The Disaster for Democracy gets Daily ever more Direful

The following is from today's "Open Europe" Press Review: ==========================================

Hague writes to Clegg: if you "really" want an in or out referendum why didn't you vote for it?

What will the Lib Dems do in the Lords?

William Hague has written to Nick Clegg about the inconsistency between his party's position in the Commons and in the Lords on the referendum. Hague said: "Tomorrow the Lords will begin the key votes on the Lisbon Treaty, including the crucial vote on a referendum. In the Commons you ordered your MPs to abstain on the vote. You even ordered those frontbenchers who insisted on keeping their manifesto promises to resign... Yet in the House of Lords, when an amendment was tabled to provide for the very In-Out referendum that you had presented as the key Liberal Democrat objective, your peers abstained. Had those 76 peers voted for the amendment you would have won the vote. Why were they told to abstain?

"Now the Lords will soon vote on a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. The Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Lords has indicated that Lib Dem peers will be whipped to oppose it. Do you support this? If not, have you lost control over your party in the Lords or will you publicly tell Lib Dem peers to vote the same way as Lib Dem MPs were told to? If you do, does that not expose your real position as being determined to force this Treaty through without the British people having the say they were promised in any way at all?"

Comment: There are a number of significant EU events next week: Monday 9 sees the adoption of the controversial agency workers directive; On the 9th and 10th the courts hear Stuart Wheeler's judicial review of the Government's broken promise of a referendum; Wednesday 11th is the crucial vote on the referendum in the Lords, and Thursday 12th is the Irish referendum, with results out on Friday 13th. =======================