THE good news that Tony Blair has finally agreed to hold a referendum on the proposed EU Constitution is a remarkable U-turn.

Some would say it is a major defeat for the Prime Minister. Those of us who have been campaigning for this moment for years consider it a major victory, and would of course like to take the credit.

But really the victory belongs to those from all political parties, and from no parties, who have written letters and postcards, who have signed petitions and who have raised the noise level progressively over recent months. It is a victory for the people themselves that the people will finally have their say.

Some newspapers say the Prime Minister has been pushed into this out of weakness. He was actually pushed into it because he was wrong. He tried to maintain that the proposals from Brussels were merely 'a tidying-up exercise' rather than a fundamental shift in the way the UK might be governed. The people simply did not believe him.

Den Dover (Conservative MEP for North West England), Countess Way, Euxton, Chorley.