The concept of Parliamentary sovereignty is hardwired into the UK constitution. There is no higher authority than Parliament in our system - certainly not the people who are mere subjects of the Crown. Parliament is even capable of withdrawing from the EU if it so wished. And it is this special status that a lot of sceptics - certainly not Tony Benn - wish to defend.

However, you seem to perversely misrepresent one of the arguments when you say: “Another example of the sceptics nonsense: they constantly go on about the EU undermining Parliamentary sovereignty, yet they demand a referendum. Fact: referendums undermine Parliamentary sovereignty. If our Parliamentary system is so perfect, how come it has lead to this situation occurring?”

As I understand it, and as the argument was expressed by Tony Benn when he spoke in Parliament against the Maastricht Treaty, the point is, quite simply that Parliament is not sovereign. The point is that sovereign power remains invested in the people, who lend it to Parliament for the period during which it sits. As Parliament is not sovereign (and precisely because it is not sovereign) it does not have the power to give away sovereign powers to any other body. The argument runs that Parliament is not sovereign, not that it is.

Of course, this is true, even technically. Parliament is in no sense sovereign; the Queen is, and it must wield its powers in her name. However, either way, Parliament does not have the authority (so the argument runs) to cede sovereign powers over anything to any other body.

Apart from that, I thought this was another brilliant article.

From the very beginning, there was a division between functionalists, like Monnet and federalists like Spinelli. Functionalists were afraid of the people. Elections had brought Hitler to power; the French Third Republic had become a shambles. Intelligent people working together could do a much better job if they were insulated from the public that was incapable of being trusted. If that sounds a lot like the Enarquate of the French Fifth Republic, then that’s because they were created by the same people.

The Commission is older than the Treaty of Rome; the elected Parliament was created in 1979 as a concession to the British.

Federaism isn’t just a dirty word in euroscptic circles; the Commission hate the idea too.

Including those of us who made our views clear in comments on the Lib Dem Voice news story, it looks like – and this is just a bit of fun – Ming has so far lost this particular internal party referendum by six votes to ten. Two points to notice: the Phantom of the Voice is on Ming’s side, for once (Laurence, are you well?); and remember, this is just a referendum on a referendum, not ‘Ming in or out’.