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European Union (Amendment) Bill

My right hon. Friend is making a principled case for a referendum, but there is another principled case to be made in its favour: for good or ill, our membership of the European Union—the European Economic Community, as it then was—was eventually sanctioned by a referendum that was held when the EEC was a much more limited enterprise. The reason why ever more people, including my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Devizes (Mr. Ancram), are changing their minds and agreeing that there should be another referendum is that there has been no popular consent for the arrangements that have developed over the years, as represented in the new treaty.