Liberal Democracy

The Lib Dems want the UKIP votes, concentrated in the South, at the next General Election, by which time UKIP will certainly have collapsed materially, and probably also formally. Hence their call for a referendum on EU membership, something that the fanatically Europhile Tory high command dare not support.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Mike Hancock, the Lib Dem MP who courageously told last night's Week In Westminster that the Lisbon Treaty was unacceptable because his constituents had the right to know that the laws to which they were subject were made by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

But why, then, does he want a referendum. He should simply oppose the Treaty on the floor of the House of Commons, because it extends the legislative power of a body which meets in secret and publishes no Official Report (hardly liberal or democratic), and because it fails to abolish the Common Fisheries Policy (a very serious problem in the Lib Dem heartlands of the West Country and rural Scotland). There is no need for a referendum.

The Tories refuse to say which way they would campaign in the event of a referendum, or which way they would vote at Third Reading if the Bill contained a referendum clause by then. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems need a Big Issue comparable to Iraq. This could be it. And, as over Iraq, they would be right.