For some time, I have been intrigued by an organisation called The People’s Pledge.
It was set up four months ago by campaigners frustrated at successive governments’ failure to call a referendum on our membership of the EU.
To me, it makes sense.
Any candidate standing in the May elections will have heard constant complaints from frustrated voters on the doorstep about the all-invasive power of the EU.
This is no vociferous minority: 61 per cent of the electorate would reportedly like a referendum.
Continued interference in our national life has resulted in the ‘metric martyrs’, the loss of our laws, borders and sovereignty and a deluge of rules and regulations which impinge on every aspect of our lives.
The thought of a European super-state has never been attractive to most Britons.
Historically, we have always walked our own path.
When we joined the Common Market in 1973, we were told it was a trading organisation.
Two years later, we held a referendum on whether to stay in, or not.
That was the last consultation the people of this island had on the EU.
Meanwhile, the Common Market became the European Economic Community, the European Community and, finally, the European Union.
MPs threw out the idea of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in 2008 and in 1993, while Parliament alone voted on the Maastricht Treaty.
We had been promised a say on both.
Like all the best ideas, the People’s Pledge is simple.
Starting with the most marginal constituencies, it asks constituents to sign up to a pledge, calling on their MPs to support an EU referendum.
When the signatures outnumber the MP’s majority, he or she will be hard pressed to say no.
The idea is supported by MPs from across the political spectrum.
It is also backed by those who support the EU but still want a referendum.
As politicians, we cannot go on ignoring the will of those who elected us.
That is not what democracy is about.