[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Britain to scrap EU referendum
2 June 2005

Britain's referendum on the EU constitution is to be shelved after Dutch voters dealt a devastating blow to the treaty, sources have said.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will announce on Monday that the Bill paving the way for the British vote is to be put on hold indefinitely.

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The referendum - planned for early next year - cannot go ahead without the Bill which was unveiled in the Queen's Speech.

Foreign Office sources said Mr Straw would effectively suspend the referendum indefinitely. He is unlikely to put any timescale on events.

The move comes after the Dutch overwhelmingly rejected the constitution with 62% voting "no" and just 38% "yes".

The result was even more emphatic than Sunday's "no" vote in France. With two of the EU's founding members now rejecting the new rulebook, most observers say any hope of implementing it in the near future has now been killed off.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is now holding a round of crisis talks to try to save the constitution.

Even before the Dutch "no" reinforced the scale of the political disaster now facing the European Union, he warned against "unilateral initiatives" by any government leaders which would pre-judge a summit on June 16 to consider the fall-out and where Europe goes from here.

In Britain, Europe Minister Douglas Alexander acknowledged the constitution was in trouble.

"These two 'no' votes leave the constitutional treaty in serious difficulty," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "Certainly, from a British point of view, we are very clear of the need to respect public opinion and respect the results we have seen this week."

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[Mike Darancette]

Senior Whitehall sources said the Foreign Secretary will announce on Monday that the Bill paving the way for Britain's vote is to be put on hold.

How Democratic of them.

You don't like the way a vote is going to go --- cancel the election.

[Congressman Billybob]

This is the proof, if any be needed, that the 500 or so pages of the EU Constitution (counting all its referred and incorporated documents) is a pathetic and failed effort to define a competent government. The idea that this can be salvaged in any way is further failure in the French fashion.

"If a plan failed yesterday, add more money, more bureaucrats, do it again, and THEN it will succeed, n'est pas?" What fools the French are, and all of Europe came close to throwing itself down the same rat hole as the French.

By the way, ratification requires 75% of the nations of Europe PLUS 75% of the population. Mathematically, this Constitution is already dead, without the Brits pounding another nail in the coffin.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "60 Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong"

[js1138]

Perhaps they might vote yes on a constitution that outlines individual rights rather than one that infinitely increases the power of government.

[anonymoussierra]

thank you

[bert]

......Britain is unwilling to be the first country to declare the treaty dead.......

But it has to be said..... This will be the Straw that broke the camel's back.

[Traitain]

RIP, you won't be particularly missed. The irony is, the British aren't responsible for any of this. The French are! ^_^ Would have loved it to have been us to bury this corrupt European Union but I think this way has a more romantic justice about it.