Trust. A small word, but with massive implications.
There comes a time in every parliament when trust with the electorate completely breaks down. We are well past that point with this Labour government.
Let‘s take the latest example of changing positions. The proposed EU constitution is the latest example of trust breaking down.
For months Tony Blair has been saying that the constitution is unimportant. Nothing to worry about—just a tidying up exercise! Apparently no need to consult the British people on such a trivial matter.
Tidying up? The problem is for Tony Blair we all know better. The new constitution says that EU law will take precedence over UK law—a bit too much tidying up for most of us I suspect!
Then suddenly we are going to have a referendum after all. The British people will decide—so perhaps the matter is not so trivial.
But what sort of referendum would it be? What would happen if the vote was NO?
Well Tony made that clear in Parliament. He said we might do what the Irish did when they had a NO vote, and in case you don‘t know what that was they had more referendums until they got the yes vote they wanted!
Or in the event of a NO vote we might perhaps renegotiate the treaty. That too would lead to another referendum—as the treaty would then be different to the one previously voted on.
But Tony Blair now says that we will not have another referendum. Well that‘s okay then—although at first he did say there would be no referendum at all.
Can he really be surprised that nobody any longer believes a word he says?
First he says this is just a tidying up exercise. He says there will be no referendum. Then he says if the British people vote No that will be an end to the matter. I wonder what he will say next week.
This is good old honest ("I‘m just a regular kind of guy.") Tony Blair. The same Tony Blair who said during the 1997 election campaign: "We have no plans to raise taxes at all."
Since then we have had 66 tax rises. We might ask who we can trust—it certainly is not Tony Blair!