Daily Mash or Daily Express?

Can you guess without looking?

A SENIOR aide to David Cameron says the Prime Minister has ruled out a referendum on EU membership because Britain delivered a “very clear result” on the issue 36 years ago.

Laurence Mann, Mr Cameron’s political private secretary, said the British people did not want another in or out vote because it would be “artificial and simplistic”. Instead, he said Britons should be grateful for the EU’s “useful work” on global warming and global poverty. Writing on behalf of the PM, he said: “These are compelling arguments why we believe Britain should be an active member.”

Mr Mann, who is part of Mr Cameron’s inner circle, said there were “strong counter arguments” against the vote, adding: “We had a referendum on that issue in 1975, which produced a very clear result. The EU is not a matter of everything or nothing. We have, in the past, done well in ensuring that Britain can participate in the collective good carried out by the EU, such as free markets, while keeping out of things that we believe would be bad for our country.

"We should not lose sight of the EU’s very useful work, such as ensuring that all the nations of Europe are equipped to face the biggest challenges of the 21st Century: global competitiveness, global warming and global poverty. These are compelling arguments for why we believe Britain should be an active member. A simplistic in/out referendum, posing an artificial choice that does not do justice to the range of views in the country, would be highly unlikely to settle the question of Britain’s membership of the EU at all.”