A Eurosceptic, writing last week in the Scarborough Evening News, makes some rather unnerving claims. (The letter was published on 13 May under the headline NEED FOR KNOWLEDGE ON EU VOTE, but it's not available online as the Scarborough Evening News appears hardly ever to update its website.)

First, a sensible point:

"If… we have to vote, the British must be informed about [the constitution]'s content. From my enquiries I believe that hardly any of my countrymen and women have any idea of this."

But then it starts to get worrying:

"Even those who, like myself, have obtained a copy (it is in the library) and studied it may be fooled. This is because it has been drafted, redrafted and polished by lawyers and the whole thing reads as being quite innocuous."

Think about this for a minute. The writer isn't saying that the constitution is dangerous but for some reason those evil politicians are trying to convince us it's not - I'm used to that kind of claim. Instead, the writer is saying that he's actually sat down and read the constitution and seen it to be harmless, and yet he still believes that the wool is somehow being pulled over his eyes. Now that's the ultimate paranoid conspiracy theory. I wonder what evidence it would take to make him realise there is no conspiracy?