RB>> _Local_ referendums have always been possible, and in Bavaria state RB>> referendums as well.
GK> State referendums are possible in all states since the 1990ies.
RB>> But there is NO! provision for national RB>> referendums in Germany. If that had been the case, there would RB>> already have been several widely-publicized attempts over the last RB>> years (Greece, migrants).
GK> Oh, great. Like the one in UK lately? That's really something I'm GK> missing: having a bunch of crackpot politicians promising the voter the GK> moon, only to withdraw and refuse all responsibility as soon as they GK> have their result.
There has always been a resistance against referenda in the UK. The argument was that we elect a parliament on the basis of their manifesto and that we then just leave them to get on with it.
In the whole of the history of the UK we have had just two referenda and they have both been to do with membership of the EEC/EU. Ted Heath signed us up to join the EEC in 1972 (or 1971 - I can never remember which) without getting a mandate for the terms of joining. There was so much discontent that Harold Wilson, when he succeeded Heath as prime minister, promised that he would have a referendum to let the people speak. Very little fuss was made and people just voted for the status quo. But unfortunately it set a precedent.
I wonder, if Wilson had never had a referendum would Cameron have thought of having a referendum this time?
Alas, we shall never know!
-- David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
