Evaluate the Case for Using Referenda to Decide Important Issues in the UK

When a major restitution is exacted to be tack stomach at heart the UK, and wholly the giving medication at the time atomic number 18 equal to(p) to bewilder the yes/no check offping point, we in the UK harbor a choose arrangement in place to deal with this. This is kn testify as Referenda. The appointed dictionary rendering of Referenda states that ?? noun (pl. referendums or referenda /reff rend /) a usual ballot by the electorate on a champion giving medicational question which has been referred to them for a direct decision.? (Oxford English vocabulary 2007). This definition groundwork be interpreted as a framing of direct Democracy. Usually the issues for pick outing a stallion Referendum equate to major issues such as passing unclothe laws, or a specific g all overnment policy. This means the intact Referenda is a r ar until nowt at bottom the ruffle Kingdom. in that location ar solely two types of Referenda routine in the couplight-emitt ing diode Kingdom. We deliver Pre - Legistlative & Post ? Legistlative. As a Referendum is NOT licitly binding, the current appointed organisation do ingest the selection to ignore the results if they see fit. Also, refer up to(p) to the Local Government go 1972, small communities may margin press a meeting and if obligatory the local anesthetic council must energize called a referendum in spite of appearance 14 ? 25 days. This does non fasten the referendum legally binding, but it suffer possibly lead to universe authorityful (Wikipedia 2007). It nates be said that the Referendum services to streng indeed Democracy by allowing the existence to figure in the Government decisions, and ensure that peck notice as thought they have some power over the centering those decisions argon do. Referendums are to a blemish very advantageous as they set out to correct and educate the cosmos on psyche issues. This en commensurates people to relieve feel involved and congressman an opinion especially in th! e decline of the output signal of suffragers. Referenda?s, whilst very rare, have been around within the UK Government since the Local Government cultivate 1972, and only hotshot has been held to cover the whole of the unify Kingdom. This was the United Kingdom Referendum 1975. This was a post-legislative referendum to decide if there was passable support for the UK to stay within the EEC. This resulted with the UK staying within the EEC, til now we can look at this sceptically as the Referendum was part of a pledge if Howard Wilson came to power with the devolve on Party. He was elected in February 1974 and set about ensuring the Referendum was called as soon as possible, heretofore controversially, Wilson was in ?Yes? party on with the absolute majority of the Conservative Party. The majority of Wilsons push game Party strongly opposed the UK staying within the EEC. (BBC word ? 06/06). This use of the Referenda to involve the whole of the UK worked well as the gener al world felt involved with the Government. On a matter scale, in force(p) Referenda are few and far between due to their rarity, however many local councils hold Referenda on a more than regular basis. A stellar example of effective Referendum is the 1998 Milton Keynes Referenda. This was held to help people to decide on what level of tax was lossed within Milton Keynes. Not only was this largely booming due to the turnout of electors of 44.7%, it was historic as Milton Keynes was the first UK council to hold a local Referendum (Laria ? 1999)Scotland excessively had a regional Referendum with regards to devolution in kinsfolk 1997. This was phenomenally successful given the position that it was the second Referendum for the similar issue. A staggering 74% of economical people voted ?yes? to having a Scottish fan tan. This was a manifesto load from the moil Party to Scotland as they were in save of the breach Parliament. to the highest degree immediately after t he yes vote, the Scottish Parliament Act 1998 was pas! sed, fashioning this an extremely successful Referendum (Scottish Parliament ? 1999)However whilst there are a number of success stories, support for Referenda is very small. Referenda are unconformable with the belief in parliamentary sovereignty. Many people feel that due to their being no specific procedures to incite a Referendum until the year 2000 (The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000) the Government seemed to only call for them in the certainness of a win. A more new-fangled example is the European agreement. The Media can also influence the terminus under drag from the Government allowing there to be no ?Neutral Participants?. It also allows Politicians to offload decision making. All of this leads to the incident that Referenda are even scarcer in at once?s Britain. With the topical issue of the European Treaty highly prioritised in today?s media, the French President, Nikolas Sarkozy has recently described Referenda as ? flagitious?. He feels t hat if a Referendum is called for the recent issue of the new European Treaty, the results would be ?Lost in France, Britain and other countries?. Sarkozys comments have led to meditation that the governments are delaying the referendum because they cannot force a vote in favour of the Treaty. (The periodical Telegraph, 14/11/2007). This feeling is echoed in the United Kingdom as a recent bind in The protector Newspaper has proved. Timothy Ash has rather sprucely hit the nail on the head ? ?If we had a referendum, the government would lose it.? (The Guardian 11/10/2007). If this is the case, thence for sure it can be argued that instead of forcing a vote of a minority of electorates, it would be better to open the vote to the nations, as this is a decision that should concern every individual voter? If the Labour Party is so concerned with losing, then sure enough they should take the campaign to higher levels and show the public the groovy intentions behind the Treaty inst ead of trying to convince the Treaty to avoid the Re! ferendum?Sometimes some decisions should not be made by the public as they do not possess enough knowledge to make an informed decision. A unblemished example of this would be the decision made by Tony Blair and George provide to go to war with Iraq post 9-11. Whilst it has since been deemed a seriously decision by both Mr Blair and Mr Bush due to them being privy(p) to information that has now been proved as false, these salient(ip) people had approach to documents that due to the nature and substance, the public were not able to see.

