TRUST the people? Never. The pained protests over the referendum on the European Constitution by prominent EU supporters like Michael Heseltine reflect their fear that defeat stares them in the face.

But they could be wrong. Strong though anti-EU feeling is in Britain at present, an opinion poll records only the barest majority, 51 per cent, for a No vote on the constitution. Almost certainly the main reason why the Government has set no date for the referendum is to give itself maximum time to win support for a Yes vote. And it is foolish to underestimate the power of Government brainwashing.

But it will have to come up with something a little more convincing than the claim that the constitution is merely "a tidying-up exercise''. With its own president, army, supreme court and foreign minister, the EU will be the United States of Europe in all but name. The so-called red lines loudly trumpeted by Britain can probably be erased later.

As it is, the EU gains primacy in matters that include freedom, security and justice, agriculture and fisheries, transport, energy, much social policy, the environment, consumer protection, and safety issues in public health. Control of the economy is foreshadowed by a requirement that the EU "shall adopt measures to ensure co-ordination of the economic policies of the member states''.

What seems to be emerging as a key argument for a Yes vote - that it will better enable us to influence the EU - seems in itself to cast the EU as a monster in need of control. Crucially its power will remain largely with the unelected Commissioners - mainly ex-politicos like Neil Kinnock and Chris Patten - and the Council of Ministers.

This is the heart of it. Imperfect our own democracy might be, yet it is a democracy, hard won by its citizens over centuries. The referendum is really about whether we give it up.

TWENTY-FIVE years since the dawn of Thatcherism. All that posterity needs to know about its creator is that she put pawnshops and beggars back on Britain's streets. And, oh yes, not long before her departure she changed the Prime Minister's pension arrangements, entitling her to a bigger whack.

DID Thatcher also give us Fat Cats? They certainly flourished under her successor, John Major. And they still thrive under Tony Blair, whose vows to neuter them have proved worthless.

Fat Cats are now so much a part of Britain's fabric that only the business pages report such double-cream lappings-up as the £1.4m package received by Andy Haste, chief executive of Royal and Sun Alliance, after just nine months with the insurer, and the £1.6m collected for his first year in the job by Gerry Murphy, boss of B&Q owner Kingfisher. Yet some people who have worked a lifetime with firms - though not these - see their pensions snatched away from them.

WITH each honours list we learn of people who have refused some bauble or other. Does no one ever turn down a seat in the House of Lords? Whether from right, left, or centre, those offered a chance to don the ermine (and join the best club in the land) seem to have no scruple about exercising power without the slightest democratic authority.