What do we want? A referendum. When do we want it? “In due course”

A snippet from Matthew d’Ancona’s column in the Evening Standard today:

Most (though by no means all) of Cameron’s strategists believe that a plebiscite on any aspect of Britain’s relationship with the European Union would tear the Coalition to pieces. Better, the thinking goes, to wait for a fully Tory government, draw up a checklist of powers to be repatriated, and, in due course, put that renegotiated basis for EU membership to a popular vote.

Further evidence of muddled thinking in No 10. “Checklist of powers to be repatriated” indeed. That just means, “We don’t like the EU very much but we cannot remember why.”

Incidentally, the headline on d’Ancona’s article, “Will the Coalition love affair end in a quickie divorce?” is not number 826 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No because it will end in divorce quite quickly at some point. But no one knows when.

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• Junius

  A plebiscite on the EU may be dear to the hearts of many Tory MPs, but opinion poll after opinion poll indicates that the British voter does not share their obsession.

  The Latest Economist Ipsos Mori Issues index posed respondents two questions: What would you say is the most important issue facing Britain today? What do you see as other important issues facing Britain today? Unprompted combined answers for matters connected with Europe/EU total eight per cent.

  A recent You Gov opinion poll conducted for Prospect presented respondents with the statement that the UK should withdraw completely from the European Union: 21pc agreed strongly and 19pc tended to agree. There is no majority for leaving.

  As Sir John Major observed in his autobiography: ‘The notion that Britain in 1997 was racked by anxiety over Europe was pure nonsense. Conservative politicians were. The electorate was not.’ His analysis is as valid today. But it appears that Tory Eurosceptics have learned nothing from the lessons of 1997 and are hell-bent on repeating their mistakes.

• Pacificweather

  The electorate were recently asked if they would like their MP to be elected by a majority of the votes cast in their constituency. Only the people of Northern Island supported the idea. In the rest of the UK, two thirds were content for their MP to be elected by a minority of the votes cast. Why offer a referendum to people who don’t want to live in a democracy?

  But as Junius says, it isn’t an issue for the electorate anyway.