The leader of the UK Independence Party has said David Cameron winning a working majority in the election "is certainly the end of this country".Conservative response was that if they are in government they "will change the law so that any future treaty that hands over areas of power will be put to the British people in a referendum, will never join the euro, and wants to bring back powers from Brussels to Britain". This is, of course, meaningless. A great deal of power has already been given away, not least in the Lisbon Treaty on which the Conservative leader had given "a cast-iron guarantee" that there would be a referendum. None of that is up for discussion.
Lord Pearson said this was because the Conservative leader had ruled out a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union (EU) for five years.
Much more power will be given away as a result of treaties that have already been signed and of other agreements such as the Hague and Tampere ones that deal with various judicial matters such as immigration. None of that will be up for discussion either.
As for bringing powers back to Britain, we have heard nothing from the Conservative Party that inspires one with any confidence that they even understand the process that would be required, let alone be prepared to put it into action.
On another subject, Lord Pearson announced that there will be no UKIP candidates against three well-known Conservative opponents of the EU and Britain's membership in it, Douglas Carswell, Philip Davies and Philip Hollobone, as well as at least one Labour opponent. As soon as UKIP can find a Lib-Dem supporter of Britain's withdrawal they will announce that they will not stand against him or her.
Straight Talk With Andrew Neil will be broadcast on the BBC News Channel on Sunday, 11 April at 0130BST and 2330BST, and on Tuesday 13 April at 0330BST. It can also be seen in iPlayer here (with thanks to the reader of this blog who provided this link).
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