that hokey cokey idea

we Europeans know all about that. Among the more famous Europeans are the popular German beat combo known as Kraftwerk, and here they are (kind of) on this very notion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwaxWoJPUC0

Where was I? *wipes eyes* Ah yes, Mr Cameron and his in-out-shake-it-all-about referendum notion. Plenty of balderdash has been written about it in the last day or two, including this from the unlamented, barely literate former Reading councillor John Howarth, prop. Public Image Limited (remember "Your Better Off With Labour"?) who calls the proposal for a referendum a "fundamental failure of leadership" and then goes on to say it is a good thing. Sort of. Barely coherent, inverted pyramid of piffle. Well, I am not a fan of referendums, thinking that peoples elect governments, who should then get on and govern and not keep stopping to ask "Am I doing OK?" Cammo's proposal is clearly party before country, but he has never pretended it is not. Howarth suggests that one of the Great European Powers might say "non", which has of course happened before. But "non" to what? Angie from Berlin has already offered talks. "Non" in a context like this is hardly Francois Hollande's style - as Howarth would know if he had the first clue about contemporary French politics and could lurch out of the 1980s for long enough to see some sense. Poland? I fancy not. Whatever next?" Maggie, Maggie, Maggie! Out, out, out!" Do me a favour.

It seems to me that the referendum proposal is a stroke of genius on Cammo's part. He himself has already said he will campaign for a Yes vote, as of course he must, anything else being lunacy. Ed Miliband has been wrongfooted and now looks a total arse. And at the same time Cammo has bought off the more barking elements in the Tory associations up and down the land (and maybe they won't notice gay marriage in all the excitement of biffing Johnny Foreigner) and mollified some of his relatively sensible back-benchers who think they might lose to UKIP - oh, and has pulled the rug from under UKIP itself, a good thing for British politics given that UKIP are nearly as racist as the Greens - so what's not to like? And maybe, just maybe, as a result there will be a UK government, sooner rather than later, that is pulling in one direction. Well, I say well done Davey-boy, and it would almost be worth going back to live in the UK to have a vote in the referendum. A yes vote, naturally.

General de Gaulle and Marshal Petain