I am disappointed with the way our prime minister has been acting of late. He decided to avoid attending the Lisbon Treaty signing ceremony in the city of that name this morning, choosing instead to go to a committee meeting in parliament and jet off to Lisbon to arrive in the late afternoon and sign the treaty in private. Downing Street must think we're stupid when they blamed the PM's late arrival in Portugal on a 'diary clash': as if the leader of this once great nation could not get out of a parliamentary select committee meeting to attend an international heads of government and heads of state summit to sign an international treaty involving another 26 countries. Of course the reason he didn't want to sign the treaty in the full glare of the international media was because there is a storm being stirred up here in the UK by people who, quite simply, don't like anything about the EU, particularly the parts of the EU that give people welfare rights and employment protection. They say the treaty effectively creates a European state, and that British sovereignty has been lost as a result. They demand a referendum on the issue, as if asking an electorate that is more interested in voting for Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing, X Factor and I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here than it is in voting in elections is a valid way to assess intricate policy issues. Is it really sensible to ask people who are more interested in the lives of the Beckhams and Paris Hilton and whose populist opinion would lead to the reintroduction of the death penalty and with every Muslim thrown in jail or deported, and who show little interest in the very real issues, which are often ignored by the press, to decide important matters that affect more than just them and their phone bills? Is asking the 'Great British Public' for political leadership over an issue that has been dominated by the a jingoistic and often racist press a sensible way to run a country? I do have problems with the politicians and the political parties in this country, and I am not at all enthused by any of them at this moment in time; however, I despise the cynicism of those who are calling for a referendum, who are demanding that the people's voice be heard on this matter. Why only on this issue? And when did the Tories ever give us any referendums on anything? Hypocrites the lot of them. We live in a representative democracy in which our politicians are elected and paid to govern on our behalf. Unless we want to have referendums on each and every issue that bothers the press, then that's the way it ought to be.