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		The Constitution: what if we vote NO? Lincolnshire Echo - May 5 2004 During the 1983 general election, a young candidate called Tony Blair said in his election address "We will negotiate withdrawal from the EEC, which has drained our natural resources and destroyed our jobs". Well yes. But how times change. Blair is now a passionate, evangelical, swivel-eyed, lip-quivering advocate of everything European. The media have hailed Blair's climb-down on the referendum as a mighty U-turn, and so it was. But it is only the latest in a long line of U-turns. Two years ago the government was against an EU Constitution entirely. Then they changed their minds. A year ago, they were against the so-called Charter of Fundamental Rights. It had no more legal force than the Beano, they told us. Then they said it could exist, but merely as a broad statement of principles (although the European Court immediately started using it, and building it into case-law). Now they accept it as part of the Constitution -- so it will be binding on Britain if the UK ratifies. Last week Blair was asked if a NO vote in the referendum could result in a second referendum, as happened in Denmark in 1992 (Maastricht) or in Ireland in 2001 (Nice). I saw the clip on television myself. Blair was adamant -- you had to accept the word of the people, you couldn't come back and ask the question again. Then within hours -- that very afternoon -- the Downing Street Press Office was desperately rowing back. The Prime Minister had been misunderstood. No one knew how things would be after a NO vote, and no assurances could be given. Surely the fastest U-turn on record! So we have the promise of a referendum. At the moment, opinion polls are showing a three-to-one majority for a NO vote. There has been a huge amount of nonsense talked about the consequences of a NO vote. They say we'll be forced out of the EU. They say we'll be isolated and marginalised and excluded. But of course they're totally wrong. Commissioner Pascal Lamy actually said that if we voted NO we might find ourselves in the same position as Switzerland. Now there's a frightening prospect. A peaceful, stable country, with access to the EU Single Market, and a higher per capita GDP than any EU country! The legal position is quite plain. If any country fails to ratify, then the constitutional process stops, and the current treaties remain in place. So there is no question of the UK being excluded from the EU if we vote NO. The realpolitik is equally in our favour. The rules of the WTO would prevent the EU taking punitive trade measures against us. And their own self-interest would prevent them too. We buy more from them than they buy from us -- and a seller has no interest in antagonising a buyer. The truth is that a NO vote in the referendum would give the British government a hugely powerful democratic mandate to renegotiate the terms of our relationship with the EU. The Conservative Party believes we should renegotiate our terms of membership, but our opponents have always argued that this would be difficult to do. A NO vote gives us the tool for the job. People often say that "We can't be half in and half out". But of course we can be. I was once a member of a sports club that had facilities for a wide range of sports. I only used it for swimming and running. No one told me that as a member I had to use it for squash and tennis and golf as well. In a sense we are already part in, part out. We are part of the Single Market, but not part of the euro or the Schengen passport area. Other countries like Switzerland, Norway and Mexico have access to the Single Market on a range of different terms. It is quite possible that we could negotiate a deal under which we had Single Market access, but could opt out of much of the excessive regulation, and excessive cost, of other EU programmes. The euro-zealots will say that this would be tantamount to leaving the EU. I'd call it a new kind of membership. But what matters is the substance, not the label. We want to preserve the benefits of access to the Single Market. But we also want to preserve our right to independence and self-determination as a proud and historic nation. We want to Put Britain First.