Thank you very much and thank you too, Sir Michael Spicer and Austin Mitchell, for inviting me to speak on behalf of Trust the People. It’s a great honour to be able to speak to the Congress for Democracy, which has made such an important contribution to the European debate in the past few years.

I set up Trust the People with some of my contemporaries because young people have had no say in the current governance of the country; no say in the constitutional arrangements that arise out of the various treaties establishing the European Union. People did have a vote in 1975 and those in favour of the European settlement that brought about often say, "Well look, people had the chance to choose, they had a vote and they decided in favour of the Common Market by a large majority."

Yet nobody under the age of 47 was old enough to vote in 1975. I was not even born in 1975. Over half of today’s electorate have seen the development of the European Union towards a superstate without ever being consulted. There was no referendum on the single European Act, on the Maastricht, Nice or Amsterdam treaties and now we face a totally new constitution, a constitution that effectively establishes a single European state. None of my contemporaries, nor even people 20 years older than me, have ever been asked.

It seems important to me and to those who set up Trust the People with me that we should be consulted. This is a matter of principle and not in fact of euroscepticism. Some of those who joined the Board of Trust the People are committed to further European integration, they think it is a good thing. But we are all committed democrats, we are people who believe that the establishment of a state requires the consent of the governed.

However, there is a certain irony in the position of people like myself who want a referendum – because a referendum is something alien to the British constitution. Everyone here will practically know off by heart the quotations from Edmund Burke that set up our understanding of the role of the House of Commons and its right as the representative body of the people not as a collection of delegates.

As Edmund Burke put it: "Your representative owes you not his industry only but his judgement, that he betrays instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion."

That is how we have always understood our Parliamentary democracy to work, that the Member of Parliament must ultimately use his judgement of the issues of the day - not go out to a focus group or opinion pollsters to decide what to do. That is the purpose of representative democracy. However, there is one unambiguous point from time immemorial in our constitution. There is one power that no part of it enjoys, not the Crown, not the Lords, not the Commons, not the Judges. There is one thing none of them can do. They cannot hand away their powers to anybody else. It has been long established that the Royal prerogative cannot be alienated even if the monarch tries to alienate it. It still comes back to the Crown automatically. The same is true of the House of Commons.

The House of Commons does not have sovereign power from nowhere, it has sovereign power coming from the electorate delegated to it for a 5 year period, for a parliamentary term, power which must be handed back at the end of that term to the electors. Yes, for the 5 year term the representative owes his judgement to his electors but at the end of the period he must hand back intact that with which he was entrusted.

Edmund Burke was absolutely clear about the sovereignty of the people in this respect. What he said was this, "I reverentially look upon the people they are perfect Sovereign judges of all things without appeal."

That is our understanding, Trust the People’s understanding, of the British constitution. We are not calling for a referendum every time the price of stamps is put up – though looking at the Royal Mail it mightn’t be a bad idea! – but we are calling for a referendum on a constitution which establishes a superstate.

The Draft European constitution says as follows "The constitution and laws adopted by the Union’s institutions in exercising competence confirmed on it shall have primacy over the laws of member states." "Competence" – in quotes means power. Europe will have exclusive power:

• over monetary policy for states that have the Euro;
• over a common commercial policy;
• a customs union;
• the conservation of marine biological resources.

It will have shared, superior competence over

• the internal market;
• the area of freedom, security and justice;
• agriculture and fisheries;
• transport and Trans European networks;
• energy;
• social policy;
• economic, social and territorial cohesion;
• the environment;
• consumer protection;
• and common safety concerns in public health matters.

Nothing is left as an exclusive competence of the individual member state.

It goes on to talk about other areas where it won’t have exclusive or senior competence. However, common foreign and security policy, employment policies as well as a vast swath of the ordinary business of government are to be taken to the institutions of the European Union. The draft constitution is a shift away from the previous balance where independent nation states have made treaties to one where there is an over-arching constitution that establishes the rights, powers and jurisdictions of this new superstate. Some people argue that this is a good thing. Others, including myself, argue that it is a bad thing. But it is very hard to argue, it is indeed not only very hard, it is wrong, to argue that the formalisation of these powers, the concentration of these powers, is a minor tidying up exercise. This is as important as the writing of the constitution of the United States of America, which of course under the 10^th amendment states specifically that power not given to the federal government rests with the individual states and there is no such limitation in the European constitution.

It is clear that this constitution is the creation of a superstate, one that Blair wants to be ratified by Parliament. But Parliament does not, and has never had, the power to give away its own authority. The only legitimate authority to alienate the powers of the House of Commons is the people and therefore if there is to be this constitution, it cannot be legitimate unless it has been validated by a free and fair referendum – it must have the full and informed consent of the British people.

I am going to campaign with particular strength and vigour because my generation has never been consulted about any of this. We have never had the right to express, through a vote, our view on who we want to govern us. If you believe Mr Blair you will believe that this Constitution makes virtually no difference to the UK and our relationship with Europe. He is wrong. Indeed he is totally misleading the electorate – Gordon Brown, as a self-confessed europhile, rightly agrees that this is a fundamental change. This is a shift that would be illegitimate without the consent, approval and indeed enthusiasm of the people who will have to live under this constitution for the rest of their lives.

We want a vote. We deserve a vote and we will fight until we get a vote. Disraeli said: "The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity". Trust the People are that youth and will be those trustees.

Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to speak, I think we now have some time for comments.

*************************