Sir, – In light of the Supreme Court decision (Home News, November 9th) which found that the Government has used public money on the children’s referendum campaign in a manner that was not fair, equal or impartial, it has become increasingly obvious that we need to amend the role and function of the Referendum Commission.
Prior to 2001, the Referendum Commission functions included the preparation of an impartial statement setting out the arguments for and against a proposed amendment and the promotion of fair debate and discussion of the proposals. In 2001 we changed the function of the commission to promoting awareness of the referendum, encouraging people to vote, and preparing a statement “containing a general explanation of the subject matter of the proposal . . . and any other information relating to those matters that the commission considers appropriate”. It was no longer permitted to comment on arguments made by either side .
If we continue to have a referendum every one or two years (as seems likely) we need to be able to go to one place for independent explanation and analysis of the pros and cons. The Referendum Commission would seem the obvious place to go. We urgently need to revert the role of the Commission back to its original scope. I just hope we don’t need a referendum to do so. – Yours, etc,