Gordon Brown's dishonest posturing on the EU referendum

Here we go again with the posturing. Gordon Brown, for some bizarre reasons of his own, is refusing to let the British public vote on the EU treaty. Here is an excellent rebuttal of that argument by Gideon Rachman of the FT. I quote:

First, this is a relatively trivial treaty. Britain did not vote on
much more far-reaching measures such as the Single European Act or the
Maastricht treaty, so why vote on this? Second, the EU is a good thing – and a
British No would plunge it into crisis. Finally, there is Britain’s national
interest. A British No would provoke a damaging rupture in its relations with
the rest of Europe.
...
Some conjure up a “nightmare scenario” of Britain being forced out of
the EU, if it rejects the treaty. But the French and Dutch were not thrown out
of the Union because their voters rejected the constitution. It would be very
hard to argue that Britain should be treated much more harshly. Of course, there
would be a lot of anger directed against Britain in the drawing rooms of
Brussels and Berlin. But eventually people adapt to reality. The reality is that
the EU now needs Britain as much as Britain needs the EU.

Gisela Stuart, a former Minister and current Labour MP has also hit out on Gordon Brown's silly refusal.

“Recent events have shown some rather old-style politics, with the prime
minister looking indecisive and lacking veracity,” she wrote. “Sticking to your
guns in defence of a patently dishonest position is not leadership but the soft
option and a cop-out from a specific promise made to voters.”

He is really creating his own problems, if he had agreed to do the referendum, his stock in the UK will shoot up, specially after his absolute incompetence around the Northern Rock imbrogilo, the aborted election and general sillyness with the pre-budget report.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!