UK referrendum on the EU? Highly risky...but highly necessary

I personally applaud the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg on his bold campaign to hold a UK referrendum on our country's membership of the EU. This of course would be a highly decisive referrendum - with potenially critical consequences - but as Mr Clegg has aptly pointed out - debates on the EU have 'poisoned' British politics for too long and it is time for Britain to take a firm stance on whether or not its future lies with the EU. In a land rife with euroscepticism (largely fuelled by the all-powerful media), it could be argued that the pro-European Lib Dems are hoisting themselves by their own batard in to proposing such a major referrendum. The chances of a resounding 'no' are clear for all to see. So is it wishful thinking on the Lib Dems' part that when the nitty gritty of treaties and consolidated power are moved aside and the British people are asked to say 'yes' or 'no' to the EU per se, the 'yes' vote will win? Not necessarily... There are of course many arguments in favour of Britain's membership of the EU, and the vast majority of them can be effectively communicated to people in a clear, non-technical manner. Many of these arguments will be economic however and the great danger the Lib Dems face is a counter-campaign that advocates a withdrawal from the EU while remaining in the European Economic Area (EEA) - in other words - ditch the political aspects, but keep the economic benefits. It's easy to see how such an idea could be sold to the British people (indeed it already is), but it conceals a major flaw which must be flagged up by the Lib Dem campaign: in order to remain within the EEA, we would necessarily be subject to a whole host of EU laws (as are current EEA members like Norway and Iceland) - only we would no longer have our all important (and influential) voice in Brussels. Britain would have walked out with its tail between its legs, scraping at a closed door, confined to its island and marginalised in an ever-more globalised world where groupings matter.

A referrendum on the EU would therefore be a bold and risky move, but in stripping the EU debate to its fundamentals, there is chance that the Lib Dems and other EU supporters can reason with and win over the British public. All hands on deck!