Referendum on Europe,

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph....urope-referendum.html

Should the British public be allowed this referendum on Europe, and could this be Cameron's Waterloo?

[Gromit]

Labour and the Lib Dems will vote against it as will most Tories. A few Conservatives will rebel and I suspect many will not turn up to vote. A referendum on EU membership will not take place.

The whole e-petition thing is a con.

[jake-the-peg]

Doesn't really matter if they rebel

I can't see many Labour members voting with them nor any Lib dems

But yes it's the one issue that I could see breaking the coalition and bringing down the Government

[DTCwordfan]

I dont think AOG gives a damn if DC is either, he is so anti-European.

I would just like to know how an a weenie non-entity state like England/Wales and NI survive as a stand-alone country in this day of global socio-economic-politico blocs - and a truly independent Scotland will be down the economic tubes a la Greece within the decade.

[Brenden]

I do not think there will be an EU in a decades time.

[anotheoldgit]

DTcrosswordfan

/// I would just like to know how an a weenie non-entity state like England/Wales and NI ///

So that's what you think of our country eh?

But that's not surprising coming from a person who was forever taunting me to come up with answers, and then when I did he was lost for an answer, in fact he was as 'silent as the grave'.

[emmie]

It should but it won't be, Cameron doesn't want it, nor that idiot Clegg, who is a Europhile.. Brenden i agree, but lots don't as you can tell.

[Brenden]

Nothing so blind as those who cannot see em.

[emmie]

Brenden indeed. A Greek Tragedy, in all its glory.

[ichkeria]

The EU will still be around in 10 years. The travails of some of the smaller nations are very serious but they won't cause the downfall of the EU.
Politically and economically the EU seems more necessary than ever as an entity/alliance whatever you call it, to match the US and the emerging powers of India, China etc.
Gromit is right: there isn't going to be a EU referendum in any case.

[Brenden]

ichkeria, the EU will collapse with or without a British referendum. Greece will not fall in line with the austerity measures imposed upon them, and the rest will follow.

[ichkeria]

If there were to be a referendum on the EU in Britain I'm confident Britain would stay in. But a "No" vote wouldn't bring the EU down.
Greece's problems, like I say, are serious, but they aren't going to lead to the end of the EU

[Brenden]

Bloc nations have never worked ichkeria, look at Russia, Yugoslavia etc., people crave their own identity and nationalism.

[rojash]

" look at Russia, Yugoslavia etc.,"
You forgot to mention the USA

[emmie]

Rojash, with all its faults, the difference with the US is that they are one country, and the people in America, all the ones i met, were proud to call themselves Americans, even though they came from someplace else.
The country wasn't cobbled together on the whim of a tyrant, but grew over many hundreds of years. Yugoslavia is a case in point, and the first opportunity to break apart they did, and with devastating consequences.

[rov1100]

The fact that we are not in the Euro should help matters. But political leaders these days seem to have no gumption. Maybe its because the back room advisors telling them leaving Europe would be too hard to get out of even though they have the majority of the population wanting a referendum to get out.

Instead if any action is taken it will be a half way house solution that causes even more problems.

Maybe its about time the politicians took advice from their constituents!

[emmie]

Rov, it won't happen, neither cameron, clegg, or indeed milliband want to leave, they have too much to lose. So no referendum, at least one that matters.

[Zeuhl]

I rather preferred Greece before it was 'improved' with euro money and became more like everywhere else.

It wasn't as clean or as comfortable as it is now but it was different, exotic and an adventure and if you were prepared to take your drachmas and go to the trouble of riding a dodgy ferry out to the islands you could find fantastic, unspoiled islands.

[emmie]

Having travelled around Greece some time ago, i can safely say it was unspoilt, fairly inexpensive, and with scenery to die for. Now that Greece has been a fully paid up, only joking, member of the EU for some time, lots has changed, not least the price of goods, land, and indeed the cost of living, which is what i heard from people on my travels just a couple of years ago. And from a Greek friend who has given me a blow by blow account of just how bad things are, and quite what will happen when
it goes pear shaped.

[mountainboo]

Excuse my naivety but it seems to me that the EU was doomed to fail. Why are we in the EU when it's all going so wrong for Greece, Ireland etc