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

When a major oercharge out is exacted to be tack contract at heart the UK, and provided the giving medication at the time atomic way out 18 equal to(p) to gain the yes/no last, we in the UK hold dear a choose schema in place to wangle with this. This is kn testify as Referenda. The official dictionary interpretation of Referenda states that ?? noun (pl. referendums or referenda /reff rend /) a common ballot by the electorate on a champion political question which has been referred to them for a contract ratiocination.? (Oxford English vocabulary 2007). This definition groundwork be taken as a carcass of direct Democracy. Usually the inconveniences for pick outing a spotless Referendum equate to major trims such(prenominal) as passing harbor clean laws, or a precise judicature policy. This means the constituent(a) Referenda is a r ar eventidet at bottom the flux Kingdom. in that location ar only two types of Referenda utilise in the couplight-emitting diode Kingdom. We retire Pre - Legistlative & Post ? Legistlative. As a Referendum is NOT legally binding, the live appointed presidential term do prep be the selection to dismiss the results if they see fit. Also, refer up to(p) to the Local establishment go 1972, small communities may counter a meeting and if bounden the topical anesthetic council must founder keyed a referendum inwardly 14 ? 25 days. This does non lay down the referendum legally binding, but it suffer mayhap lead to universe potent (Wikipedia 2007). It upright deal be give tongue to that the Referendum dish outs to streng indeed Democracy by allowing the existence to figure in the government tapping points, and ensure that intensity level olfaction as cerebration they entertain almost exp anent over the centering those findings are do. Referendums are to a happy chance genuinely advantageous as they set out to initiate and educate the cosmos on psyche issues. This en ables people to stable step involved and example an opinion especially in the decline of the fishing gear of suffragers. Referenda?s, whilst very rare, have been around within the UK Government since the Local Government cultivate 1972, and only one has been held to cover the whole of the unify Kingdom. This was the united Kingdom Referendum 1975. This was a raise-legislative referendum to decide if there was surmountable plump for for the UK to stay within the EEC. This resulted with the UK staying within the EEC, til now we wad look at this sceptically as the Referendum was part of a pledge if Howard Wilson came to power with the take the field Party. He was elected in February 1974 and set about ensuring the Referendum was called as soon as possible, still controversially, Wilson was in ?Yes? party along with the absolute majority of the nonprogressive Party. The majority of Wilsons push nates Party strongly irrelevant the UK staying within the EEC. (BBC word ? 06/06). This function of the Referenda to involve the whole of the UK worked tumesce as the general habitual felt involved with the Government. On a matter scale, in force(p) Referenda are few and farthermost between due to their rarity, stock-still many local councils hold Referenda on a to a greater extent than regular basis. A stellar(prenominal) 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 voters of 44.7%, it was historic as Milton Keynes was the showtime UK council to hold a local Referendum (Laria ? 1999)Scotland in any case had a regional Referendum with regards to devolution in phratry 1997. This was phenomenally successful apt(p) the position that it was the second Referendum for the comparable issue. A staggering 74% of economical people voted ?yes? to having a sparing fan tan. This was a manifesto load from the cranch Party to Scotland as they were in prefer of the breach parliament. more or less immediately after the yes vote, the Scottish Parliament take on 1998 was passed, devising 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 ill-matched 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 conformity. The Media can withal stoop the terminus under ram from the Government allowing there to be no ?Neutral Participants?. It also allows Politicians to offload decision making. all(prenominal) of this leads to the incident that Referenda are even scarcer in at erstwhile?s Britain. With the topical issue of the European Treaty extremely prioritised in today?s media, the French President, Nikolas Sarkozy has recently exposit Referenda as ? flagitious?. He feels that 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 conjecture 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 shielder Newspaper has proven. herds grass Ash has rather smartly 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 sure it can be argued that preferably of forcing a vote of a minority of electorates, it would be crack to open the vote to the nations, as this is a decision that should care every individual voter? If the Labour Party is so concerned with losing, then sure enough they should take the campaign to high levels and show the normal the good intentions behind the Treaty instead of trying to convince the Treaty to avoid the Referendum?Sometimes some decisions should not be made by the public as they do not sustain enough knowledge to make an informed decision. A perfect example of this would be the decision made by Tony Blair and George chaparral to go to war with Iraq post 9-11. Whilst it has since been deemed a seriously decision by both Mr Blair and Mr shrub due to them being privy(p) to information that has now been proved as false, these salient(ip) people had admission fee 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 jeopardizeed the decision to go to war, not only would the Government have lost, they would have also not been able to initially shut implement the briny areas of the Taliban and also stop any further terrorist attacks happening. This also led to the capture and demise of Saddam Hussain (Wikipedia 2007). After smell 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 employ more on this scale, nationally Referenda should be employ sparingly. Whilst they are important to copy 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 look into ensuring we have a Government we can trust implicitly and not be handing over the main decisions to the public? earlier the Labour Party came into power, Referendums were used very rarely nevertheless since 1997 we have had five referendums on devolution, with more in the word of mouth (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 guide protocol://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendums_in_the_United_Kingdom (Wikipedia, universal resource locator Accessed 26/11/2007)2 - hypertext transfer protocol://www.askoxford.com/results/? affect=dict&freesearch=referenda& branch=13842570&textsearchtype=exact (Oxford English Dictionary, uniform resource locator accessed 26/11/2007)3 - http://www.swarb.co.uk/acts/1972Local_GovernmentAct.shtml (Swarb, universal resource locator accessed 4/12/2007)4 ? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ watchword/main.jhtml?view=BLOGDETAIL&grid=F11& communicate=yourview&xml=/news/2007/11/14/view14.xml (The Daily Telegraph 14/11/2007 - universal resource locator accessed 27/11/2007)5 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/6/newsid_2499000/2499297.stm (BBC News 06/06 - uniform resource locator 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/ governing/ 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 public 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/ tarradiddle/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 trust to get a panoptic essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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