Tony Blair’s Labour government continues (the Daily Telegraph reports) to resist calls for a referendum on the EU’s new constitution, despite the fact that, since coming to power it has called 34 referendums on such, ahem, vital matters as directly elected mayors. There has been talk in Britain of organizing an alternative referendum if the government won’t oblige. That would be a mistake. The debate would then be about the ‘private’ referendum (its validity and so on) rather than the real issue – will Blair allow Britons to have a say before their existing constitutional arrangements are junked or will this matter be decided the EU way – shrouded in lies, secrecy and obfuscation?