The Plot Thickens . .

There is a sub-text emerging from the exchanges on Mark Mardell's Euro blog which, I think, is worthy of attention. Normally eminently reasonable people like Menedemus have found common cause with the likes of Marcus Aurelius II and that interesting but somewhat slavish adherent to the federal ideal, Jukka Rohilla. It is something I cannot question because I have not been backward in coming forward with the same theory - that democracy in the UK is all but dead and buried.

You will be unsurprised that I came to that conclusion a while back but it does start to become disturbing when people with such divergent views find the one area on which they can agree is the end of British democracy. They are of course talking about the future of Britain within - or possibly outside - the EU and that, for all it's importance, is a very specific issue and one which is unlikely to be a deciding factor in foreseeable elections. Nevertheless, the point is a good one. Since Europe is a cross party issue (you will find your fair share of enthusiasts in the Tories and sceptics in Labour), no one party with a snowball's hope in hell of being elected is going to venture onto that territory. Which, of course means that the debate will never be had. Except for one thing - there are millions out there champing at the bit for the debate to be had and not a few of us who are becoming so disenchanted with the endless arguments that it would almost be worth ending up on the losing side just as long as we can get the battle done and dusted.

The irony is that you have on the one side, those who dismiss the EU as a bureaucratic and undemocratic irrelevance and are quite happy to ignore the democratic deficit within the UK in order to further their cause and on the other, those who are despairing of what they see as an increasingly isolationist tendency and would cheerfully sign up for just about anything. Ironic also that both quarters cite the democratic credentials of the EU as an excuse to studiously ignore the developing crisis in blighty.

My own position is too well rehearsed for me to feign disinterest but one thing I will say to both sides in equal measure is that arguing the toss about the democratic deficit in Europe while your own democracy lies bleeding is an unforgivable act of betrayal. How you can lambaste those who mortgage your children s' future while you are cheerfully giving it away is beyond me.