BBC NEWS | Politics | Senior Lib Dems quit over EU vote
The Lisbon treaty vote was always going to be a tricky moment for the Liberal Democrats, because it hinged on point of conscience where two slightly different readings of the facts led to three possible answers. The Conservative line (apart from our old friend Kenneth Clarke), was that the treaty was fundamentally the same as the constitution which they had promised a referendum on. The Labour line was that it was a treaty not a constitution, and deserved no more special treatment than any of the other treaties. Whichever way you look at it, these are rather fine-print readings: is a treaty really the same as a constitution? The Tories made great play before the election of “a country has a constitution, not a club, and I don’t want to be part of a country called Europe” – which was always slightly bizarre, because clubs do have constitutions, whereas at least one country – Britain – does not have a written constitution. They could argue that the content of the treaty was largely the same as that of the constitution, but their exact point, which was that the EU shouldn’t have a constitution, was no longer at issue.
But Labour’s reading was also rather fine (in the sense of a small distinction – not in the sense of a fine day). When it was put to them that they had promised a referendum on this issue, they argued that the content of the treaty was sufficiently different as not to warrant a referendum. But who decides when the content has moved sufficiently? Labour never presented a tipping point at which they would offer a referendum.
Nick Clegg’s solution was to call for a vote on membership of the EU, and to abstain on this particular vote. His argument was that abstention is not a ‘don’t know’, but a positive statement. Yet this, too, is a fine reading: most people do regard an abstention as a ‘don’t know’ or ‘not bothered’. Certainly at election time we urge people to go out and vote. Clegg would argue that he got his troops out to vote, but to vote abstain.
For Tim Farron and Alistair Carmichael, and thirteen other Lib-Dems, this was all too much. As conscience politicians, they felt that they really had promised a referendum, and the substantive issue was not sufficiently different to make a difference. Farron has not argued that he is right and Clegg is wrong – it is not a slap in the face for the party – but has decided that his personal conscience, perhaps supplemented by additional promises he may have made during his election campaign, did not permit him to do anything but vote for a referendum.
This was always going to be a tricky moment for the Lib-Dems, because it simultaneously showed them at their best – men and women of conscience – and at their worst – a party which can be split by a carefully crafted knife-edge which leaves some consciences on one side and some on the other.
For now, the issue is unimportant. The government won its vote, and there will be no referendum, unless the Lords decide that they do have the power to overturn it. But Liberal Democrats need to carefully consider how they should in future face issues which divide them, together.
