Secular Café: Lord Owen says EU referendum for UK is inevitable

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Lord Owen says EU referendum for UK is inevitable Jun 8th 2012, 10:56 Before the last election the Tories were talking about one, but now they don't seem keen. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18350932 Quote: A referendum on the UK's membership of the EU is "inevitable", former Labour Foreign Secretary Lord Owen has said. In an article for the Times newspaper to coincide with the publication of his book on the future of Europe, Lord Owen predicted it would happen before 2016. "I am not a Eurosceptic in the way this term has been used for people hostile to Europe," he wrote. But there needs to be "limits set to the process of European integration", the former SDP leader argued. Lord Owen advocated the creation of a two-tier European system: a European Community based on trade that would "hopefully" encompass countries like Turkey and Norway; and a separate, deeper European Union that would feature "to all intents and purposes, though not in name, a single government". British voters should be asked whether they want the UK to be part of either group, he said, in a two-question referendum... ...EU institutions had left British people feeling that they were unable to influence their own destiny, he lamented. "The British public do not like to feel they are being pushed around. We are loyal members of clubs, but not afraid to restructure a club to suit different circumstances. We are not afraid of change," he wrote. "We just want our politicians to uphold our right to democratic self-government in this country."

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