EU Membership (Referendum) Bill Take 2

Following on from Douglas Carswell's unsuccessful attempts in the last parliament, Tory MP Peter Bone has introduced a Private Member's bill on Britain's membership of the European Union; it had its first reading on Monday:

Mr Peter Bone, supported by Mr Philip Hollobone, Mr Christopher Chope, Mr Douglas Carswell, Mr Nigel Dodds, Mark Reckless, Philip Davies and Mr David Nuttall, presented a Bill to require the holding of a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union; and for connected purposes.

The second reading is not until March next year. It looks like Douglas Carswell et al were busy chaps on that day:

United Kingdom (Parliamentary Sovereignty) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Mr Christopher Chope, supported by Mr Peter Bone, Mr William Cash, Philip Davies, Mr Douglas Carswell, Mark Pritchard, Mr Philip Hollobone, Mr Brian Binley, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mr David Nuttall and Mr John Whittingdale, presented a Bill to reaffirm the sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 18 March , and to be printed (Bill 26 ).

Why's this a Private Member's Bill? I thought parliamentary sovereignty was something that Cameron promised before the election. Oh I forgot, yet another Cameron broken promise.

Referendums Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Mr Christopher Chope, supported by Mr Peter Bone, Philip Davies, Mr Mark Field, Mr Philip Hollobone, Mr Douglas Carswell, Mr David Nuttall and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, presented a Bill to provide for minimum turn-out thresholds for referendums; to impose restrictions on holding elections and referendums on the same day; to facilitate combined referendums on different issues; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 18 March, and to be printed (Bill 30 ).

European Union (Audit of Benefits and Costs of UK Membership) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Mr Philip Hollobone presented a Bill to require the Secretary of State to commission an independent audit of the economic costs and benefits of the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 10 June, and to be printed (Bill 35 ) .

European Communities Act 1972 (Repeal) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Mr Philip Hollobone presented a Bill to repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and related legislation; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time ; to be read a Second time on Friday 1 April, and to be printed (Bill 42 ) .

Rights Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Mr Philip Hollobone presented a Bill to set out certain principles in a United Kingdom Bill of Rights; to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 13 May, and to be printed (Bill 43 ) .

All of these are unlikely to be successful, Private Member's Bills rarely are. The are susceptible to being talked out which is precisely what happened last time.

EU Membership (Referendum) Bill Update

The second reading of Carswell's bill failed to happen on Friday and no new date has been named. As a consequence it has now been dropped and will make no further progress.

EU Membership (Referendum) Bill 2nd Reading

The 2nd reading of Douglas Carswell's bill on the UK's membership of the EU is today. Lets hope it is given enough time.

The Second Reading...

...of Douglas Carswell's private member's bill is happening right now. It appears to be subjected to fillibusting by Tory whip Brooks Newmark, who spoke for an hour before on Sustainable Communities as not to give enough time to the referendum bill.

Douglas' twitters:

My EU Membership (Referendum) Bill. Seems it's been deliberately "talked out"?

Same old Tories, Europhiles to the end.

Update: Kerry McCarthy twitters:

Think Carswell just had go at Newmark outside. Newmark retorted "I cut it in half!" Carswell not happy, won't get to his Bill.

In Or Out

Douglas Carswell's private member's bill is published today, second reading 26th Feb.

Video Recordings Act

Previously I've written about the farce that is the 1984 Video Recordings Act which is no longer enforceable in UK courts because of a technical loophole.

Currently going through Parliament is the Video Recordings Bill which is designed to correct this anomaly, and 'thankfully' this time our real government in Brussels was notified on 10th September 2009, so when it does become an Act it will be enforceable.

Yesterday my MP Ed Vaizey took part in this debate with Sion Simon and made a couple of interesting points (my emphasis):

it may be worth noting that the legislation was not notified in draft because it was a private Member's Bill, not a Government Bill. Will the Minister elaborate on how the error was discovered in 2009 and, to return to the point, on when the Cabinet Office intends to conclude its audit of all Acts passed since 1984 in terms of their compliance with the technical standards directive [Directive 83/189 (now Directive 98/34)]?

It'll be interesting to see when this audit concludes what other acts are unenforceable because of the EU. The exchange continues:

Ed Vaizey: As I understand it, an Act passed by a sovereign Parliament is not an Act unless it has been approved by Brussels.

Siôn Simon: I want to reassure the hon. Gentleman that the Act remains an Act: an Act of this Parliament is an Act of Parliament when it is an Act of Parliament. All that is in question is the enforceability of the Act, which remains on the statute book.

That's almost a; 'move along nothing to see here' response, not much point having Acts of Parliament if they're unenforceable, as Vaizey argues:

Ed Vaizey: We are in danger of descending into sophistry. It is an Act of Parliament, but it is a toothless one unless it is referred to Brussels. That is the situation that we are in.

Indeed it is...

If not Lisbon, then Rome

Douglas Carswell, Tory MP will introduce a Private Member's bill today on Britain's membership of the European Union; it's listed 14 on today's Order Paper as the European Union Membership (Referendum) Bill.

I wish him luck, although unfortunately it's unlikely to amount to much, as Carswell acknowledges himself:

Naturally, given how government controls Parliament (as opposed to the other way around), my Private Members Bill faces an uphill struggle to become law. But it puts down a marker.

I notice also on the same Order Paper at 10:

LISBON TREATY (REFERENDUM)
[No debate]
Mr Nigel Dodds
Bill to require the holding of a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon and to require the repeal of the European Union (Amendment) Act 2008 if the decision to ratify is not approved in the referendum; and for connected purposes.

Update: Both Private Member's bills 10 & 14 were introduced with a degree of dismissive hilarity within the Commons; Carswell's second reading is confirmed as 26th Feb.