The Peoples of Europe

Have you read the proposed European Constitution? No? I don't blame you. On your behalf, I have ploughed through it from cover to cover, amendments and all. A 'tidying up exercise'? My foot!

Let's face it, for most people at the supermarket checkout, the constitution is not a burning issue. But if you don't want to scrap the pound, you won't like this either!

The UK is a nation of four countries plus a Commonwealth. Scotland has a different legal system. Our constitution has living roots more than a thousand years old. Back in 1215 we came up with the Magna Carta, which defined the powers of the state in a way that has been the model for many countries - including the USA. We have evolved a flexible arrangement that suits us well and has stood the test of time.

Now this Government is going to impose on us a written constitution. It has not been drafted in Britain. No one has asked for it. It will take precedence over all British laws and constitutional practices. It will not be amendable except by the consent of other EU countries.

The European Constitution will found a new Union, separate from member states, endowed with new powers and its own legal personality. Most domestic policy areas will be subject to legislation at Union level. Foreign policy, defence, criminal justice and police matters will come under the Union. A European President and a European Foreign Minister will take on many of the tasks of our national ministers.

Decisions lie with national Ministers, but the levers of power to push this through are in the hands of the unelected President and Commissioners. Eighteen months ago Tony Blair appointed three Westminster MPs to speak for Britain at the Convention drafting the Constitution. The Leader was the South African student radical, now a Welsh Labour MP and part-time leader of the House of Commons, Peter Hain . The charming Birmingham Labour MP Gisela Stuart, German born and educated, assisted him. It fell to our near neighbour, Wells Conservative MP David Heathcote-Amory (Eton and Oxford) to speak for the Opposition - which I expect on this occasion means most of us.

So what happens now? The draft Constitution will go to an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) in Rome in October. Deals will be done. Your Government will in the end agree.

Of course, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal and Austria have already said they will hold national referendums and others have still to declare. The current British Government doesn't trust us to vote the way it wants. So we won't get one. That is outrageous.

After negotiating our opt-out from the euro in the Maastricht Treaty, the Conservative Government promised that any decision to scrap the pound would be decided by referendum - and that promise still stands. The European Constitution founds a new Union, with incalculable consequences for the way we are governed. The State of Europe will have arrived. If we are to be part of it, the people of our nation should decide.

Robert Key MP