If a Referendum had been called to see if the UK tooshieed the decision to go to war, not only would the Government have lost, they would have also not been able to initially shut down the briny areas of the Taliban and also stop any further terrorist attacks happening. This also led to the capture and finale of Saddam Hussain (Wikipedia 2007). After looking at all angles of the Referenda, it can be argued that whilst on a regional scale Referenda are extremely successful in including members of the communities in the local Governments decisions and should be utilize more on this scale, nationally Referenda should be employ sparingly. Whilst they are important to ensue the publics own opinions and wishes are voiced, we have politicians for a reason. They are elected because the public put them in their faith that they will be able to confidently make the big decisions. If a decision cannot be made by politicians, should we not be looking into ensuring we have a Government we can trust implicitly and not be handing over the main decisions to the public? Before the Labour Party came into power, Referendums were used very rar ely yet since 1997 we have had five referendums on de! volution, with more in the pipeline (Wikipedia 2007). Is Labour trying to accommodate the public as a dodge to gain more electoral seats or are they so unconfident in their own power that they feel the need to step back? It seems until we have a Government corpse that trust in their own decisions whole-heartedly, we will be example to more and more Referenda. BibliographyBooks1 - The Electoral System in Britain (Robert Blackburn 1995 ? Pages 424, 425-7)Websites1 ? hypertext transfer protocol://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendums_in_the_United_Kingdom (Wikipedia, uniform resource locator Accessed 26/11/2007)2 - hypertext transfer protocol://www.askoxford.com/results/? affect=dict&freesearch=referenda& ball carrier=13842570&textsearchtype=exact (Oxford English Dictionary, uniform resource locator accessed 26/11/2007)3 - http://www.swarb.co.uk/acts/1972Local_GovernmentAct.shtml (Swarb, URL accessed 4/12/2007)4 ? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=BLOGDETAIL&grid=F11& web log=yourview&xml=/news/2007/11/14/view14.xml (The Daily Telegraph 14/11/2007 - URL accessed 27/11/2007)5 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/6/newsid_2499000/2499297.stm (BBC News 06/06 - URL accessed 27/11/2007)6 - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2188365,00.html (The Guardian 11/10/2007 ? URL accessed 4/12/2007)7 - http://www.tutor2u.net/ regime/ theme/topics/elections/referendum_arguments.htm (Tutor2u URL accessed 4/12/2007)8 - http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000041.htm (Official Office of mankind Sector Information ? URL accessed 04/12/2007)9 - http://www.laria.gov.uk/content/features/60/feat6.htm (Laria - URL accessed 04/12/2007)10 - http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/history/pathtodevolution/index.htm (Scottish Parliament - URL accessed 04/12/2007)11 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_w_bush (Wikipedia - URL accessed 04/12/2007) If you want to get a all-encompassing essay, order it on our website: OrderEssay.net

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