"The Labour Government's response to the referendum is lukewarm at best. There are those in Government who hope that another country will not ratify the Treaty before the UK votes so that lets us off the hook whatever the result. Others believe that Tony Blair - or indeed Gordon Brown - will find ways of dropping this altogether before a vote. After all Tony Blair called a referendum not because he genuinely wanted the people to decide but because he wanted to upset the Tories' European Parliament campaign plans back in June."
"I believe that a referendum should take place and although the result is far from clear cut it is important that we, finally, get a chance to discuss, debate and thrash out our relationship with the rest of Europe. My experience is that Harrogate people just want to be better informed about the European Union and the referendum process, in my opinion, is a good way of overcoming that knowledge deficit."
