No true Referendums in Britain - yet.

The Economist Magazine of Oct. 29 had a lengthy discussion about the British people wanting to vote in a referendum about joining the European Union. Speaker after speaker in the House asked the government to put the issue to a vote of the people - but the leaders have demurred. They were presumably afraid of what the answer might be. This obviously is hardly democratic, especially since the speakers were all elected representatives of their communities. But, in Britain they do not have real Direct Democracy. If it did, the public could have required that the issue be put to a vote, if enough of them signed a petition requesting such. The new, Conservative, Lib-Dem coalition actually had instituted a method of requiring a parliamentary debate - if 100,000 voters signed up requesting that that occur; and though it had also just instituted laws permitting local councils to hold referendums about taxes and planning, and had even requested the Scottish parliament to hold a referendum about its alleged desire of independent autonomy (believing that it would not yet win such a vote) holding nation-wide votes on ideas that the leaders feared answer to is not law there, yet.