Subject: [Homestead] Britisn two to one against E.U. Constitution
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 13:34:12 -0500
British poll says no to EU constitution
by
Saturday 29 January 2005 8:02 AM GMT
British voters have rejected the EU consitution in recent polls
British voters will reject the European Union constitution by nearly two
to one in a referendum on the document, a newspaper poll has revealed.
A YouGov poll in Saturday's The Daily Telegraph indicated that 45% of
voters would currently say no to the question set by Prime Minister Tony
Blair's Labour government.
Blair's government, which backs the constitution, said the exact wording
of the question to be submitted would be: "Should the United Kingdom
approve the treaty establishing a constitution for the European Union?"
Another survey published on Saturday put the ''no'' vote as high as 56%.
The newspaper's online survey of 1943 adults revealed that 24% would say
yes, while 25% remained undecided on the EU document. A further 7% said
they would not vote.
Blow to Blair
The Sun newspaper cited a separate poll by website MoneySavingExpert.com
which revealed 56% would reject the constitution with 24% in favour.
Blair's Labour government is in
favour of the EU constitution
The daily said the findings would be a blow to Blair and that ministers
fear time was running out to turn the tide towards the constitution.
Michael Ancram, foreign affairs spokesman for the main opposition
Conservative party, which is against the treaty, told The Daily
Telegraph: "This underlines the very real and deserved mistrust of the
British people for this attempt to punch them into a European super state."
But Simon Hughes, president of the opposition Liberal Democrats, which
favours the constitution, was adamant victory was still possible.
"The more public debate there is, the more the pro-Europeans will
benefit," he said.
"There is obviously a lot of work to be done, but victory for the Yes
campaign is achievable."
Thumbs down
The treaty was signed by all 25 current EU members in Rome on 29 October
last year and is set to come into force in November 2006, provided it is
ratified by all member states, several of which will hold a referendum.
"There is obviously a lot of work to be done, but victory for the Yes
campaign is achievable"
Simon Hughes,
Liberal Democrats president
According to a Eurobarometer poll on Friday, only 11% of EU citizens
said they were familiar with the constitution, while 56% said they knew
little and 33% declared they had never heard of it.
Eurobarometer's poll found only 20% of Britons in favour and 30%
against, making Britain the only EU state where more people give the
constitution a thumbs-down than those who support it.