Can you ever trust this lot again?

I have always wondered how politicians get away with it. I have always wondered how is it so easy to lie, and not just lie but to do it so brazenly. Imagine this, one of your friends tells you they will help you- say move house, they tell you this whilst speaking to you on camera. You then phone them up to say that you are moving house tomorrow, and could they come and help you because they said they would. They then turn round and say that they can't do it, you say to them that they promised they would help and if they don't help you will have to do it yourself. They then say that they didn't promise to help, and even if they did promise there were conditions attached.

You then play the recording of them promising to help you move and they then say 'I didn't mean that'. Would you trust them again to stick to their promise? Well you might give them another chance, but if they kept breaking promises and kept saying they never said something even though they had officially recorded it, I am sure you would never trust them again.

This is exactly what all three main parties have done in regards to many issues but in particularly in regards to the EU. So this is what the conservatives said, this is quoted directly from the conservative party website:

News story
Join our campaign for an EU referendum
Monday, April 27 2009

Ahead of the European elections on 4th June, David Cameron has launched a campaign to get Gordon Brown to honour his pledge to give the British people a referendum on the EU Treaty.
In their 2005 election manifesto, Labour promised to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution.
David stressed the Lisbon Treaty was a “re-branded” version of that Constitution and attacked Gordon Brown for having “flip-flopped”:

“First he was against the Constitution, then he was for it; one day he promised a referendum, the next he backtracked. While he has chopped and changed, our position has remained exactly the same. We are the only major party to have consistently said that it is up to the British people to decide on our future in Europe.”

David promised that if the Constitution was not in force at the time of the General Election, a Conservative Government would hold a referendum on it, urge a no vote, and reverse Britain’s ratification if successful.
He explained, “I believe that if you make a promise in your manifesto, and the country votes on that manifesto, then you are honour-bound to keep that promise.”
You can join our campaign by signing up to our Facebook page or downloading our 'EU-turn' widget

Well, that looks pretty unequivocal, I don't know about you but that looks very easy to understand. Just look at that last sentence, it doesn't look ambiguous, it is completely straight and down the line. And I suppose if you read that you would actually think they meant what they were saying!

So let us look at what Labour said about holding a referendum:

"We will put it — the EU Constitution — to the British people in a referendum and campaign whole-heartedly for a 'Yes' vote." — Labour Party manifesto, May 2005

"We will have a referendum on the constitution in any event — and that is a Government promise." — Tony Blair, The Sun, May 13, 2005

"Well, if it were necessary to hold a referendum, of course we wouldn't hesitate. I suspect that the best deal for Britain will be won, where we will get what we want, at this summit." — Gordon Brown, GMTV, June 19, 2007

"We would not agree to a deal that crossed the red lines, therefore, we did not believe a referendum would be necessary." — Later that day, Downing Street website

"The manifesto is what we put to the public. We've got to honour that manifesto." — Gordon Brown, BBC 1 Politics Show, June 24, 2007

What do you think about that then? That is also pretty unequivocal. I don't think you could misinterpret that. So what did we get from Gordon Brown when asked to give the British people a vote on the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution? Excuses! The Lisbon Treaty is not the same as the EU Constitution he said.

So is the EU Constitution the same as the Lisbon Treaty? Well Bill Wedderburn – a QC, a Life Peer and a member of the Labour Party since 1946 analysed the thousands of pages in the Lisbon Treaty, the Constitution and the commentaries about them (most of which were unavailable to the UK public before January 2008) and agrees with the vast majority of European politicians that the Lisbon Treaty contains substantially the same provisions as the draft Constitution.

The Labour government said that it was not the Constitution, just another Treaty. But, according to Lord Wedderburn, you can’t change the substance of a document by giving it new titles, a new style and form or by making it – as the Lisbon Treaty is – virtually unintelligible.

So there you have it, the EU Constitution is the same as the Lisbon Treaty! So I suppose if you looked at what Gordon Brown said in 2007 and read their manifesto promise in 2005 you would think that they would follow through on that promise. Remember they are politicians, and as we know they lie for a living. So of course they are not going to follow through on what they say.

Finally our dear friends the liberal democrats. In my previous post I showed you a copy of a campaign leaflet which they published in the run up to the 2010 General Election. Since the smaller writing wasn't very easy to read I will write here some of what was on that leaflet:

"It's time to give the British people a real Referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union" - Nick Clegg

It's been over thirty years since the British people last had a vote on Britain's membership of the European Union. That's why the liberal democrats want a real referendum on Europe. Only a real referendum on Britain's membership of the EU will let the people decide our country's future.

Whether you agree with Europe or not, it is vital that you the British people have a real say in a real EU referendum.

I haven't misrepresented or misquoted the liberals here, there is nothing on that leaflet that is ambiguous.

So what did David Cameron say in regards to having a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? I have written in a previous post the full transcript of what our dear prime minister said in the Sun newspaper. So if you haven't seen it before look at it here http://evanheasley-powertothepeople.blogspot.com/2011/08/david-cameron-and-broken-promises.html

There is nothing ambiguous in what he said. He made it clear he wanted a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. David Cameron then reneged on that promise and used the excuse that there was no point having a referendum once the things was signed. Well that does not wash for two reasons. First, David Cameron and most people with any intelligence new it was going to be signed before the tories got into power, so why promise this in the first place? And second, in 1975 we had a referendum on remaining in the then Common Market, why could we not do that now.

The problem I have with the behaviour of our political leaders and so many of our MPs is their duplicity, their lying and their utter contempt for the British people. It is clear from what I have written above that all three main parties have promised a referendum on our relationship with the EU. I have not misquoted or exaggerated anything they have said and I haven't lied, I have just quoted what they said.

What we have seen here is politicians at their worse, they have used every excuse possible to not follow through on their promise. They have used legalise and other language to excuse their complete cowardice, they have used obfuscation, they have squirmed, they have decided that they do not trust us or care about what we think. They have continually lied and lied and lied. How can anyone trust this lot? How can anyone trust anything they will say again?

In the next election each party will set out their manifesto, they will say what they are going to do. Well let's be honest here, there is no point in them saying anything because once they get into power they will do what they want.

There is something we, the general public can do, and that is to not vote for them, but I cannot see that happening, either labour or the tories will be elected again. And I guess that sums up the electorate, I just cannot believe people could ever trust this lot again after so many broken promises. Like I said above, if someone kept letting you down, if they kept promising to help you and did not, if they said one thing and did the opposite would you ever believe them again? I am sure you wouldn't, so why should we ever trust this lot again?