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OPINION:Telling voters that they cannot understand the treaty is condescending and wrong, writes FRANK CLARKE

BEFORE THE campaign even begins, let us reject the patronising talk that “ordinary people” could not possibly understand the Lisbon Treaty. Try reading the Finance Bill after the budget every year. It too is filled with sections and subsections, amendments and difficult language. None of us reads it, yet all of us know what it does. It increases or decreases our tax rates and it makes important changes to how the government raises money and spends it.