Conservativehome is this morning running a very good piece about the ridiculous call by Ming for a referendum - not on the constitution over which Brown is betraying us all, but over an in/out question. They refer to what Matthew D’Ancona is saying about this on the Spectator Blog, the best bit of which I have pasted below. I would find it difficult to believe that some in the Lib Dems really think this a clever strategy and I would not be surprised if before long we started to hear from them!
Sir Menzies Campbell’s call for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU is a desperate bid to preserve party unity on the eve of what may be his last conference as Lib Dem leader… The trouble is that the question Ming wants to pose - In or Out - is a complete irrelevance (except for Ukip voters). The controversy over the re-heated EU Constitution, now stripped of grandiose language but substantially the same as it was in 2004, has nothing whatsoever to do with membership of Europe. It is about trust and Labour’s unambiguous pledge in its 2005 manifesto to hold a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty (or Reform Treaty as it is now relabelled after the deal struck this year). Either the Government honours that pledge or it does not… Sir Ming has merely confused a very simple issue of principle, as only Lib Dems can. Pitiful stuff from a third-rate party leader already in the departure lounge.
As Matthew points out the issue of a referendum the treaty is not just an issue about Europe, but also one about trust. Can you trust a Government that promised one at the last election and then refuses it? As it happens I believe a wider referendum is way overdue but this is not the time for it. Now is the time to nail the duplicity of this Government before they surrender more of our powers to Brussels.
ConservativeHome’s ToryDiary: Ming’s “pitiful” call for in-out EU vote
