new EU constitution will be a "battle between reality and myth", Tony Blair has said.

The prime minister told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme on Sunday that he would not be rushed into holding a referendum on the treaty.

He said opposition parties were pushing for a speedy public vote because they feared their myths would be exposed during a long debate.

Leaving the EU would be an "act of foolishness", he said.

Also speaking on the programme, UK Independence Party (UKIP) MEP Robert Kilroy-Silk said the new treaty did nothing for Britain.
He likened Mr Blair to Neville Chamberlain, Britain's prime minister at the start of World War II.

"It's appeasement," he said.

"He's waving a piece of paper saying 'it's OK, I've only given a little bit away of our sovereignty', when in fact this is the beginning of the end of Britain as a nation state governing itself."

Tory deputy leader and shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said the constitution was "highly damaging" to the interests of the UK.

"It is a gateway to a country called Europe," he said.

Mr Ancram told Frost the government had missed the opportunity to bring Europe closer to its peoples and had instead created a more "centralised" Europe.

False beliefs
The party would campaign for a no vote, but if the constitution was passed it would renegotiate the treaty if it gained power, he said.

In the new treaty the UK has kept its vetoes on economic policy, defence and foreign affairs. It can opt out of majority decisions on cross-border criminal matters and social security for migrant workers.

Referring to a poll in the Sunday Times Mr Blair said there were many misconceptions about the EU.

The YouGov poll of nearly 1,300 people showed voters would reject the constitution by 49% to 23%.

A majority had believed the UK would no longer be able to have its own asylum policy; that the EU could control British tax rates; and that Britain would have to change its laws on trade unions and strikes.

Mr Blair said all of those beliefs were entirely false.

The poll also showed many wrongly believed the British passport would be replaced by a European one.

However, it said voters said they would back the constitution by 41% to 35% if concerns on these and other issues were met.

"That's what shows us what we've got to play for here - it's reality versus myth," said Mr Blair.

He said in areas where Britain had agreed to majority voting, such as agricultural policies, it was a "perfectly sensible" move for a union of 25 states.

But Labour Eurosceptics are meeting on Monday to form an anti-treaty campaign group, Labour Against a Superstate.

A separate Vote No campaign has the backing of 20 business leaders.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said the treaty was a "workable compromise".

He told BBC News 24 all pro-Europe groups should be going out and making the case for the EU principle and for the constitution.

"There's a big reservoir of Euroscepticism out there and we've got our work cut out to get the case cross," he said.

(BBC)

Hm.. I see this page is rapidly filling up with EU related topics. As interesting a topic as our little Union is, I'll try to post other related articles in excisting threads [img]smile.gif[/img]

"It is a gateway to a country called Europe," he said.

i dont think even mike tyson could land one so squarly on the nose as this chap did.

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Wow, sounds like the Brit Press covered the treaty as well as the US press did with what the 9/11 commission report said....they get it all wrong..or misreport it intentionally...wich ever the case may be.</font>

[ 06-21-2004, 09:05 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

I don't understand this at all. What was mis-reported?

Just a stab in the dark here - I'm guessing you don't know who Kilroy-Silk is.

The constitution has poor support in Britain and any referendum would fail to back it. Blair needs to be careful as he seems to be backing more unpopular policies as the election draws closer.

I don't understand this at all. What was mis-reported? </font>[/QUOTE]<font face="COMIC Sans MS" size="3" color="#7c9bc4">

It is a comparison, one side says one thing another says the opposite...hard to tell up from down making for a confusing situation for the general public...is that better said?
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EU poll loss 'could mean UK withdrawal'

Matthew Tempest, political correspondent
Thursday June 24, 2004

A cabinet minister has admitted that a failure by the government to win the referendum on the EU constitution could put Britain "on the road to withdrawal".
Patricia Hewitt, one of the most Europhile members of the cabinet, but also one of the first to urge the prime minister to perform a u-turn and call a referendum, said a no vote would "cause a crisis in the relations between Britain and the rest of the EU".

With Britain's biggest unions, led by Derek Simpson of Amicus, expressing at best lukewarm sentiments about the new treaty this week, the government's sense of foreboding is clear.

In an interview in this week's New Statesman, Ms Hewitt, asked what will happen if Britain votes no in the referendum, said: "We will be in uncharted territory. It would have the effect, and would be intended to have the effect, of putting Britain on the margins, and probably on the road to withdrawal."

She denied that losing the referendum - which is unlikely to take place before 2006 - would bring down the government, but said it would cause a "crisis" within the EU.

"It would quite clearly cause a crisis in relations between Britain and the rest of the EU. We would have to sit down and work out where to go. It's unlikely there'd be any sympathy for the British position."

Earlier this week, Amicus, the T&G and the usually pro-European GMB expressed doubts about the constitution, particularly the government's boast that it had retained the trade union reforms brought in by Margaret Thatcher. The reforms, which curtailed workers' right to strike, were under threat from the forthcoming European charter of fundamental human rights.

In the interview, Ms Hewitt referred to the Eurosceptic press in Britain as "poisonous" but did not single out any papers by name.

She also admitted that the pro-EU camp within the cabinet overlooked the threat from the UK Independence party. She said: "We thought we could take Britain's membership of the EU for granted. The question has been not 'in our out' of Europe?' but 'in or out of the euro?' We as pro-Europeans were very much focused on that question, rather than thinking we needed to be making the case for British membership of Europe, and that was probably a mistake."

The magazine repeated speculation that Tony Blair may send either Ms Hewitt or the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, to Brussels to replace Neil Kinnock as European commissioner if he decides the frontrunner, Peter Mandelson, will be needed in Britain for the forthcoming general election.

(The Guardian)

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Turbulent times, wich I suppose is not to be unexpected when undertaking to form somthing like the EU.</font>