Comments by a New Zealander, Charles Upham VC & Bar, at the time Britain was attempting to Join the Common Market:

1962 - "Britain will gradually be pulled down and down, and the whole English way of life will be in danger."

1971 - "Your politicians have made money their god, but what they are buying is disaster." He then added - "They'll cheat you yet, those Germans."

When we went into the Common Market we were joining a "Trading Block" not a political union, when we were asked if we wished to remain in the Common Market we were talking about remaining in a "Trading Block" not whether or not we ultimately wanted any form of United States of Europe. The Conservatives are the only major party that is offering the electorate of the UK a choice in the matter that has far outran the original concept that we voted for in the past. The United Kingdom is one of the largest net contributors to the EU's coffers which to me suggests we put in far more than we get out. In the long term we are better off out of it as a Political Union. We cannot negotiate a damn thing from inside it, we could as an associate member via EFTA, just as the Norwegians have successfully done.