Ten EU member countries will be holding referenda to ratify the new European constitution. All others will ratify it in their parliaments. Hungary and Lithuania have already done so.

In a major feature article, the Financial Times evaluated the likelihood of a positive vote in all 10 nations. While some qualified misgivings were expressed about expected passage in a few of these countries, the United Kingdom received the only outright negative evaluation. The article tersely stated: "Opinion polls predict a no vote."

This is not at all surprising to those who understand what the Bible foretells for Europe and the national origins of the British people. (To understand further, request our free booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy.) The Channel gap between Britain and Europe is psychological as well as geographical.

Nonetheless, both the European Union and Britain's Labour government plan a massive effort to turn the tide. In fact, the EU is forming a "rapid reaction force" to influence Britons and convert them to European constitution supporters before the expected vote in the first half of 2006.

Britain's minister for Europe, Denis MacShane, expressed the Labour government's point of view: "The government has a secret weapon up its sleeve. These are the facts on Europe. For years people have just heard the myths, propaganda and the antiEuropean arguments from the isolationists. For eighteen months the facts about Europe will be put to the people and I'm confident they will not want to isolate Britain from Europe" (emphasis added throughout). A massive effort is obviously being planned.

The following questions should be asked: Will Britain finally approve the European constitution and perhaps eventually embrace the euro as its currency as well? And if it does, what will that do to the United Kingdom's special transatlantic relationship with the United States?

Britain's national newspapers are divided on these issues. The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and two or three tabloids basically support the euroskeptics. The others either come down on the side of approval of the EU constitution or are divided in their opinions. Curiously, one popular tabloid has opened a new office in Brussels to "expose the waste, greed, corruption and hypocrisy at the heart of the European Union" (Financial Times).

To comprehend the ultimate significance of these momentous events, request our free booklets You Can Understand Bible Prophecy and The Book of Revelation Unveiled. (Sources: Financial Times, The Times [both London].)