Common Market - not political union

Jul 21 2008 by Our Correspondent, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

DR BILL Armer’s letter (“Time for a new referendum” Mailbag July 14) will strike a resonant chord with many readers of the Examiner.

He reveals that in 1975 he, along with 8,470,073 voted NO to this question on the referendum ballot paper, I voted exactly the same. The question read, “Do you think the UK should stay in the European Community (Common Market )?”

Briefly, the dictionary defines “community” as a body of people having common interests or origins. “Market” is defined as a gathering for the sale of provisions, livestock, etc to buy or sell in a market.

Presumably that is why many of the 17,378,581 people who voted YES in 1975, thought they were voting for a trade agreement.

The Labour Government had quite cleverly posed the question in such a manner, that voting for a trade agreement would be a vote for more jobs and more prosperity for the UK. No indication was given that this was a vote to become part of a political alliance.

The theme of Mr Stephen Dorril’s letters on the subject, opposing the need for a new referendum, appears to be that having voted to become part of a trade agreement in 1975, we should irrevocably accept we are a fully fledged member of what is now the European Union.

History shows that the people of the UK had been conned.

P Schofield

Lindley