Comments on: Why I voted no in 1975 to the EEC

By: Oliver Healey

Oliver Healey — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:52:58 +0000

The withdrawal from the European Union must be exercised at once the Common Market campaign from the No lobby was underfunded extremely and so there must be a referednum on the entire system to settle the matter once and for all.

By: John Coles

John Coles — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:56:24 +0000

Now you understand, Mr Redwood, why Tory voters turn to UKIP. Neither this Government nor Mr Cameron’s “Conservative” party will promise “a vote on our relationship with the EU”. I am sure that if ‘Dave’ promised any such vote, the polls would show a leap in support for the Tories.
I really do not understand how a man of your intellect and principle can continue to live with a mindlessly europhile policy, born of deference toward and fear of Ken Clarke, Douglas Hurd et alia.

By: Devil's Kitchen

Devil's Kitchen — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:22:14 +0000

So, John, the Conservatives will give us a referendum on staying in the European Union, will they?

I examined the costs of the EU to Britain (huge), and weighed them against the costs of leaving (almost nothing), in a journalist-reviewed article at Wanabehuman. You may find it interesting.

http://wanabehuman.blogspot.com/2006/07/comment-european-union-and-uk-is-it.html

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:33:50 +0000

It also didn’t help our negotiating position in the first place that Heath so desperately wanted in, allowing the French to dictate terms. The CAP is an obvious one.

The Conservatives now should propose a re-negotiation of the Treaty, with the bargaining position that there will be a referendum on the resulting treaty.

As it looks likely that the WTO will never result in global free trade I would like to see a free trade area which includes Europe and North America which could negotiate agreements with other countries/regions.

By: Ken Adams

Ken Adams — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 12:24:08 +0000

I agree we need a vote on our relationship with the EU and that it is so frustrating that this government will not give us the vote we need on either the Euro or the Constitution.

The problem is that neither would a Conservative government, of course the Conservative party is against the Euro and the Constitution in principal; I assume the argument would be there is no need for a referendum on the either of these issues because we are not going to either, ratify the Constitution, or agree to joining the Euro.

Unfortunately this argument only holds good for as long as that is Conservative policy, or as long as the Conservatives are in power. If the Conservative win the next election but loose the following one Labour will be able to pick up where they left off, because there would be no recent referendum to give them pause.

So I would like to see a referendum on both of these issues and perhaps one on our membership of the EU so that the people at last have a chance to give their views on the matter, and that holds good whether it is government policy to ratify the Constitution join the Euro region or not.