More options might have changed result

But what do they want? The will of the people remains unknown.

In 2005, Jacques Chirac committed ‘political suicide’: he lost the referendum on the new EU treaty. Those in favour of the treaty voted ‘oui’, those opposed voted ‘non’. But lots of others – those who were opposed to the EU per se, or M Chirac, or McDonald’s, or je ne sais quoi, all voted ‘non’ as well, so ‘non’ won, 54.7% to 45.3%.

As predicted in a press release issued in February, the UK two-option ballot was bound to be inaccurate. David Cameron has now repeated the Chirac mistake: as noted over a year ago, the advantage was bound to lay with those opposed to either UK’s membership, and/or Mr Cameron, or immigration, or je ne sais quoi.

If he had allowed for a multi-option ballot, the campaign itself would have been less divisive and the outcome would have been a more accurate reflection of public opinion.

Peter Emerson, Belfast