Brits will not rest until they get EU referendum

Momentum and media support is growing for a vote on continued British membership of the EU, claims Jon Gaunt

Political commentators including Boris Johnson are keen to describe the Greece crisis as a Greek tragedy. They are wrong - it is a tragicomedy verging on a Whitehall, or should that be a Brussels, farce.

Let us face it; the Europhiles have been caught with their metaphorical trousers down by what has happened in Ireland and now Greece. Meanwhile, Spain is standing in the wings as the next expected casualty to enter the drama before the curtain falls. People like me have been warning for years that it was a complete and utter joke to link the economy of a country like Greece with an economic powerhouse like Germany.

We also warned that the United Kingdom should never join the euro and we were shouted down as little Englanders at least and racists and Xenophobes at worse, by the leftie loving Europhile press - led by the Pravda of the European Union, the BBC. But we were right and they wrong. And on the wrong side of the argument were serving ministers like Ken Clarke and Nick Clegg. They should hang their heads in shame and admit they were wrong.

People like Gordon Brown, who signed away our sovereignty, and David Cameron, who u-turned on his "cast iron guarantee" of a referendum on the EU, should admit their mistakes and folly by now backing a referendum of the UK population - on whether we stay in or out of this expensive undemocratic and failing European experiment. As Greece crashes and burns, the collective brains in Brussels do not seem to have a clue how to solve the crisis. Or, rather they are still not willing to admit that the emperor of the EU has no clothes.

Instead of allowing Greece to leave the eurozone, restore the Drachma and deflate their currency - they want, instead, to pour more billions of our cash into a Kamikaze economy that has no return flight. The unelected, but highly expensive European Commission has proposed an increase in the EU budget of 5 per cent, pan-European VAT, a new Tobin tax and reform of the UK's rebate - fought for and won by Margaret Thatcher. A case of while Rome – or, in this case Athens - burns they fiddle, normally with their expenses. Remember, the EU accounts have not been signed off for years and years.

And at home, we are facing the most draconian cuts to public services in decades. George Osborne stated that he had no choice, but to cut our welfare bill by £7bn. Then, just weeks later, he committed exactly the same amount in a bailout to Ireland. Go figure. His leader, Cameron, not content with ring fencing foreign aid actually increased it - as thousands marched against the cuts in London. Of course, we will not directly contribute to the Greek bailout. But let me please remind you that we have just increased our contribution to the IMF disaster fund by £9bn. We now pay in more than the US, which of course when - and it is when and not if - the Greeks default we will again end up picking up the tab.

Although, we should really feel sorry for the Germans. Yes, you read that right. The German population are being asked to bail out the Greeks, while they continue to work till they drop - but most Greeks can retire at 50. Not only that, but it seems that the Greek population have a "give and take" attitude to paying tax. They refuse to give the tax and they take as many benefits as they can con out of their inefficient system.

Now there are rumours coming out of Number Ten Downing Street, in London, that Oliver Letwin and Cameron's personal adviser Steve Hilton want out of the EU altogether. Rumours that would have been laughed out of court just a few months ago. The truth is, Europe is coming back to haunt Cameron as it has done all recent Conservative Prime Ministers. Outside events are dictating that we must re-examine our relationship with Brussels. There is talk of renegotiation. But let us be clear, poll after poll of the British public says they do not want to tinker with the edges of this cancer. We want to cut it out completely.

It is the politicians who got us into this mess. They must now allow the people to decide whether we want to stay in it or not. That is why the EU Referendum Campaign was formed – to, simply, give the British people the choice to stay or go. Now, three major papers are supporting our demand for a referendum led from the front by the Daily Express, followed by the Daily Mail and of course only two weeks ago the the Sun published a poll clearly showing that they and the their readers want a referendum too.

Cameron cannot and should not be allowed to ignore this groundswell of support. He needs to act now before the inevitable happens and Greece and Ireland default, which will plunge Portugal and then Spain into the abyss. It is not just the euro that is doomed, but the whole EU project and the UK should stop giving bail-outs to the PIGS. Instead, we should bail out of this failed United States of Europe project immediately.

Jon Gaunt is the official spokesman for the EU Referendum Campaign