Tory Lisbon line not going down well with the public

On the way into work I caught the end of a discussion about the Conservative position on the Lisbon treaty on Victoria Derbyshire's 5 Live show. It seemed that Mark Francois was doing his best to communicate the party line on the issue but the audience of 200 invited members of the public seemed to be getting more and more exasperated with him.

I heard several comments from audience members along the lines of politicians not being able to give a straight answers and there was a fair bit of heckling and booing when again and again Mark tried to deflect the questions with his "wait and see" line.

Obviously an audience on a radio programme is not a scientific sample but if the reaction there is at all representative of feeling out in the country (and I look forward to the polls on this) then this is an issue that could drag the Conservative party down just at a time when they really need to be maintaining a decent lead over Labour.

I wonder how long they will be able to hold the current line.

In related news, on the advice of Mike Smithson I decided to have a little flutter today on the likelihood of there being a referendum on Lisbon at some point during 2010. Ladbrokes are offering 10-1 which I agree with Mike are good odds.