By Richard Laming
Published in the Daily Telegraph, 20 September 2007
Sir, Two referendum questions, on the reform treaty and separately on EU membership, would cause more confusion, not less (Letters, September 19).
For how would one implement a decision to reject the treaty but stay in the EU if the other 26 member states had all ratified the new treaty? Is it conceivable that we should ask that the democratic decisions in favour of the treaty by the other member states be overturned, and is it conceivable that they should accede to this request?
If we were to vote No in a referendum on the treaty, the only practical course of action would be to abandon our membership of the EU and negotiate a new relationship as a non-member. One question will be sufficient. Maybe this is what advocates of a referendum really want.
Richard Laming, Director, Federal Union, London SE1