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		Letter to the Editor The Economist - Wednesday 21st June 2006 Dear Sir Richard Corbett MEP (letters, June 17th) takes issue with your leader of May 27th on the EU, and especially with your comment that EU integration is driven by an élite which is out of touch with public opinion. He argues that "no other political issue has been subject to so many referendums". His effrontery is breathtaking. Yes, there have been many referendums, but the EU simply ignores adverse outcomes. In Denmark (1992) and Ireland (2000) voters were told to go away and vote again until they got the right answer. Following the French and Dutch NO votes last year, the élite are determined to press ahead regardless -- a pledge repeated by President-in-Office Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel in Brussels as recently as June 19th. Huge swathes of the EU Constitution are being implemented right now without any legal basis. The EU shows a brazen contempt for public opinion. It is unaccountable and anti-democratic. Its pretensions to be "A Union of Values based on Democracy and the Rule of Law" are in tatters. ROGER HELMER MEP Roger Helmer MEP