YOUR correspondent Name and Address Supplied (Echo, May 20) is correct.
The EU referendum did come about because the Conservatives were scared that they would lose too many votes to Ukip in the last General Election.
Yet there is more to it.
Ukip only exists because for decades the two main parties refused to allow us a referendum on the various EU treaties. The Single Market, Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice, Lisbon – all passed without us having a say.
It took the coalition government to set in law that all future treaty changes enlarging EU powers will require a referendum. Given that guarantee, it is thus a strange time to be now voting in/out.
General elections usually result in one of two outcomes, a Conservative government or a Labour government. Some choice – tweedle-dum or tweedle-dee.
Not so this in/out referendum. The alternative outcomes are massively different.
A minority of voters are fantastically passionate that we should leave the EU. Yet they are totally unable to explain what a post-Brexit future would be.
And that is surely the clincher. If we vote to leave the EU it is for an entirely unknown destination.
Any sane voter should be rightly scared by such a prospect.
DR MARTIN RODGER
Bloxworth Road, Poole
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