ABSTRACT
The nationwide referendum had never been used in Britain before the occasion, in 1975, to decide the question of British membership of the European Community. Thus, in the post-war period, Greece had voted on the future of its monarchy, and France in 1962 on whether its president should be directly elected. Thus, under the 1850 Public Libraries Act, ratepayers in England and Wales could decide whether free public libraries were to be established. In a sense, the first national referendum in the United Kingdom over membership of the European Community was also dictated by party politics. The referendum reflected the political difficulties the Labour Government had faced getting its Scotland and Wales legislation onto the statute book. With the advent of the Coalition Government in May 2010, the voters of the UK were to be promised the first nationwide referendum of an issue of major political significance since 1975.
