Why it's right to quit the EPP

In an extraordinary fit of pique, party bosses in the Brussels parliament have thrown Dan Hannan out of the European People's Party - for doing what the people of Europe want in opposing the European Constitution / Lisbon Treaty.

EPP party chiefs seem to have shot themselves in the foot.  In order to stop Dan Hannan's repeated calls for a referendum, they had to break their own rules.  If the EPP chucks Hannan out while challenging the the European Constitution / Lisbon Treaty, then what are the Conservatives doing as part of the EPP group in Brussels in the first place?  This bizarre episode proves why David Cameron was so right to give a guarantee to take his MEPs out of the EPP.