Quisling Clarke

A referendum on our membership of the EU is an irrelevance. It is the demand of a few Right-wing journalists and a few extreme nationalist politicians. I cannot think of anything sillier to do than to hold a referendum.

So said The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP on Radio 4 recently, according to an email update from The People's Pledge. They also supplied an amusing photograph:



It's hard to escape the conclusion that Clarke is not simply misguided, but actually a Very Bad Man - England's answer to Vidkun Quisling.

Who but a traitor could dismiss as 'silly' the notion that the British people have a right to democratic self-determination?  Who but a traitor could characterise as 'extreme nationalist' the view that laws affecting the British people should be made in Westminster rather than Brussels?

37 years ago, on the 5th of June 1975, British voters were asked

“Do you think that the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (The Common Market)?”

Today's EU is far from a simple "common market". Many of those who voted for membership in 1975 have regretted their choice, and nobody under the age of 55 has had any say in the matter. An in-out referendum is long overdue.