You are in:
- Archives » 2007 » September 2007
Village Backs Referendum
The tiny village of East Stoke, which held a parish vote yesterday on whether there should be a referendum on the EU Constitution, has backed a plebsicite on the treaty.
Over a third of the village's population of 300 came out to vote. East Stoke's "Mouse That Roared" story has inspired communities as far afield as West Yorkshire and Cornwall to plan their own parish votes on the treaty.
As we reported yesterday, an obscure byelaw in the 1972 Local Government Act allows parishes to organise votes on local, national and international issues.
Do click back on the above link, and check the comments. There is a particularly interesting post by Michael Macpherson of the Great Britain Citizens Initiative and Referendum on how the Act should be replaced with an extended right for local communities to call referenda if they can muster up enough support.
