Sunderland Echo Letters - EU

The Letters Page 14th March 2005

No EU mandate
THE leaders of the 25 EU member states met in Rome in December 2004 at a lavish ceremony to sign the proposed European Constitution Document, our representative Prime Minister Blair arrived last and left first declining to stay for the sumptuous lunch. He was of course acutely aware that back home he had no mandate from the people who are conscious of the implications of the constitution namely more power to the unelected EU institutions. So last week we see the first action of the tactical battle to influence voters of the EU countries. Before the ink is dry, and with as much haste as possible, without any information campaign, any debate, or any opposition Spain held it's Referendum. This entirely academic exercise resulting in a yes vote from a very low turn out from the Spanish electorate, which observers in Spain reporting that over 90% of the people knew absolutely nothing about the constitution. The Spanish Prime Minster earned himself some serious brownie points from his pro EU friends for registering a Yes vote in the hope of influencing others in the forth-coming contest.As someone who was deceived and lied to in the 1975 UK Referendum and so persuaded to vote Yes to stay in the then "Common Market" I cannot wait to register a very big No in the Referendum to be held here. I have no doubt that I will be in the good company of the vast majority of the people who will also vote No and send the message that this country must be returned to its people to govern themselves.
Colin Moran, Sunderland

EU ambitions
FOR those in any doubt as to what the European Constitution is really all about one needs to look past the statements made by the likes of Peter Hain, Jack Straw and Tony Blair to statements made by politicians on the continent. German Europe Minister: The Constitution is, "the birth certificate of the United States of Europe."Spanish Foreign Minister: "We are witnessing the last remnants of national politics." The recently-announced spending figures for the North East referendum showed the Yes campaigners outspending the No campaigners by at least five to one (and that is without factoring in the cost of the Government's propaganda campaign). Despite this, the public were not fooled and delivered on overwhelming and emphatic no vote ... equivalent to Gateshead FC beating Manchester United at Old Trafford.. After the election, there will be a similar disproportionate amount of money spent trying to dupe the public on what is the greatest political deception of all time, put together by stealth over the last thirty years. Our relationship with the European Union is a fraud perpetrated on the British public by a self-serving political elite. Some deceiving deliberately and some through their naivety. The referendum will expose all the lies and all the deceit. Yes campaigners, such as Fiona Hall MEP, will say that they welcome the debate and then avoid the debate. My prediction. The long suffering British public ain't gonna buy the lies and the propaganda for this one either and the referendum result will be even bigger than the one achieved in the North East. The public will again indulge themselves to deliver another damning message to an arrogant political elite...that the sovereignty and power lies with the people not the politicians.
Neil Herron,Sunderland