simple question on people's point of view and then refine the debate further IF and only IF a NO result is returned.

Fair?

Posted on 22 December 2009 21:06 by Stephen Britt

Would you prefer the UK to
1 Continue towards political integration with our EU neighbours including France and Germany
2 Leave the EU and allow our Westminster Parliament to agree favourable trade arrangements with our EU neighbours

Posted on 22 December 2009 21:41 by Jim

The simplest question is best: "Should the UK stay in the EU?"

You are presumably not restricted to one question, so you could also ask: "Should the president of the European Council continue to be elected by the heads of the government of the member states, or in a direct democratic election by the European people?"

Posted on 22 December 2009 23:25 by Philip Hunt

Should the United Kingdom be in the European Union?


It refers not to the 'staying put' nor the 'entering' but merely asks the question we should have had at the time.

My reasoning behind it is based on us signing up to being in the EEC, a fact. Said organisation no longer exists.

Posted on 23 December 2009 00:52 by Simon

"Do you think the UK should re-negotiate its membership of the EU?"

This might attract an even larger majority to say YES, and it leaves unsaid the natural consequence of withdrawal should we be unable to obtain our terms.

Posted on 23 December 2009 03:42 by Duyfken

Douglas
Your second question makes the stark choice clear enough for all to see.

Posted on 23 December 2009 06:29 by mitchell robertson

It was my impression that Lisbon superseded Rome, being a non-constitution.

Posted on 23 December 2009 09:53 by BrianSJ

Should the UK leave the EU either:

Today, or
Tomorrow

Posted on 23 December 2009 15:34 by Robert Eve

Can you include the question:
Should the UK only agree to abide by the Human Rights Laws that are not detrimental to this country?

Should the Human Rights of law abiding residents of the UK take precedence over the Human Rights of criminals?

Posted on 23 December 2009 16:16 by Batty

The question must be made as simple as possible.The Referendum in 1975 posed the question,'Do you agree with the Governments Renegotiated terms',of course the answer was Yes.The question needs to be something like;Do you wish to leave the European Union,which can only lead to a Yes or No.

Posted on 23 December 2009 17:30 by Dennis Boater

Matthew Riley's suggestion looks the best to me so far. Here's my take:

Concerning the relations of the UK to the European Union, do you wish for:

1. Political union
Continuation of the existing arrangement and further integration with other EU member states.

2. Economic cooperation
Negotiated withdrawal from the EU and a focus on economic cooperation with the EU and/or its member states.

Posted on 23 December 2009 17:54 by niceorc

Are you in favour of immediately stopping all payments to the EU until they produce and maintain fully audited accounts?

This is an additional question to the in or out.

Posted on 24 December 2009 11:15 by NickW

Why one question?

There is a free market.

There is political union.

There is opting out of the free market.

There is opting out of the European human rights acts. On this, it won't make a difference. No one has told me which article should be revoked. They can only point to court decisions they don't like.

Nick

Posted on 24 December 2009 13:44 by Nick

I agree with simple - should the UK remain in the EU?. But if "simple" is not allowed then perhaps the legalistic

"Should the UK continue to abide by the terms of the treaty of Romeas modiefied by the treaties of Maastricht, Nice and Lisbon?"

(was there another one before Maastricht?)

Posted on 25 December 2009 19:38 by Francis

Well, the second question's no good, as you can't answer yes or no to it.

Logically, one should associate taking action with Yes, while No should imply the status quo.

Therefore the core of question should be.

"Should the UK leave the EU ?".

Whether you want to add subsequent action or hyperbole at the end is up to you, but remember that whatever you put after an "and", people who agree with the first half might be put off by the second.

Personally, I'm a KISS man and would leave it there - the nuances will come out naturally in the debate.

Posted on 26 December 2009 11:07 by InfolholicUK

I prefer your second question. It presents withdrawal from the EU as a constructive action and requires the answer Yes.

You could perhaps shorten it to: "Should the United Kingdom become an independent......"

Posted on 26 December 2009 11:11 by Chris Rose

"Do you want the ability to dismiss at the ballot box those who govern you?"

Posted on 27 December 2009 11:49 by Steve Baker

"Should your UK government repeal the 1972 European Communities Act, all subsequent EU treaties, acts of parliament and statutory instrument related to EU directives, and renegotiate ourselves as a trading partner with the EU?"

Posted on 29 December 2009 11:53 by http://jerubbaalsvent.blogspot.com/

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