EU Referendum


EU referendum: will they, won't they?


04/07/2014



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EU referendum: will they, won't they? After McCluskey says they should, Ed Balls turns round and says they'd be silly even to think of it.

Not for the first time, Labour seem to be misjudging the mood of the people. I sense that most people are less worried out whether we leave the EU, or stay, than they are about being asked for their opinion. And this sort of airy dismissal won't go down well.

McCluskey, on the vother hand, says: "It is time that Labour's leadership took a new look at the referendum question. We do not seek a referendum to take Britain out of the EU, we seek a referendum rethink in order to help Labour into power".

"Without such a pledge, our party will stand exposed", he says, "UKIP will be strengthened in some key constituencies and the Tories will hypocritically charge Labour with being anti-democratic. In a tight election, this can make the difference".

In a final barb, McCluskey then says that denying a referendum would suggest that Labour was part of a "political elite" that did not trust the electorate.

Balls, however, says that Labour is "not proposing a referendum" because it thinks to spend two or three years blighting investment and undermining the economy" would be bad for jobs and investment.

This stance is supposed to be "business friendly", avoiding uncertainty and thus protecting jobs but that does not stop Lord Sainsbury putting the boot in. He says, "While the general election is less than a year away, the challenge today is that neither industry nor the voters feel they fully know how the Labour party views its relationship with industry".

It is a bit early yet for the polls, but it will be interesting to see how this pans out. This could be Ed Miliband's biggest mistake, even if we are rather spoiled for choice.

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