EU Referendum?

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): If like me you are in favour both of more democracy and of the European Union and that the EU should become more democratic, what argument is there against a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon except the fact that it might be lost? But wouldn't it be better for it to be lost and then to have it out on whether we are European or not, than to carry on in bad faith? The Lib-Dem argument that there should be a referendum on membership as such would be convincing if it would indeed lance the boil (better metaphor needed - it is much more fundamental than an abscess). But it wouldn't. The campaign for a referendum's local polls suggest that over 80 per cent of voters want a referendum including those like myself who would vote 'yes'. UK Polling Report's analysis is a bit grudging but it confirms that huge majorities of those polled would like to have a referendum. Of course it is not an issue of high salience at the top of peoples' concerns. Yet. But the growing repugnance with the way Westminster politics is conducted presses in. Politics can't be "renewed" and "trust restored", etc, if, when push comes to shove, voters are so blatantly not trusted. Like all great issues this is about more than it seems to be about.