MEDIA RELEASE
28 January 2008

Embargo: none

MPs VOTE TO CUT TIME FOR
EU TREATY DEBATE IN HALF

Shortly after signing the treaty reviving the EU Constitution in Lisbon back in October, Gordon Brown said that he wanted the document scrutinised in the "fullest possible parliamentary debate".

However, at a vote in Parliament yesterday evening, a majority of MPs have approved a government plan to cut the originally suggested 20-25 days for treaty debate in half, down to just 12 days.

The plan also included strict time limits for daily debates of just a few hours on each section of the treaty.

In letters to their constituents, many MPs have been writing reverentially about Parliamentary scrutiny and representative democracy.

Yet when it came to a vote, many of these same MPs hypocritically voted in support of the government's plan to cut and limit Parliamentary debate.

While it's the case that MPs cannot alter one comma of the treaty as a result of any 'scrutiny' - long or short - this episode once again serves to illustrate the shameless hypocrisy of a majority of MPs; saying one thing in letters to their constituents, but voting a different way in Parliament.

So far, many MPs are guilty of a reprehensible triple attack on democracy resulting from their endorsement of this treaty:

Few can possibly imagine that there won't, ultimately, be an electoral price to pay for this on-going series of broken promises.

How every MP has voted on this timetabling Motion has been recorded next to their names on the Democracy Movement's ReferendumList referendum campaign website - just as has already been recorded for how MPs voted at the Second Reading of the EU Treaty Bill.

This record will stand until the next general election, and will form the basis of future campaigning about the trustworthiness of MPs seeking re-election - particularly for those in marginal seats.

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