Talk:European Union Referendum Act 2015

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Campaigns, Parties and Government

I have removed a well-constructed good faith edit concerning the intentions of the government regarding cabinet collective responsibility during the referendum. The remit of this particular article is quite narrow – specifically the act of parliament which permits a referendum. As far as I am aware there is nothing in the act concerning cabinet collective responsibility one way or the other. Wikipedia now contains many (perhaps too many) separate articles on "brexit" which have grown up over time containing information about the referendum process itself. I do not think it would be helpful for this article to grow into a clone of the other "brexit" articles, although it should certainly have links to those articles. I have added a "See also" link to the United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union article where the cabinet collective responsibility update has also been added. The text I have removed is as follows:

Despite being in favour of the European Union himself, David Cameron has revoked collective ministerial responsibility and has instead allowed opponents of the EU in the Conservative Party to have a free vote according to their conscience, due to mounting pressure within the party.^[1]^[2]

Polly Tunnel (talk) 13:25, 9 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ "Cameron: MPs will be allowed free vote on EU referendum – video" (Video). The Guardian. Parliament TV. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2016. The PM also indicates Tory MPs will be able to take differing positions once the renegotiation has finished
^ Hughes, Laura; Swinford, Stephen; Dominiczak, Peter (5 January 2016). "EU Referendum: David Cameron forced to let ministers campaign for Brexit after fears of a Cabinet resignation". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 January 2016.

Clarify in what sense the result of the election will be "final".

The results section says "The act makes no provision for the result to be legally binding on the government or on any future government due to the principle of parliamentary sovereignty however the decision which will be made by the electorate is to be final." I'm not sure what this means. If the result of the referendum isn't legally binding, in what sense will it be "final"? VoluntarySlave (talk) 13:00, 9 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

As no clarification has been made, I removed that for now. Happypoems (talk) 07:04, 18 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

…and then the phrase "however the decision which will be made by the electorate is to be final" was re-introduced by unregistered user 86.130.122.13 on 21 June 2016 without explanation. The phrase sounds like a claim that a second referendum will not take place and that the government will obey the result of the first. This seems to me pure speculation. I have removed the phrase (again). Polly Tunnel (talk) 17:19, 26 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

House of Lords

I removed the text saying that Lords could vote since it is uncited. The Electoral Commission FAQ would seem to suggest that it is not so (though that article is about general elections. But I can't find any other reference to Lords being eligible). Reinstate if a citation can be found. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 17:03, 28 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I've re-added the sentence about lords being allowed to vote, on the basis of this page about the EU referendum on the Parliament web site. There's also this page from an organisation called Full Fact, which is more clearly worded, but I'm not sure if its a reliable source.VoluntarySlave (talk) 20:49, 28 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Bill passage through the commons

The opening section is a little misleading I think. The way it's worded it is suggestive that second reading is the final part of passage through the Commons when in reality that happens at 3rd reading. Often MPs will support a bill at 2nd reading because they support it in principle but will then abstain or vote against it at 3rd reading. Which is what happened in this case, the Tories voted for it and other parties mostly abstained. What do you think? I haven't edited it so far. The current wording suggests all party's supported the bill, which isn't the case judging by their votes. The total voting at 3rd reading can be found here.

Not spent

The provisions on campaign financing under the framework of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 are of ongoing relevance in light of the Electoral Commission's findings of campaign overspending by both Leave.EU and Vote Leave. So only the parts relating to the conduct of the election itself are really spent. Hairy Dude (talk) 17:10, 20 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

[1] "Cameron: MPs will be allowed free vote on EU referendum – video" (Video). The Guardian. Parliament TV. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2016. The PM also indicates Tory MPs will be able to take differing positions once the renegotiation has finished

[2] Hughes, Laura; Swinford, Stephen; Dominiczak, Peter (5 January 2016). "EU Referendum: David Cameron forced to let ministers campaign for Brexit after fears of a Cabinet resignation". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 January 2016.

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