In or out of Europe, neither makes much difference to an old fart like me

The single benefit about being old is that I am free to express nearly any opinion while safe in the knowledge that I'll never have to live with the consequences of being wrong. Which is possibly the way that Cameron feels about promising an in/out referendum on the EU. Maybe he anticipates losing the next election and will never have to comply with yesterday's promise.

I have never been in favour of EU membership. I simply cannot see the point of an exclusive trading club which permits membership to virtually all comers. My EU would never have permitted Greece to join nor indeed Spain and Portugal. Nor Cyprus. And it would have also been a definite NO to any of those East European financial disaster areas. Any country whose economy is based on tourism, service industries or winegrowing would have been precluded.

Nor indeed do I see the point of joining any organisation in which we would be the only member making the slightest attempt to stick to the rules. Just look at what has happened to the fishing and farming industries. Only a fool would not have seen that Spain would totally ignore any rules on fishing and that France would try to destroy British farming.

Whatever! It's too late now. And I suspect it's too late to contemplate withdrawal. Nor do I think that it is a particularly good idea to place such an important matter in the hands of Sun and Daily Mail readers.

However I wish that Cameron had based his promise on what's best for the country rather than on fear of UKIP and his own backbenchers.

I think Miliband has been rather cunning by coming out against a referendum because someone had to take that stance. He would have gained nothing at all by being in favour and at least he has provided those against with a party for whom to vote in the next election.

With any luck I won't have to decide which way to vote as I might well have croaked my last before 2017.