Charles Kennedy supports an in/out EU referendum

Comments

[Super Blue]

Remind me how his party's last referendum went?

[David Hollins]

He was p*ssed both times.

[Ultimo Tiger]

I smell a liar.

[MartinW]

Not surprising. We know that the whole weight of resources (money no object) of the EU and the BBC (and sundry others) would be hurled at the public in a quite probably successful attempt to frighten them into voting to stay in. The 'out' group would be sidelined, starved of funds and deprived of air-time. So Kennedy considers his side will be safe.
I yearn for the day when we can escape from the clutches of the EU (and the Human Rights Commission), but believe a 'No' result in a Referendum would be by no means certain.

[John Bright]

Charles Kennedy probably knew that it was safe for him to say that he supports an in/out referendum. History tells us that it is notoriously difficult to overthrow the status quo. What is needed is for the EU to collapse.

[Anthony Scholefield]

The Lib Dems dont really want it,they rely on Cameron to prevent it.

[John Prendergast]

I do not trust any Kennedy,whether Democrat or LiberalDemocrat.

[Anthony Scholefield]

Two weeks tomorrow night we will have the estimated results of the Swiss election.The Swiss peoples Party running on its demand to stop mass immigration and it statement that they will never leave the EU is expected to increase its 29% share of the vote. It has already virtually eliminated the faux centre right parties.

Are they doing something right- a major issue is German immigration into the North East .

[Anthony Scholefield]

Sorry -idiotic mistake. Its policy is never to join the EU.

[SENTINEL OF HARTLEPOOL]

I don't share your pessimism Mathew.
Think back to 2004 when we had the referendum in the NE on an 'elected' Regional Assembly. The entire press and media in the North East (especially the BBC) was supporting the YES campaign. There was an absolutely blatant imbalance in the representation given to both sides in newspaper discussions and TV coverage (favouring YES obviously).

Despite all of this the NO campaign won by 80/20% - a rout.

The NO campaign emphasised throughout in their literature that the Regional Assemblies plan was ordained in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 (signed by John Major and Francis Maude)and had no objective other than to abolish Britain as a country and replace it with a patchwork of subservient regions reporting to the EU Committee of the Regions in Strasbourg.
THe sight of John Prescott at the following morning's press conference with a face resembling a bulldog chewing a wasp after the result was was a joy to behold.

Hence if the truth is told in any IN/OUT referendum campaign on the EU I predict a similar result. The OUT case will be strengthened immeasurably by the fact that ALL three parties will be campaigning for a IN vote against the will of the people.
This is why the three establishment parties all promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and ALL reneged.
Hopefully the whole EU edifice of lies, deceit and treachery will collapse sometime soon.
What a party will be had when this wonderful event comes to pass.

[Denis Cooper]

"Hence if the truth is told in any IN/OUT referendum campaign on the EU I predict a similar result."

The truth wouldn't be told, because virtually all of the mass media would be telling pro-EU lies - apart maybe from the Express - and so too would virtually all of the NGOs, "think-tanks", lobby groups, campaign groups, and the rest of so-called "civil society", much of which relies on taxpayer funding from the government and/or the EU, and so too would the big business lobbies, and various foreign notables such as the US Ambassador would be wheeled out to advise against voting the leave the EU.

It would be a huge, huge risk.