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Comments

Ken Stevens

"Is Gordon Brown the only person in Britain that doesn’t get it?"

Reminds me of the old story about the proud mother watching her son's passing-out parade: "Ooh look, my wee Gordon is the only one marching in step".

englandism

'we must fight for a referendum now.'

But we won't will we? In the insipid stupor of consensus politics nothing of substance must be allowed to get in the way of the bland leading the bland.

Tories campaign for EU referendum = Schism re-surfaces, modernisation threatened, issue ignored.

Just impose a new constitutional arrangement without reference to the electorate and hang the consequences. After all, we the English, are getting used to it and, after all, England does not technically exist.

Radical Tory

Theresa -

Why do you focus so much on the EU? You're not stuck in the past are you? Hope this isn't a lurch to the right. We wouldn't want that now would we?

In response to your question no Gordon is not the only one who dosen't get it. Cameron is leading our party to disaster. The man lacks judgement, is a liability, he's Heath II.

Charlie Clifton

Brown's 'emphasis on honesty and trust' is a farce. His stance on an EU treaty referendum is a classic example of this. The Conservativs need to work to hard to highlight his blatant spin.

Derek

My understanding is that Brown will sign up on 18th October and so it looks very likely that he will not have a referendum. Will the Conservative Party now pledge to hold one retrospectively if they win the next election?

It is time the people were asked to give their verdict after over 30 years, and there is the precedent made by Harold Wilson in 1975.

Moral minority

The constitutional treaty will be the last. It gives the EU all the powers that it needs to create the federalist Superstate monster. A commitment to hold referenda on future treaties is meaningless.

We must offer a commitment to hold a referendum on whether we should remain in the EU leviathan Superstate. If not, large swathes of Conservative voters will transfer their allegiance to UKIP or even the BNP.

Theresa talks about trusting the Conservative Party. Trust is earned by clear and effective action. I will only trust Cameron on Europe when he delivers his pledge to leave the EPP. The Movement for European Reform has achieved little or nothing. There is no mention of it in this article.

I might be more trustful if the Conservative Party officially endorsed and supported the Rally for a Referendum, chaired by Bob Spink MP. So far the Conservative Party has remained silent. It is time action rather meaningless rhetoric to earn my trust.

Tony Makara

An elected government must be made to honour the manifesto on which it was elected.

David Boothroyd

If better scrutiny of European legislation in the UK Parliament is needed, what better than the EU giving national Parliaments a role in making European legislation so that what Parliament says has real teeth? Oh look, there's a provision to do that in the Reform Treaty. We much make sure it gets ratified as soon as possible.

Referendum Now

David, the Treaty's wording on national parliaments actually says parliaments have to contribute to the "good functioning" of the EU - that's not empowering parliaments is it? It's tying their hands.

DavisFan

Theresa May's job should be rolled into DD's portfolio. Then we would have sound policies on constitutional reform, an aggressive anti-EU platform and sound policies on WOMEN (remember his 'DD for me' campaign?)

Stewart Buchanan

'In recent weeks Mr Cameron has moved in a rather unsavoury direction, talking about "anarchy in the UK" and highlighting issues such as immigration and crime.'

Well my God, a politician, talking about issues that affect millions of people? What is the world coming to? The Independent needs to get a grip on reality and realise that more things concern people than the environment.

michael.mcgough

Parties receive some state funding specifically fo their manifestos.There must be no extension of state funding when clear commitments in those manifestos are not kept.

m wood

Following up Moral Minority's point, if we do get dragged into a 'federalist Superstate monster', the end result could well be the UK leaving altogether in a very unpleasant bust up....

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