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		Letter to the Editor Nottingham Evening Post - Thursday, 15 January 2004 Dear Sir, Turncoat MEP Bill Newton Dunn argues that the EU is democratic because both the EU parliament and the Council of Ministers consist of elected parliamentarians (letters, 12/1). Odd, then, that Newton Dunn is also the man who claims to have invented the phrase "democratic deficit" to describe the EU. Labour MP Gisela Stuart, a keen EU fan, went to serve on the so-called "Convention" in Brussels that drafted the EU Constitution. She soon realised the shocking reality. In her booklet "The making of the EU Constitution" she described the Convention as "a self-selected group of the European elite". She added "National parliamentarians were the visitors to Brussels, invited to meetings to endorse the decisions reached by European interest groups". The truth is that the EU institutions have an agenda and a momentum of their own, and pay no attention to the needs or aspirations of ordinary people. The overwhelming majority of MEPs are passionate federalists, like Newton Dunn, because those are the sort of people who offer themselves for election. So by all means vote in the June euro-elections, as Newton Dunn suggests, but vote for candidates determined to represent the views of Nottinghamshire voters - not those obsessed with building the People's Republic of Europe. Yours faithfully, Roger Helmer MEP