Should we have an EU referendum in 2015

Should the UK have an EU referendum in 2015? I would argue yes firstly because we have been waiting years for a vote and also EU reform is not possible with several countries and the EU saying major reform will not occur for 2017. So should we have a 2015 referendum?

I honestly doubt most of the electorate understands the issues well enough.

You are simply anti democratic. Maybe we should take the vote away for all issues

I honestly doubt most of the electorate understands the issues well enough.

And? That doesn't stop us holding general elections why should it stop us holding a referendum?

Odds are people will stick with the EU for the same reason that scotland will vote no to independence and for the same reason we voted no to AV. Change is scary so we won't vote for it.

With the EU we've genuinely not got a clue what would happen for the simple reason that no country has actually left the EU in it's current form. There is no standardised process, we have no idea what the relationship with the rest of Europe would look like post independence.

You are simply anti democratic. Maybe we should take the vote away for all issues

I also happen to suspect that the general public doesn't understand political issues sufficiently to cast an adequately motivated vote in the general election, but that's a different matter.

Change isn't just scary. Change is unpredictable, as you point out. I would hope that, in the absence of any real grasp of what the EU is or does, most people would vote 'in' in a referendum to preserve the status quo: better the devil you know. However, I suspect that the people most motivated to vote in such a referendum would be the opinionated minority.

Should the UK have an EU referendum in 2015? I would argue yes firstly because we have been waiting years for a vote and also EU reform is not possible with several countries and the EU saying major reform will not occur for 2017. So should we have a 2015 referendum?

I'm confused, you claim not be anti-democratic but seem completely against anything where the public have a say.

Saying your 'pro-education' is one thing, but you can't force people to learn if they don't want to and you can't take away their right to vote on the fate of their country because of it. Its pretty clear your against leaving the EU, and seem to look at most people who have a different view as just being un-educated.

You seem to be reading a lot into what I'm saying. I don't see any conflict between supporting the idea of democracy and simultaneously thinking that people are insufficiently informed about the complexities of economic policy or the EU.

You say I'm 'pretty clearly against leaving the EU' - I'm not. I would class myself as being among those who don't understand enough about the EU to meaningfully vote in a referendum without further research. And I suspect that most people know less about how the EU operates than I do. It's not the kind of thing you can understand from reading the papers from time to time - you have to invest hours in digesting stats and gaining an understanding of the EU's constitutional order. Even if people are capable of doing this I highly doubt the majority invest the time necessary. I can hardly blame them for this - the last thing you want to do at the weekend or when you get back from work is to sit and pore over the TEU, the TFEU, EU agricultural policies, budgets and the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

In spite of that, most people like to have an opinion on the EU. If it isn't being formed by the above sort of reading, my concern is that the void is being filled by propaganda from those on both sides of the debate.

But like said, if in a democracy nobody is allowed to have an opinion unless they've researched it before then your not in a democracy.

When people vote in elections half the time they don't even know a large amount of the policies the part they voted for has. Should we get rid of elections then? Or just reserve them for people who can prove they've researched all the options?

Like i've already said, you cannot force the public to research a topic, but in a democracy because of that you cannot remove their ability to have a say in the decision their country is taking. If you start selecting who can and can't have a right to vote, your anti-democratic.

While there are valid reasons to hold referenda statements like the above "anti-democratic" lead me to believe that some people are unaware of exactly what representative democracy is and that we have a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy and have done for centuries.

I'm sure your actually aware, but it's entirely flawed to call it anti-democratic.

If there is significant demand for a referendum by the public and no representative party holds a referendum that is undemocratic

Several parties on the ballot are either explicitly anti EU or want a referendum.

Its no more undemocratic not to hold an EU referendum than it is not to hold one on the latest batch of competition regulation passing through parliament.