It used to be commonly accepted wisdom that there were no votes to be won on the issue of Europe only votes to be lost.
Brown appears to be proving the latter bit right. In my mind his decision not to call a referendum over the 'reform treaty' is helping to contribute to perceptions that he is deceitful and running scared. It can be no conincidence that an opinion poll in today's Independent gives the Conservatives an 8% lead over Labour, a week after he signed up to the treaty.
Also reported today is that the former French president Valry Giscard d'Estaing has ststed that key parts of the European constitution remain "practically unchanged" in
the new EU Reform Treaty, M. Giscard d'Estaing, one of the architects of the EU constitution, said that the central proposals of the rejected document had been retained in the new treaty.
We need a referendum on this treaty, and if Brown doesn't listen it looks like he will pay with his job (although possibly not until 2010)
