THE Prime Minister's EU Referendum climb-down represents a welcome victory for grassroots campaigners throughout the country.

The Freedom Association was the first organisation to call for the public to be given an opportunity to endorse or reject the EU Constitution which like it or not, will profoundly affect every one of us.

The forthcoming referendum will provide the people of the United Kingdom with an historic opportunity to express a view on further European integration. The Freedom Association will be campaigning for a No vote on the basis that we have surrendered too much power already to a foreign body over which we have no democratic control. The EU is bedevilled by high unemployment, low growth, mounting budget deficits and restrictive practices and the new Constitution will simply entrench those aspects of the EU which are unquestionably against Britain's national interest.

Moreover, the EU Constitution sweeps away all previous EU treaties, and replaces them with a recipe for full political union. A No vote will give the government of the day a powerful democratic mandate to re-negotiate the terms of our membership, and to create an open, flexible association of independent nation states which would command popular support.

Philip J. Duly

Campaign Manager

The Freedom Association

PO Box 2820

Bridgnorth

Shropshire