The commentaries that accompanied Mr Carswell’s resignation from the Conservative Party and his joining UKIP, dwelt on what a thoughtful and principled man he is.

I cannot quite square those assessments with his statement when he declared the only sensible approach to securing an all-important EU referendum, is to vote Conservative at the next election.

It would appear that he must have been in negotiations with UKIP.

I do not doubt his intellect or his commitment, it’s just that I have never found him persuasive.

I once went into a meeting sharing his point of view, but as I sat and listened to him, it changed my mind completely.

It was about the position of senior civil servants who do much of the ‘fixing’ in Brussels preparatory to key ministerial and other EU negotiations. Given their influence, we thought they ought to be subject to confirmatory hearings before Parliament.

As Mr Carswell argued however, it occurred to me that what he proposed would produce the opposite effect to the one he intended which was to hold un-elected officials to account by examining their attitudes and records prior to confirming their appointment.

Officials, however, are required to do the bidding of ministers. To subject them to such scrutiny would confer on them a status that they ought not to have.

Ministers decide what is to be done, and officials get on and do it.

By making the appointment of officials subject to parliamentary confirmation, those officials would conclude their own judgements are more democratically accountable, instead of carrying out the orders of their minister.

On the European question I agree with my eurosceptic constituents, but I do not share their anger.

I believe this anger arises because they feel they have been duped: most were persuaded to vote in favour of staying in the Common Market in 1975, only to find the reality of continued membership turned out to be different from what had been described to them.

I’m not angry because I wasn’t deceived: I campaigned and voted for withdrawal from the Common Market in 1975; and it has turned out pretty well as I expected.

I believe we cannot go on allowing ourselves to being dragged reluctantly into an ever closer union.

We must not imagine, that achieving a new accommodation with the EU will be easy or painless.

This is why I am content to wait until 2017 to give those negotiations time. Many people say we already know enough and that the referendum should be held immediately.

I disagree: firstly, in this hung parliament there is no majority with which to pass the legislation for an earlier referendum; secondly, I believe people were ‘bounced’ in 1975 and I want them to have a long lead time into the referendum.

Even UKIP enthusiasts acknowledge they will not be in Government.

Mr Cameron or Mr Miliband will most likely be in Downing Street.

Mr Cameron is committed to a referendum and Mr Miliband has ruled one out.

For those for whom securing a new referendum is of primary importance, the choice is obvious.

What Mr Carswell needs to think about is if his actions will make that referendum more difficult to achieve.