A time for choosing

The Irish “no” vote just gets better and better. The Plan B, as Wolfgang Müünchau says in today’s Financial Times, probably is to carry on without Ireland and create what many countries have wanted for some time: a two tier Europe. So the obvious question is: how do we sign up? Suddenly, Brown’s decision to ratify the Lisbon Treaty becomes more than just a futile act of arrogance. It would wrongly place Britain amongst the enthusiasts, whereas the British public’s position is identical to Ireland’s: yes to EU, no to Lisbon. If this is an option, it is one that British government is honour bound to seize as this is, according to the European Commission’s own opinion polls, what the public wants. But is honour a word in Gordon Brown’s vocabulary? We shall see this week.