From the archives: Cut off in Brussels

Let’s end the working week how it began: with talk of a European referendum. The talk, in this case, is provided by Daniel Hannan, who wrote an article for us in 2008 about his efforts to promote a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty from within the European Parliament. Here it is, our latest excavation from the Spectator archives:

For MEPs, public opinion is merely an inconvenience, Daniel Hannan, The Spectator, 22 November 2008


I’ve just done the most pointless thing an MEP can do: I’ve delivered a speech to the European Parliament. Actually, ‘speech’ is rather a grand word for my little soliloquy which, under the rules, had to be squeezed into 60 seconds. In general, only party leaders get more than two minutes, which means that no one has time to develop an argument or respond to other speakers. What Euro MPs call ‘debates’ are really exercises in speed-reading press releases.