"Should the United Kingdom approve the treaty establishing a constitution for the European Union?"

Peter Riddell (left), of The Times, says the wording of today's question is neither new nor controversial - and voters will have to wait at least a year before they get the chance to vote on it.

Is the wording of the question controversial?

"The wording of the EU referendum question is not really controversial and was foreshadowed in a report last September by the Electoral Commission which oversees the conduct of elections and referendums - and has to judge on the intelligibility of the question."

What is the significance of this announcement - has the Government finally started selling the constitution?

"There is no real significance in the timing of the publication of the bill. Following the agreement on the constitution by EU members last June, the Government was committed to introducing legislation on ratification at some stage. So the bill - promised in the Queen's Speech - was bound to be brought in during this session.

"If, as expected, the general election is held in May, there will not be time for the bill to become law beforehand, and it will have to be re-introduced afterwards. There is plenty of time before a referendum, likely to be in either March or June 2006."

Is Michael Ancram, Shadow Foreign Secretary, right when he complains that the Government has lumped the constitution bill in with the referendum question?

"Michael Ancram is wrong to suggest that the Government has underhandedly slipped the question in with the constitution bill. That was always going to happen and that is the way for Parliament to debate the referendum question."

Given the figures, can Labour ever win this referendum? Or are they just waiting for voters elsewhere in Europe to reject it?

"All recent polls have suggested overwhelming opposition to the referendum in Britain, but a lot of opinion is conditional. The Government's strategy is to play it long, hoping that approval of the constitution in virtually all other EU countries will create a mood of inevitability.

"Alternatively, some less committed Labour strategists hope that rejection in one big country or several smaller ones would let Britain off the hook and that a referendum can be avoided. This is now less likely, since polls in France point to two-thirds support for approval in the referendum likely in June."

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