It’s all a bit of a waste of time, really

The Tories seem to be ganging up on a pushy back-bencher, who wants to shove a clause forcing a 2014 referendum into a private member’s Bill, which promises a referendum on staying in the EU in 2017. They want him to drop his amendment in case the Bill is lost. But the big problem is that no one trusts Dave to hold the referendum if he’s still PM in 2017, and if Labour or a Labour/Liberal coalition is in charge, they’ll find some way to kill off the referendum anyway. So its all more of the usual hot air.