UK citizens last again

Date: 16/01/1997

What are we to make of the public response to the Commission's information hotline, Citizens First, which enables anxious Euro-residents to dial a number and learn all about the single market?

For it seems that while an enthusiastic 37,217 Italians called their national hotline number in the 40 days between 26 November and 4 January, only 860 Britons bothered to dial up or make use of the EU advice sites on the Internet.

Just typical UK apathy, you might say.

Or could it be that many were misled because the European Parliament printed the wrong telephone number for the British Citizens First hotline?

December's issue of EP News advised UK residents to ring a number which turned out to be the number for Ireland, but without the relevant country code.

Nice to think the poor UK showing is down to a printing error, but the circulation of

EP News would have to be of British tabloid proportions in the UK to make that much difference.

No, good old-fashioned British apathy seems a much more likely explanation.