Na Na I've got my fingers my ears, I can't hear you.
Referendum row closes in on Gordon Brown - Telegraph
Gordon Brown's fabled strengths as a political strategist are about to be tested to breaking point. Our revelation today that as many as 120 backbench Labour MPs (apparently with the tacit support of some ministers) support the call for a referendum on the EU reform treaty presents the Prime Minister with a serious challenge to his authority....
Labour's 2005 general election manifesto gave an explicit commitment to a referendum on the EU constitution.
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The new treaty is accepted across Europe as being a near-identical replica of the constitution which the votes of the French and Dutch consigned, briefly, to oblivion.
Mr Brown argues otherwise. He maintains that the Government has secured Britain's "red lines" and that, as a result, "the proper way of considering this is through detailed consideration in Parliament itself". In maintaining this position, the Prime Minister is defying the popular will...
The trade unions, which intend to use next month's TUC Congress to add their voice to the referendum clamour.
Mr Brown has already embarked on the job of buying them off with the kind of horse-trading that used to give Labour governments a bad name.
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So how does he extricate himself from this impasse? We have frequently argued that for this risk-averse Prime Minister a snap general election capitalising on his political honeymoon is probably the surest way of achieving a fourth Labour term..
I don't think we are allowed to point out that Gordon Brown is over to the left on the autistic spectrum any more, but if he was, and I'm not saying he is the sort of man who sorts his socks for relaxation, but if he was then he has the wonderful advantage of being able to filter the outside world to his own comfort. He will be counting the spots on the political advisor's tie rather than listen to the news that the people are beginning to recognise him as an amoral scheming chancer rather than the solid bank manager he projects.