When referendums are essential
The people are sovereign. UK democracy has evolved to embrace this basic precept, with a long gestation through Magna Carta, the 1660 settlement, the Glorious Revolution and universal suffrage legislation. Through direct political action of motivated groups, civil war, and Parliamentary led reform we arrived in the last century as a sovereign nation with ultimate power in the hands of the people. Government proceeds and is only possible with the consent of most of the people to how we are governed. Government needs the obedience of most people to the rule of law as laid down in Acts of Parliament and by our independent judges. Governments can undermine the law by wrongful deeds and by enacting widely unpopular laws. It is important governments can be removed peacefully.
In recent centuries the people have delegated their sovereign governing powers to Parliaments. Each Parliament is time limited, and its members know that if their laws and taxes displease enough people they will be swept from office at the next election. An incoming government will have a mandate to change any law and tax it has inherited that displeases.
Although there is no binding Act of Parliament to say so, most of us think that if Parliament wants to give away its powers to govern and to manage parts of the government to a superior power for a period longer than a UK Parliament, there should be a referendum. The people give power to Parliament for a limited time in the expectation that the power will be well used. Giving power away for long periods particularly to foreign jurisdictions with no ability to ensure good use ruptures the constitutional settlement.
Most of us think it was therefore right to offer the public a vote on the original entry into the European Community, which should have been called before entry. All agree it was crucial to have a popular vote to decide to leave. The principle of regular government accountability through elections was damaged by membership of the EU. The European Parliament could not be changed by the UK alone and did not offer much control of the Commission executive. The UK’s wishes were often ignored, negotiated away or voted down in a qualified majority vote in a meeting of EU Ministers without press and public present.
Some pro EU influencers sought to impose and enforce superior law and superior tax raising powers by getting more determined in Brussels and made legal through our adherence to an international Treaty. We the people could no longer remove laws and taxes we did not like by removing those from office who imposed them. The UK people as a result voted in a referendum to come out of this binding arrangement. They had previously voted retrospectively to stay in when they were told it was just a common market. It turned out to be much more.
We should embed the constitutional doctrine that any government wish to join or leave an international body that takes sovereign powers away from us must require a referendum. This need not apply to other international bodies which have no ability to override our Parliament. NATO for example is a close and important defence alliance, but it does not have any legal power to make us fight a war or use our forces in a particular way. It is a coalition of the willing deciding things by negotiation and agreement between sovereign countries. Our membership of the UN includes the all important right to veto any Security Council resolution that is against the UK interest.
We should also require a referendum to change the voting system and powers of Parliament. The Coalition government at the request of the Lib Dems put their chosen system of alternative voting to a referendum. There was 68% support for keeping the present single member constituencies with the winner of an election being the person with the most votes. It would clearly take another referendum to seek to change the system again.
There can be other times when it might help to ask people directly for their views instead of government weighing opinion alongside other considerations when making a decision. Our powerful Parliament can and does the ability to hold referendums on other topics, with voting systems of its choosing and in places where it sees fit. Use has been made of this to settle the future of some grammar schools and to see if people want elected Mayors and new systems of local government. That power does and will continue to reside with Parliament. It is good practice to allow local referendums on the powers and geographies of Councils where a government seeks change.
The UK is a Parliamentary democracy. We should be proud of our traditions. We should recognise the importance of the struggles of some of our ancestors to limit the powers of the Crown, to resist authoritarian government, to give everyone the right to a voice and vote, and to ensure a fair and enforceable rule of law.
Referendums are only essential where a government wishes to make changes in the way we chose our Parliaments and in the powers the Parliament holds on our behalf. The essential ones need to be embedded in our constitutional settlement as they have emerged from the trials and errors of EU membership in recent decades. Other referendums may be desirable and can be helpful to Parliament when splits in the country are recreated as uncertainty in the Commons. They are a good idea when Parliament wishes to make big adjustments to the shape and powers of Councils.