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European Union (Amendment) Bill

They are very weird principles. The Liberal Democrats were on record as saying that they wanted a referendum on ““in or out””. As a way of getting away from the problem of having a referendum on the constitution, they said, ““No, no, we don’t think we should have a referendum on the constitution, but we’ll have a referendum on ‘in or out’””. As I have already explained, many of those in favour of Europe in today’s Committee believe that they would win a referendum on ““in or out””, so I do not know why the Liberal Democrats are worried about it. Nevertheless, they then decided that they would not do that after all. The Liberal Democrats’ extraordinary flip-flopping on policy is unbelievable. I am not sure that it is doing them much good. It follows their approach to the constitution. They started off by promising a referendum in their manifesto. Next, they said that everybody in this Chamber and the other place should abstain. Not everybody did, and those who did not voted for a referendum. Now, they are going to vote against a referendum on the constitution. It is extremely difficult to keep up with Liberal policy because it changes so quickly. The Liberal Democrats certainly do not allow principle to weigh too heavily on their shoulders. The trouble about all this is that the Liberal Democrats treat policies as other people treat clothes: they put them on and take them off as it suits the changing patterns of the political weather. Moreover, they are famous for policies which vary across the country. They have certain policies to woo voters in Labour constituencies in the north—