Douglas Carswell's Blog

In / Out EU vote is on the cards

“I don't believe an In/Out referendum is right” David Cameron told Al Jazerra Television.  “Because” he went on “I don't believe that leaving the European Union would be in Britain's interests”.

That a British Prime Minister is now having to field such a query suggests that our EU membership is no longer a settled question. 

That his answer presumes people would vote to quit if allowed to implies that the question mark is only going to get bigger.

Beyond the world of Whitehall, and the grand UKREP offices in Brussels, public attitudes are on the move.  In a digital age of rapidly expanding freedom and choice, people will not much longer be prepared to leave it to remote officials and politicians to determine key public policy questions on their behalf.       

The referendum on electoral reform this May makes it increasingly difficult to brush aside the argument that our EU membership must be something for the people to decide.  Anyone in SW1 who believes that being in the EU is in our national interest will, of course, be free to make their case.           

Besides, what might happen if in, say, eighteen months time, Labour leader Ed Miliband made a passionately pro-EU speech.  And then concluded by saying he thought it should nonetheless be for the people to decide with an In / Out vote?

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