Ray Mallon

The politician was Tony Blair. When asked by William Hague what he meant when he said he would hold a referendum on the euro "early in the next Parliament", Mr Blair said the blindingly obvious: for it to be early in the next five-year Parliament, it would have to be in the first two years.

Mr Blair then sat down. Mr Hague, normally the most assured of Parliamentary performers, was in such a kerfuffle at having received a straight answer he had to depart from his script.

The media made much of the incident. They regarded it as amusing. It's just not cricket, wrote the commentators, because everybody knows that a politician's prime purpose is to be evasive and slippery.

Poor Peter Mandelson is similar case. When asked whether he made a phone call, he evaded, saying he couldn't recall. When pressed, he gave a straight answer - yes. His reward was the sack. Only now, it turns out that it may not have been a straight answer, because now he claims that no, he never made the phone call.

It would all be very funny if it wasn't so sad. I have often shaken my head as I hear yet another politician fail to answer the question put him. It's as if they are putting two fingers up at the electorate because the journalists doing the questioning are acting on behalf of their readers or viewers.

I find it even more disappointing when politicians answer from the handbooks which lay down the party line. And when they vote, the whips tell them whether the party wants an aye or a no. It doesn't seem to matter what they, individuals, think. It is hard to know who these politicians are loyally serving: is it the electorate who put them in the Commons, or is it the party?

Apart from North Yorkshire, the North-East is dominated by Labour. In fact, many of our representatives have done well for themselves and are now in top jobs. So are they loyal to the party apparatus, or to the communities who elected them?

A number of councils in the North-East are struggling to make the allowance central government gives them go round. Therefore council tax is going up - in Darlington, for example, by 12.5 per cent.

So is the MP for Darlington supporting his constituents by telling the Labour Government it has to do better, or is the MP for Darlington - who happens to be both a party member and a Cabinet member - not answering the question? I'll leave you to be the judge of that.

WITH his straight answer, I think Mr Blair has played the vexed euro issue pretty well. And now we know that we will all have the chance to decide soon, it will not be such a running sore in Labour's campaign.

I cannot understand the Conservatives' policy. If you are going to save the pound you must do so on a matter of principle. But a Parliamentary term of four or five years is no principle at all.

To me, it is a question of sovereignty, about whether we rule ourselves. This week, the EU has told the Republic of Ireland it was wrong to cut taxes and Gordon Brown he was wrong to increase spending. That sounds to me worryingly like a loss of our sovereignty.

But then there's Corus on Teesside. Once it was British Steel, employing British people to provide for the British market. Now it's partly owned by the Dutch who want to close British factories because of the state of the European market. That sounds to me worryingly like we've already lost much of our sovereignty.

I hate sitting on the fence, but I think Mr Blair is right on this occasion to wait until the right time before asking the British people whether the euro is right for them.

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