[sinsofsolarempirefan]

This isn’t like a healthcare bill or some other fairly trivial matter, these (Scottish independence, EU membership) are major constitutional issues that are about WHO governs us, these matters are absolutely the kinds of issues that require a referendum, and politicians have absolutely no right whatsoever to change the body which governs us without consulting the people. We should have had referendums each time the EU tried to take more power from Westminster, but it didn’t happen...

[Vanders9]

No it isn't a trivial matter, but then who gets to decide which is a trivial matter and which is not? On your definition, you could argue that reform of the House of Lords should be put to a referendum. Is not reform of the way work affecting part of the body that governs us? Equally you could argue reform of the royal inheritence criteria should be put to a referendum. You could even argue that constituency boundary changes should be put to a referendum. After all, the boundaries commission is a non elected body that effectively decides (or at least has a huge impact) on who governs us.

Please understand I'm not advocating referendums for any of these issues, I'm just trying to show how allowing one referendum might be the thin edge of a wedge that could lead to referendums happening all the time. We would be on the road to a type of participatory rather than representative democracy.