Contempt of leaders

The British electorate are stupid. This is not my view, but it must be the view of Gordon Brown and our central government.

Regarding the new EU treaty: The Labour-dominated Commons European Scrutiny Committee has stated that the new treaty is essentially the same as the EU constitution on which we were promised a referendum.

That same committee has stated that the UK's "red lines" would not be effective and would "leak like a sieve".

Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the original constitution author, stated "In the Lisbon Treaty, drawn up exclusively from the Constitutional Treaty, the tools are exactly the same. Only the order has been changed in the toolbox."

d'Estaing has also noted that the new treaty "is unreadable for citizens", and asked: "What is the point of this subtle manoeuvre? First and foremost to avoid the constraint of referendums."

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel says simply: "The substance of the constitution is preserved. That is a fact." The Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero admits: "We have not let a single substantial point of the Constitutional treaty go . . ."

In spite of all the above and much more, our government insists the new treaty is not the same as the old constitution, and Britain's red lines mean the treaty is somehow different for Britain. Thus they are denying us the promised referendum.

Our government don't even talk about the 60-plus areas where the treaty takes away our veto and imposes qualified majority voting. Such is the sovereignty of our country being eroded by the EU. We, the electorate, are being treated with utter contempt by those we elected.

A I and Y Bebbington, Lichfield Road, Stone, Staffordshire.