Richard North,
13/06/2012
The Times Populus poll said fifty percent of those polled wanted an "immediate" referendum on our membership of the EU, with an "overwhelming majority" of British people generally in favour a referendum. But, of course, Mr Cameron and his merry persons know better than us mere grovelling plebs.
Despite saying so, we don't actually want a referendum – dear me, no. What we actually want is young David to wade in and sort the mess out, thence following him into the sunlit uplands, no doubt.
If this jaw-dropping statement is an example of Cameron's PR skills, then it is perhaps not surprising that the Conservatives are doing so badly in the polls, even losing their natural constituency in the Daily Wail. There, Andrew Alexander holds forth about the "Fourth Reich", representing a populist view with which the coalition administration is totally out of touch.
There is a point to be made about the timing of a referendum – which sensibly could be linked to any declared intent of the "colleagues" to pursue a eurozone treaty, but it does not look as if that case is being made with any clarity.
To expect the crisis, which has already run two years or more, to be resolved as a pre-condition for a referendum, when we might be looking at many years more, is not exactly the most brilliant of strategies.
However, it may be that sense prevails in that "senior Tories", we are told, are discussing a harder line, with the preposterous Osborne last week suggesting that any "reshaped" relationship with the EU may have to be put to the British people.
If they turn "may" into "will", and make it an in/out referendum, then there is some possibility of the Tories recovering lost ground. But if their current spokesman is any guide, they seem determined not only to lose more ground but to make it irrecoverable.
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