Who'd Vote for This Vomit of a Dog's Breakfast? REVIEW

Byline: WILLIAM REES-MOGG

The Government published its Bill to provide for a referendum on the European Constitution last week. It also published the constitution in its final form, together with a page-by-page commentary.

I have started yet another rereading of this constitution, a task that has now acquired a certain macabre fascination for me.

In theory, we all ought to be doing what I'm doing. As good citizens, we all ought to take our referendum decision after carefully reading the Constitutional Treaty and deciding on its merit.

We should not rely only on opinions, however authoritative, not on the Prime Minister's - heaven forbid - not on Jack Straw's, not on the BBC's, nor, I would add, on mine.

This is quite a formidable task. At university level, I would regard it as a term's study for an industrious undergraduate.

The constitution is a complex and confusing document of some 493 pages, plus the commentary. Yet I think the public will get the gist of it, one way or another.

Each time I read it, I …

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Publication information: Article title: Who'd Vote for This Vomit of a Dog's Breakfast? REVIEW. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Mail on Sunday (London, England). Publication date: January 30, 2005. Page number: 65. © 2009 Solo Syndication Limited. COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group.

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