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[Politics] Who will be our next Prime Minister?



Cheshire Cat

The most curious thing..
It is effectively a 2 - 1 victory, so a win but not a walk over. She is badly damaged by the number that voted against. Thatcher had a similar problem and gave up (albeit under different rules of engagement).
 














Pevenseagull

Anti-greed coalition
Jul 20, 2003
19,516
'Call me Dave' should still be there, sweating like a pig with a posh sausage dangled in front of it's snout.
 
















GT49er

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2009
46,489
Gloucester
A long, long time ago I redall there was a vote (1975?) to join/remain in the "Common Market" later EU. I was too young to vote in that one, anyone here old enough to remember how they voted? We voted to join, then had another vote regarding leaving over 40 years later - does that set a precedent for yet another vote??

Yes, a precedent is set. We can have another vote in 40 years time. Fair enough.

I voted 'no' back in 1975. It was the dirtiest campaign I can ever remember, with a lot of bullying of people who indicated that they might be thinking of saying no. And of course, there was no information that we would be dragged further and further into a regime without our consent at any time - Single European Act, Maastricht and all the rest. People who voted yes were fed the line that they were just voting to join a nice trade organisation. Booze cruises available -before 1974 that would have been defined as smuggling!
 


drew

Drew
Oct 3, 2006
23,008
Burgess Hill
Yes, a precedent is set. We can have another vote in 40 years time. Fair enough.

I voted 'no' back in 1975. It was the dirtiest campaign I can ever remember, with a lot of bullying of people who indicated that they might be thinking of saying no. And of course, there was no information that we would be dragged further and further into a regime without our consent at any time - Single European Act, Maastricht and all the rest. People who voted yes were fed the line that they were just voting to join a nice trade organisation. Booze cruises available -before 1974 that would have been defined as smuggling!

Technical point, it wasn't a vote to join in 75, it was a vote to remain in.
 




GT49er

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2009
46,489
Gloucester
Technical point, it wasn't a vote to join in 75, it was a vote to remain in.

True; it was still a yes/no vote though, and only a mandate to remain in the Common Market, not all the stuff that's been added on since without our consent. And it was still a dirty campaign. and we, who did not succumb to the tactics and voted 'no' to remaining have had to wait nearly 40 years for a second vote. Another generation or two for the next one seems reasonable.
 


pastafarian

Well-known member
Sep 4, 2011
11,902
Sussex
How did you vote to join as I didn't think there was a referendum for that?

Indeed
There was no single issue referendum to join.it would be impossible to gauge who wanted to join the EEC from an election vote .As we all know people don’t tend to agree with every party policy in a manifesto, it could be people voted for Ted Heath because he promised to clamp down on all inward immigration and make work permits only valid for 12 months and specific to a job and wished to limit new commonwealth immigration by not longer allowing work permits to carry the right of permanent settlement for them or their families .I can see some people going potty over that nowadays. I wonder if people threw the racist card around then with such ease as they do now at people that wanted controlled immigration in 1970.
 


GT49er

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2009
46,489
Gloucester
Ted Heath's election was as good a vote to join, and the referendum in 75 to stay in.

You are obviously ignorant of the contents of the Labour Party's manifesto in 1970, the election year in which your say a vote for Heath was a mandate to join the EEC. I quote from the Labour Party manifesto:
"We have applied for membership of the European Economic Community and negotiations are due to start in a few weeks' time. These will be pressed with determination with the purpose of joining an enlarged community provided that British and essential Commonwealth interests can be safeguarded."

'We' being the Labour Government which was in power at the time when the manifesto was published prior to the 1970 election. So a vote for Heath was not a vote to join the EEC any more than a vote for Labour would have been - there was no choice for the electorate; vote Tory, join the EEC, vote Labour, join the EEC. Immediately after we joined the EEC, we voted out Heath and the Tories.

Wilson then called the 1975 referendum, during which he remained a strictly neutral stance. So your assertion that a vote for Heath was as good as a vote to join is ..... well, just bollocks. Best stick to the facts.
 


Thunder Bolt

Ordinary Supporter
Yes, a precedent is set. We can have another vote in 40 years time. Fair enough.

I voted 'no' back in 1975. It was the dirtiest campaign I can ever remember, with a lot of bullying of people who indicated that they might be thinking of saying no. And of course, there was no information that we would be dragged further and further into a regime without our consent at any time - Single European Act, Maastricht and all the rest. People who voted yes were fed the line that they were just voting to join a nice trade organisation. Booze cruises available -before 1974 that would have been defined as smuggling!

It was clear that it wasn't just a Common Market. There is documentation to show that. Winston Churchill wanted a United States of Europe back in the 50s, to halt the threat of Russia.
 




Thunder Bolt

Ordinary Supporter
You are obviously ignorant of the contents of the Labour Party's manifesto in 1970, the election year in which your say a vote for Heath was a mandate to join the EEC. I quote from the Labour Party manifesto:
"We have applied for membership of the European Economic Community and negotiations are due to start in a few weeks' time. These will be pressed with determination with the purpose of joining an enlarged community provided that British and essential Commonwealth interests can be safeguarded."

'We' being the Labour Government which was in power at the time when the manifesto was published prior to the 1970 election. So a vote for Heath was not a vote to join the EEC any more than a vote for Labour would have been - there was no choice for the electorate; vote Tory, join the EEC, vote Labour, join the EEC. Immediately after we joined the EEC, we voted out Heath and the Tories.

Wilson then called the 1975 referendum, during which he remained a strictly neutral stance. So your assertion that a vote for Heath was as good as a vote to join is ..... well, just bollocks. Best stick to the facts.

Ted Heath was voted out over disputes with the unions.
 


GT49er

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2009
46,489
Gloucester
It was clear that it wasn't just a Common Market. There is documentation to show that. Winston Churchill wanted a United States of Europe back in the 50s, to halt the threat of Russia.

Churchill was dead long before we joined.

Ted Heath was voted out over disputes with the unions.

Yes. But both Labour and the Tories were set to join the EEC, so that was never an election issue, or a means of choice for the electorate on joining. No GE gave the voters a choice, or gave the Government a mandate to join - there was only the referendum after we'd joined.
 



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