Whimpering Blair must hold referendum on EU Constitution

Conservative Euro MP David Sumberg is urging the North West public to write to Tony Blair to demand a referendum on the draft European Constitution.

"The public needs to be informed of exactly what the Constitution is and how it will fundamentally change the way this country is governed,' he said. "Presently Tony Blair, by obdurately refusing to hold a referendum and blithely signing up to this Constitution, is betraying our country selling our interests down the drain without so much as a whimper."

Mr Sumberg said he feared the debate over the Constitution is being buried in the news agenda - despite its huge importance.

"Tony Blair, as an ardent pro-European, wants the whole debate over the Constitution to wither and die,' he said., "It is utterly disgraceful that he allows his ministers to pump out pathetic and misleading media soundbites claiming the Constitution is no more than 'a tidying-up excerise'. In actual fact the Constitution rips away many of our powers of self Government and hands them over to the EU on a silver platter."

"For example, if introduced, decisions in more than 30 policy areas such as border control and asylum, that currently require the unanimity, will be agreed by majority vote thereby removing the national veto over EU laws. Moreover a new clause would allow the national veto to be removed from other key policy areas, such as tax and foreign policy, without the consent of national parliaments. Furthermore there would be a 'common defence policy which may in time lead to common defence.' This would render NATO virtually obsolete and severely undermine our military links with the United States. There are other blatantly federalist plans to create a European President and Minister for Foreign Affairs. All these new powers and rulings inexorably lead us into the parlous territory of a 'United States of Europe'. Let there be no doubt that if this Constitution is adopted the EU will have even greater powers to control, dictate and meddle in how Britain runs its own affairs."

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