It is overwhelmingly Brussels that controls broad swathes of our legislation and our public life, to our great detriment. The reason that voters rate “Europe” way down their list of priorities is that, intentionally or otherwise, our politicians have chosen to conceal (or at least not to make clear) the extent to which we’ve surrendered control of our own affairs. It is the historic rôle of UKIP to let that cat out of the bag. I find that the more I tell voters about the EU, the angrier they get.

When the Prime Minister echoes your aim, this is undoubtedly a big campaign success. But it's still very far from certain that an EU referendum will happen.

David Cameron’s pledge is to hold a referendum after the next election. But the result of the recent Eastleigh by-election shows that he may well not be in office after 2015 to deliver it.

Business leaders are now among more and more voices joining our call for an early EU In/Out Referendum and piling the pressure on Cameron for a vote as soon as possible. I was quoted in a Daily Express piece today demanding Cameron “man up” and call the referendum this parliament. If he doesn’t then he must step aside for someone who will.

Don’t be fooled into thinking the fight is over. The future the EU is planning makes it all the more important that we get the referendum Britain needs: a real in-out vote.

Speaking to MEPs this month, Angela Merkel said "the European Commission will one day become a government, the EU Council a second chamber.”

Which planet is this guy on? How can he mention “growth” and “the EU” in the same sentence? Can he think of any reason why trade might suffer when we leave the EU? Does he think that China and the USA have serious problems trading with the EU? Can he explain the benefits of being part of the lowest-growth economic bloc in the world? Doesn’t he know anything about the huge damage done to the UK by EU employment policies, and energy policies? Has anyone told him that our EU membership is costing us up to 10% of GDP? Find it here.

So what do we want? A new relationship based solely on free trade and voluntary intergovernmental cooperation. We want no part in their employ¬ment, social, justice, environmental or home affairs, foreign or defence policy, or agriculture or fisheries. We want no part in any EU political, fiscal, monetary or judicial structures. There is no more reason for Britain to be involved in the EU Commission or parliament than to demand representation in the US Senate or the Russian Duma.

Like everyone else, I applauded the Prime Minister's courageous decision to Veto a new EU Treaty a few weeks back. But with hind-sight, I've come to a much more cynical view.

The EU is not primarily an entity, but a process. The Coalition's policy is effectively to ensure that, for the UK at least, that process will cease. We have to recognise that having repudiated the process, we cannot indefinitely remain part of the entity. Roll on Independence Day.

We talk about monetary issues and economic problems, and it’s all too easy to forget that we’re talking here about a real human tragedy. People, families, communities, companies, nations, are in despair as they lose jobs, incomes, pensions. Poverty is stalking large parts of Europe, and the light at the end of the tunnel seems to have gone out entirely. The issue is not how we save the €uro (described rightly by Lord Lawson as one of the most irresponsible political experiments of the post-war era). It is how we rescue millions of people from penury and depression, and how we avoid years - decades - of grinding deflation for countries like Greece and Portugal.

It's time for Merkozy to recognise that there is no way out. While a fiscal/debt union with a single Treasury and a single Finance Minister is theoretically workable in economic terms, it is no longer sustainable politically.

Why not? Because it entails massive, open-ended fund transfers from German tax-payers to Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain.... and so on. The Germans have spent twenty years bailing out the East. They will revolt if asked to keep paying for the South for another twenty years -- or forever.

The People's Pledge are pleased to announce that we will host an historic Congress (http://peoplespledge.org/congress_2011) on the future of Britain in the European Union. The event will be held in Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, London on Saturday 22nd October 2011.

The aim of the event is to bring together people from across the political spectrum who believe that Britain should have a referendum on our EU membership.

In the sweep of history, few issues are as politically volatile as tax-funded bailouts of foreign countries, especially during difficult economic times. It's a policy that provokes dramatic political change. The 20th century's most famous case was in interwar Germany, when nationwide resentment against payments to conquering allied nations ushered in National Socialist rule.

It should be no surprise that overtaxed Finns have no interest in sending their tax dollars to bail out the banking industry of Portugal, a country that is 2,500 miles and two days travel away.

Where the U.S. Constitution was based on empowering the people and controlling the state, the EU Constitution was based on empowering the state and controlling the people.

The European Union Bill with its sovereignty clause was merely intended as a sop to eurosceptics, to buy off opposition and rebellion. Yet for the government to offer a sop which is transparently worthless is merely to demonstrate contempt for its own supporters. And Cameron should never forget that the great majority of Conservative members and activists are eurosceptics. If they are to be treated in this cavalier fashion, it would be unwise to rely on their enthusiasm and commitment in future elections.

But the EU is not Europe. The EU is not primarily a country or group of countries, but a model of governance, and a very bad model too. Like most supranational dreams (think USSR, Yugoslavia?) it has a sell-by date -- and it seems to have reached its sell-by date, and to be hitting the buffers, around now.

It is perfectly possible to love a country and hate the system of governance. Love Burma, hate the Junta. Love Korea (I spent four years there), Hate Kim Jong Il and his clique. Love Cambodia, Hate Pol Pot. Dare I even say, Love Germany, Hate the Nazis?

Senior MPs, peers and campaign groups acclaimed this newspaper’s stand against the sprawling Brussels super-state as a turning point in the battle to win back Britain’s independence.

And Eurosceptic critics of UK membership said the growing financial crisis among the euro nations this week – threatening to cost British taxpayers billions of pounds – has overwhelmingly confirmed the case for British withdrawal.

Since the Coalition came to power in May, it has been surrendering vital powers to Brussels with indecent haste -- arguably faster than Labour ever did. Financial regulation; an EU Diplomatic Service; the EU investigation order (about which even the Police have complained -- they'll have to implement it. Whether they want to or not).

“Essentially, both the USSR and the European Union have decided to create structures that ignore the identity and aspiration of the people and eventually the aspiration and identity of the people reasserts itself,” he added.

Trusting the electorate would be the best way to answer the criticism that politicians, as a class, are out-of-touch. Far from detracting from the sovereignty of Parliament, a referendum would restore a measure of that institution's legitimacy. MPs should recognise that they are not the owners of our liberty, but its temporary and contingent custodians. If they want to carry on handing away our independence, they should have the decency to ask our permission.

So thank heavens for my good friend and colleague Dan Hannan, who today launches a national campaign for an EU referendum. Read his blog at http://is.gd/f0h3U, and visit the campaign web-site at www.eureferendumcampaign.com. Above all, please sign the Referendum Pledge! And get your friends and relatives and associates to sign too. Tweet it to your followers. If you're involved in an organisation, put it in your newsletter.

For Greece, and Spain, it's not just a question of radical spending cuts and grinding deflation for years -- though that would be bad enough, and probably unsustainable in political terms. No. It's worse than that. Even to hold steady and to service their existing debt burden, they need economic growth. But the deflation and spending cuts they are required to implement will cause their economies to shrink. Default looms. There's no way out.