All this insanity about "we must have a referendum on the European treaty".

None of us have a clue about it. That's why we elect people - and that in itself doesn't bloody work (Democracy is a proven failure).

The more people interfering, the worse it gets.

The general public - total brain dead - would vote for headlines (KILL CRIMINALS - not "might they not be criminals?" - give us money and take back nothing - "how?"...).

We are watching the universal collapse of democracy.

We need benign autocracy (but that eventually tends not to work either).

The story behind the call for a refurendum seems to be that Labour promised that we would have one, and people are attempting to hold Labour to their word. Ok, the promise was made re the constitution, but this new treaty has been confirmed by most of the other Euro leaders to be over 90% the same as the constitution, with just a few word changes.

If there is a vote, I'll certainly make a point of reading the treaty to see what it's about. If there is no vote, I think Labour might have hammered another nail into it's own coffin.

Of course, any result of a referendum would depend on the wording of the question.

Isn't deciding these thing the politician's job?

So far those I've met demanding a referendum cannot tell me what the treaty is or more importantly why now.

The Maastricht treaty is the significant one that formed the EU, this is just a bit of house keeping.

It's closing stable doors sans horse.

Well with all it's faults democracy is better than any other alternative.
I live in Ukraine,and they'd love to have a mature democracy like Britain...with all its flaws.
Let's have more referendums,not less,then people can only blame themselves,not distant politicians.
We really need drastic political reform,proportional representation,and government funding of parties.When we get independants into the government process it'll start to improve.
The problem of the current position is that I may well vote labour because I don't like the Tories,but not because I want greater unity in Europe.The EU is a terrible mess,and the majority of its citizens want it rolled back,not pushed forward.