Last chance for a referendum on Europe

The devolved parliaments could still shame Westminster into holding an EU referendum

Out of 646 MPs at Westminster, 638 were elected promising a referendum on the Euro-constitution; yet they show every sign of reneging. The nauseating volte-face by the Lib Dems is especially disappointing, and makes it almost impossible to overturn Labour's majority in either House.

Nor will British people be provoked by the sight of foreigners voting on their future. Every EU state except Ireland has ruled out consulting its voters - and Ireland won't vote until our Parliament has ratified.

So is there any hope at all of Britain getting the referendum? If there is, it lies in Edinburgh - and possibly in Belfast. The SNP has reaffirmed its commitment to a plebiscite, announcing: "While Gordon Brown continues to show his distrust of the voting public, we will support a referendum. We are honour-bound."

If Alex Salmond decides to underline this

A referendum north of the border might finally stir the English from their lethargy

distinction by actually holding a referendum north of the border, the sight might finally stir the English from their lethargy. True, such a referendum would have no legal standing; but then, neither did Gibraltar's 'informal' referendum on rejecting Spanish sovereignty. Official or not, it killed the issue.

The same dynamic may apply in Stormont, where the three biggest parties - accounting for 83 per cent of the vote among them - support a referendum, and oppose the constitution. (As a rule, supporters of the EU Treaty tend to oppose a referendum: they are at least consistent in their disdain for democracy.)

The DUP, the UUP and Sinn Fein might want to show their respective supporters that, unlike the Westminster establishment, they would keep their word and trust the people. If Scotland and Ulster both got the referendum they had been promised, the pressure for a UK-wide poll might become irresistible. It is, so far as I can see, our last chance.