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European Communities (Finance) Bill

No, I am grinding slowly to a halt. It is a painful process for the House that I do not particularly want to interrupt. Reality is not mindlessly handing over money to every demand or mindlessly saying that we benefit from an institution that is in fact doing us harm, and which is constructing over our heads a state that will be set above our own nation state. We need an honest, objective measurement of the benefits and debits of membership—I hope we shall be given it by our Government. That would be a sensible basis for making a decision about our relationship with Europe. The decision may take the euro-enthusiast direction that my new hon. Friend the Member for Grantham and Stamford and my old friend, the right hon. Member for Rotherham, want, but it may not. People may ask, ““Why should we spend all this money? Why should we donate all this money and suffer disadvantages and losses? Why shouldn't we build up our economic strength and decide our economic destiny?”” Let us see the balance sheet; then we can decide whether we are prepared to pay. Naivety is interesting and useful—perhaps necessary—in courtship, but it is no basis for a long marriage.