http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19761017

I'm guessing he's fudged it within the party to get this far, and that he'll fudge it again publicly. That said though, Labour can't really do much with it either I imagine.

If he made that a key election pledge, the Tories would probably win the next election easily.

There is talk of Labour doing the same.


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Does anyone actually trust either of them to stick to it?

They might actually do it but neither will actually support it. The UK has so much at stake if it exited. The problems that we are having are not entirely down to membership. Most of the main economies followed a branch of economics that ignored debt and so few saw the crisis coming. Those that saw the crisis coming were not neoclassical supply-side minded economists. So blaming Labour for the mess does not explain why virtually all the western economies had similar problems. It doe also explain why the governments austerity policy is not working. Britain had over borrowed to support a housing bubble that the government is trying re-inflate. Germany had a lending boom across the whole of Europe, hence all the bailouts have benefited Germany each time.

People need to separate the fiscal problems from the referendum.

Not Labour. They're much more pro euro than the Tories.

I doubt it, whilst the population is generally quite eurosceptic Europe never actually features very highly on people's lists of political priorities.

It is never high on my list or priorities. While some laws coming out of Europe are a nuisance they are also keep our government in line in terms of maintaining our rights.

True enough. But it could be the icing on the cake that tips an election.

Two and half years in and he's already dangling the carrot? Talking about shooting your bolt early.

Of course, he could be floating this to stir up debate in the EU, whose members seem split on the effect of Britain leaving.

He is probably trying to keep his own party happy rather than appease any anti EU feelings in the public at large.


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They are all chasing the same demographic. Very likely middle aged/elderly voters in marginal constituencies. These are the ones likely to be enraged by Daily Mail articles about those Eurocrats passing silly laws about straight bananas and not letting us smack Abu Hamza around the head and ship him out to the US of A in the dead of night. A pretty much unrepresentative bunch, but they are the king makers in politics.

All parties generally ignore the safe seats - and concentrate on the few that could swing it for them. This is nothing but early election posturing by all involved. We pretty much know the date of the next general election now, so parties can plan their moves with that time in mind. We’ll no doubt see more policy convergence as we continue on.