LETTER IN NOTTINGHAM EVENING POST - AND REPLY BY CREC:
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First, John Gretton's Letter:
LETTER: EUROPEAN MOVEMENT 'WINNING'
Mr Hunt is entirely wrong to detect "a trace of deflation from the European Movement" (Your views, March 7). The drop in submission rate is simply due to the fact we're almost certainly on the winning side, again. A parliamentary majority of 63 against the Tory amendment for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. For the sceptics, it's now down to the House of Lords and the Irish. Then, game over.
Yet again we've been involved with speaking engagements for the European Movement in schools around the Midlands. My last debate on March 6 was against a UKIP MEP in Sutton Coldfield in front of sixth form students. Boy, did they give the MEP a hard time in the question-and-answer session afterwards.
If any organisers reading this would like a speaker to talk about or debate EU issues please make contact through
European Movement UK: Homepage
JOHN GRETTON
National Council Representative
European Movement
Beech Close,
Radcliffe-on-Trent
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And the reply from CREC:
13 March 2009
To: Nottingham Evening Post
From: Mr Grenville Green, 45 Cedarland Crescent, Nuthall, NOTTINGHAM
Dear Sir,
I detected more than a hint of gloating in this declaration by John Gretton of the European Movement: “A parliamentary majority of 63 against the Tory amendment for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. For the sceptics, it's now down to the House of Lords and the Irish. Then, game over”.
The majority of 63 was only gained by two of the three main parties ratting on their clear General Election manifesto commitment to allow the British people a referendum on the European Constitution.
Before anyone jumps up and says: ‘Ah, but the Lisbon Treaty isn’t the European Constitution’, let us look at the words of Giscard d’Estaing, the architect of the European Constitution. In a meeting of the Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee last year, Giscard d’Estaing said: “The changes compared to original European Constitution are few and far between and more cosmetic than real".
And here are a few more quotes from Giscard:
“The term 'constitution' has been dropped simply to make a few people happy. All the earlier proposals will be in the new text, but they will be hidden and disguised in some way. We can get Europeans to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly."
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, said: "The substance of the Constitution is preserved. That is a fact”, while Irish Premier Bertie Ahern said: “Thankfully they haven't changed the substance - 90 per cent of it is still there".
Our own all-party Commons European Scrutiny Committee declared that the Lisbon Treaty and the European Constitution were ‘substantially equivalent’.
Tony Blair admitted: “What you cannot do is have a situation where you get a rejection of the Constitution and then bring it back with a few amendments and say, 'Have another go.' You cannot do that".
For good measure, Giscard has added such statements as: “Let’s be clear about this. The rejection of the Constitution by the French and the Dutch was a mistake that will have to be corrected. It is not France that has said ‘No’. It is 55 percent of the French people - 45 percent of the French people said ‘Yes’. People have the right to change their opinion. The people might consider they made a mistake”.
Responding to a question by the Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament, Timothy Kirkhope MEP, Giscard said: “There must be no referendum in the UK. It could undo our work, and do what the French ‘No’ in the referendum did to the old European Constitution. The chances of the British people approving new treaty are uncertain to say the least".
And that of course is precisely why the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties won’t allow us a vote. They know they would lose. In a series of mini-referendums held in parishes across the country during the past few months, over 90% of those voting said they wanted a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Then, in February, the I Want a Referendum campaign organised 10 constituency-wide polls with a similar result; 88% wanted a referendum, while if there were a referendum, 90% said they would vote against Britain adopting the Lisbon Treaty.
John Grettton said: “It’s now down to the House of Lords”. True up to a point. But if the Lords also deny the British people their democratic right to a referendum, there is one person who could yet grant us the referendum that 9 out of 10 of us want - The Queen.
She has the constitutional right to withhold Royal Assent to the Lisbon Treaty Bill until there has been a referendum. That she has that right is confirmed by a visit to the website of the Houses of Parliament.
In December, we in the Campaign for a Referendum on the European Constitution began printing pre-addressed, uniquely numbered postcards asking The Queen to do just that. Last month, three of our Committee were pleased to be formally welcomed to Buckingham Palace to present a pile of these signed postcards to a member of the Private secretary’s staff. With no publicity, and just by word of mouth, we have already distributed over 170,000 of these in less than 3 months, and continue to do so at the rate of over 2,000 a day.
Those who want to know more about our campaign can visit our website at:
Campaign for a Referendum on the European Constitution
Yours sincerely
Grenville Green
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