So that’s it then. The Lisbon Treaty has passed sucessfully through Parliament, despite an 11th-hour Tory effort to delay proceedings. The UK now joins a merry band of 19 EU countries which have all ratified the document.
It’s a gross betrayal of the ‘No’ vote in the Irish referendum. The noise coming out of Downing Street is that it doesn’t want a two-tier Europe, and it will attempt to terminate the Treaty should Ireland – or any of the other 27 countries – drop out of proceedings. That’s better than the “forget the Irish” standpoint that some countries have. But it’s still less than noble. After all, as more and more countries ratify the Treaty, the pressure will surely mount on the Irish government to follow suit – thereby overriding the will of its people.
But, more pertinently, it’s also a gross betrayal of the British people. We were promised a referendum; we wanted a referendum; and we probably would have joined the Irish in saying ‘No’.
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