Lisbon to be Election Issue?

It's getting messy in East Renfrewshire:

The Tory bid to claim the scalp of Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy at the General Election faces a threat from the UK Independence Party (UKIP) standing in East Renfrewshire as a deliberate spoiling tactic.

UKIP’s Scottish Treasurer, Donald MacKay, says that unless Conservative candidate Richard Cooke gives a categorical public commitment to support a referendum to overturn the Lisbon Treaty, UKIP will stand in the constituency.

The Eurosceptic party has already made such a pledge in North Ayrshire where they say Tory candidate Philip Lardner meets their test and will not face such an intervention.

Mr Cooke appears to be a eurosceptic, so this is a strange and negative tactic from the UKIP. Having said that, democracy would dictate "No" to *Unionist Unity* in Northern Ireland, "No" to *Unionist Unity* in Scotland;)- if the UKIP want to stand, they should do so but for positive reasons (ie as an attempt to get elected) and not solely to ruin other candidates' chances of success.

Update

East Renfrewshire looks to be the constituency to watch; from its present MP, a certain Jim Murphy:

Labour is to adopt the controversial strategy of ignoring the SNP completely during the General Election campaign in Scotland, Jim Murphy, the Scottish Secretary, revealed today.

That's a most courageous strategy, as Sir Humphrey might say.