Popcorn Time

If nothing else, at least the Tory party provides a degree of entertainment. The continuing saga of the referendum vote on Monday has caused the Tories to go into one of their usual navel gazing EU meltdowns; 'shambolic', 'mismanagement', 'chaotic', have been some of the words used to describe Number 10's responses to a backbench rebellion.

It also represents a damning indictment of how low our Parliament has sunk, that it has no further use than as an entertainment circus as its powers have been outsourced abroad. The debate in Westminster over the EU has not moved on, it's the same old arguments, the same excuses and the same rhetoric - none of it has changed since the early '90s.

As such I've long given up that our exit from the EU will come from Westminster at all, as Richard North says it has written itself out of the script. I've always been rather proud that not once, since I was first eligible to vote - in the Newbury by-election 1993 - have I ever voted for any of the 3 main parties. They don't represent me, and installing a 3-line whip on a petition by the public just shows the contempt with which they hold us in.

So I take no real interest in the 'debate' on Monday; it will change nothing as MPs dust off 20 year old speeches. However Westminster may not have moved on but the world has, particularly through public opinion but crucially the Euro crisis. It won't be MPs or the Tories that affect our membership of the EU but the Germans. Next week is crucial for our future in Europe, but not because of events on Monday but because of events on Wednesday.

So in the meantime I will take great delight in the Tories imploding once again over Europe; as the ultimate proponents of "oh what a web we weave..." they fully deserve it.