There is so much to say about Ming’s confusion over the EU that I don’t know where to start, so I’ll leave most of it to Iain. It does seem though that Ming has lost the Lib Dem plot. It is common, of course, for them to say one thing to one person and another elsewhere. The trouble is, Ming’s saying the different things to the same audience.
It may be that he thought this would put David Cameron on the spot - challenging DC to say whether he would hold a referendum on EU membership. Unfortunately it seems it has just focused attention even more on his own leadership and political acumen. Just before the party conference (possibly his last as leader) this is a gamble that has gone horribly wrong for Ming. He has ensured that any Lib Dem policy announcement next week will be ignored amidst the blanket media coverage about unhappiness with the leadership. (And, dear Lib Dems, don’t think that the coverage of the conference will bear any relation to what is actually happening in the conference hall or fringes. Remember, we Conservatives have been here ourselves - we know how it works.)
The only way this could be bad for the Conservatives is not any awkward internal argument over Europe, but the prospect of Ming not leading the Lib Dems into the next general election.
