Lost in Europe

As you read this, the Conservatives seem to be edging towards some promise, to be contested at the next general election, of a referendum in the next parliament over Britain’s membership of the EU. You can see how far opinion has moved by the fact that government ministers — Michael Gove only last week — can now say that we should contemplate getting out of Europe without the heavens falling in on them. If Mrs Thatcher had said anything like Mr Gove did, she would have been ejected from office at once.

Now of course we should welcome all genuine attempts to give our own citizens a fuller say in their constitutional future. At some point, there will have to be a referendum. While I would caution that, from the Eurosceptic point of view, it matters very much at which point, I regard a referendum as morally and politically essential.

But you will observe that the call for a referendum comes not because we all trust a Conservative government — if there were one — or a Labour government — if there were one — or the present coalition.