LONDON -- "It's ghastly," Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, said with a shudder. He was speaking of the referendum -- that Prime Minister Tony Blair has declared, after no consultation with his Cabinet, will now be held -- on the draft EU constitution. Why is a referendum ghastly? Because, Patten said, it's "tabloid politics."
Well, Patten is a posh toff, as are all British men who work in the overseas departments of the Foreign and Colonial Office. Running Britain's official international affairs has always been the duty and destiny of Britain's upper classes. The thought that Australian/American tycoon Rupert Murdoch should instead seize the destiny of Britain through the medium of his vulgar Sun newspaper, of course, sends a shudder through that elite.
The irony is that most of this elite are Conservative voters, and it is the Conservative Party that has been insisting on a referendum in Britain on the proposed constitution. Their argument is that all major changes in the governance of Britain have been authorized by a referendum, so this one should be too.