Introduction

In June 2003 the government published its assessment of the famous 'five tests' concerning whether or not the time was right for Britain to join the euro.

If it was right to subject the single currency to forensic analysis and the promise of a referendum before committing Britain to entry then surely the EU constitution - which has even more far reaching consequences than the euro - should likewise have to face an examination of its political and economic magnitude?

Of course, it would be quite possible to recognise both that the proposed constitution is of great constitutional significance and that it would be in our interests to ratify it. However, the clear majority of those who adhere to this view now also advocate that the document must be put to the people in a referendum before it is passed into law.

Hence, the pro-EU Liberal Democrats, Scottish Nationalists and Plaid Cymru all honourably support the right of the people to be directly consulted. These parties, as well as many within New Labour, accept that there is no electoral or moral mandate to impose from above this far-reaching change to the way we are governed. But because Tony Blair's government fears the result of a referendum it is reduced to denying the seriousness of the constitution's content in order to justify its continued opposition to consulting the people democratically.

Birmingham Labour MP Roger Godsiff believes that by claiming that the EU constitution has no constitutional significance, the government is not treating the British people with the respect they deserve: 'For Peter Hain [one of the UK's representatives on the constitutional convention] to turn round and say that this is merely a "tidying up exercise" is an insult to everybody's intelligence and should be treated with the derision which it has attracted.'

The official British position is also not shared by many in other European countries who, while supporting the introduction of the...

Introduction

Test 1
EU State

Test 2
economy &
public services

Test 3
vetoes

Test 4
criminal justice

Test 5
democracy

In their
own words