NOTE: This Referendum is open to UK citizens and residents only.

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.SIGN OUR EU REFERENDUM PETITION NOW.
.No referendum: David Cameron's aide claims that the 1975 vote on Europe has settled the issue

The expensive and wasteful EU is increasingly dominating British life Friday August 5,2011 By Martyn Brown THE Great British public has a chance to help force a key vote on Britain leaving the European Union.We are calling on readers to grasp this unique opportunity to thrust the argument right to the heart of UK democracy - by signing up to a new online petition demanding a referendum on EU membership.



The Government has said it will consider any public campaign backed by 100,000 signatures for a debate in Parliament.

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NOTE: This Referendum is open to UK citizens and residents only.
SIGN THE PETITION NOW: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/356
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Joining our petition will force the country’s politicians to openly discuss an issue that is gathering momentum as Britain bails out failing Eurozone states and our laws are increasingly being adversely affected by EU human rights laws.



This newspaper’s historic crusade - the first to demand that Britain must quit the EU - has already been backed by almost 400,000 people by a postal coupon campaign earlier this year.



Senior Tory ministers and MPs have expressed their support for us in driving the issue of winning freedom from Brussels interference to the forefront of national debate. 



Mark Reckless, the Tory MP for Rochester and Strood, last night urged “as many people as possible” to sign up to our latest petition.



“This is excellent news and I am extremely supportive of the wonderful campaign by the Daily Express which has helped push the debate onto the national stage,” he said.



“I would urge as many people as possible to sign up to this petition so we can push the debate for a referendum into parliament once and for all.”.

.WHAT CAMERON HAS TO SAY:
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.Fury as Cameron rules out EU referendum because we had our say in poll 36 years ago


.David Cameron has ruled out a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union on the grounds that the UK had their say 36 years ago.
A senior aide to the Prime Minister enraged eurosceptics yesterday by claiming that the UK must remain a member of the EU because Brussels bureaucrats have done ‘useful work’ on climate change and global poverty.
And he ignored the fact that no one under the age of 53 has ever had the chance to state their views on Brussels in a public vote.
Critics last night dismissed the justification as ‘ridiculous’, ‘patronising’ and ‘insulting’.
Laurence Mann, Mr Cameron’s political private secretary, issued the controversial justification for ignoring public clamour for a refrendum in a leaked letter.
He wrote: ‘We had a referendum on that issue in 1975, which produced a very clear result.
‘There is also one argument, in particular, against holding such a referendum that we find irrefutably powerful, namely that most people in our country want to say neither ‘yes’ to everything from the EU, nor ‘no’ to everything.’
More than 10,000 voters have signed a petition on the Downing Street website demanding a referendum.
Mr Mann’s provocative argument came in a letter to Anita Segar, a senior Conservative Party member in Mr Cameron’s home county of Oxfordshire.

Miss Segar, the president of the Society for Graduates at Oxford University, had written to the Prime Minister accusing him of ‘betrayal’ for failing to fulfil his manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on Europe.
Mr Mann responded: ‘We should not lose sight of the EU’s very useful work, such as ensuring that all the nations of Europe are equipped to face the biggest challenges of the 21st century: global competitiveness, global warming and global poverty.
‘These are compelling arguments for why we believe Britain should be an active member. Of course the EU has some serious failings too and there are certainly areas where its powers should be reduced.
‘A simplistic in/out referendum, posing an artificial choice that does not do justice to the range of views in the country, would be highly unlikely to settle the question of Britain’s membership of the EU at all.’ .
Mr Mann said the government would continue to fight to keep Britain out of the worst excesses of the Brussels bureaucracy.
Leading Eurosceptic Douglas Carswell, a Tory MP who has campaigned for an in-out referendum, ridiculed the notion that the referendum in 1975 had settled matters.
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He told the Mail: ‘By that logic we wouldn’t bother to have general elections. If you follow that argument we should just scrap elections.
‘What surprises me about this response is that we just had a referendum on electoral reform despite the fact that it was not in our election manifesto.
‘We had a referendum to satisfy the desires of one section of the political class but the government isn’t prepared to have one in response to the concerns of millions of voters about our relationship with the EU.
‘If we left, we would have the chance to prosper in a truly global economy but it would also renew our democracy and mean we were no longer ruled by a bunch of Brussels technocrats.’
Tim Montgomerie, the editor of the ConservativeHome website for grassroots Tories, added: ‘It is both ridiculous and insulting for Cameron’s office to suggest the 1975 referendum means we don’t now need a vote.
‘Anyone now aged under 53 was not able or eligible to vote in 1975.
‘Just as importantly, the EU was then described as the Common Market or the European Economic Community. Since then the Common Market has moved very substantially towards a political union.’



Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/263041/Sign-our-EU-referendum-petition-now
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023485/Fury-Cameron-rules-EU-referendum-say-poll-36-years-ago.html#ixzz1UQk6AfV8
NOTE: This Referendum is open to UK citizens and residents only.
SIGN THE PETITION NOW: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/356