David Norris (Independent)

The closer I look at it, the less I like it. We know that 96% of it is the failed European constitution. If we are so democratic, why are we the only one of the 27 member states to give voters an opportunity to vote on the treaty? If it is such a wonderful thing and everyone knows it is right, why are we afraid to let people vote? Why do we have a new blossoming of European megalocrats, so to speak, who know better than their own populations? Why are we getting so many conflicting messages? We are being told that our tax advantage, of which many European countries are jealous, will be guarded, even though the leaders of at least two or three major European countries which are in competition with us have convinced themselves they will be able to get rid of it. I do not like the insidious way in which, for example, a European Commissioner who commenced action against the provisions which permitted the churches in this country to get exemption from our equality legislation——