In four months time, the House of Commons will ratify the Lisbon Treaty; A treaty that creates an EU president, a high representative for foreign affairs, and a treaty that pushes majority voting into somewhere between 45 and 70 new policy areas. Then there’s the ‘ratchet clause’, which could see treaties revised and amended without an inter-governmental conference. If, like me, you don’t like the sound of that, tough.
There isn’t going to be a referendum. Brown knows that given the opportunity the public would probably reject the treaty. He also knows that the public are not exactly rioting to make their views heard. Of course, if you ask people whether they want a referendum, the response is yes. But they’re not asking for one without being asked.
And for anyone studying the influence of the tabloid press over public opinion, this is a good example of how little the Sun actually matters.
Having wiggled out of a referendum, Labour’s majority will ensure easy pass through Parliament. The Conservatives are too small in numbers to affect the outcome. So, privately, we admit defeat. Publically, our argument should be confined to the treaty itself, and only expressed when necessary. Our opposition should be put on record and made known so that people can have their say at the next election.
Gordon Brown, very generously, has given Parliament twenty weeks to debate the treaty. He might be hoping that a prolonged debate will give the Tory right the opportunity to sound off, and to question the UK’s whole membership of the EU.
They should shut-up. While some might be content with the party remaining a pressure group, the Lisbon Treaty is a glaring example of how, in the end, it’s a majority that counts.
02/11/2007 at 19:52 |
Oh please. Firstly, the treaty doesn’t create the post of EU President, it merely transforms it from a 6 month rotating post to a two and a half year appointed post. So the person in charge actually gets picked based on merit and not on who’s turn it is, and has enough time to set more than fleeting agenda.
Secondly, much in the same vein, the representative for foreign affairs is not a new post but really an amalgamation of two existing ones with overlapping duties. Because God forbid the EU actually gets more efficient.
Thridly, your problem with qualified majority voting is… what?
Fourthly, we can tolerate a ratchet clause as long as it never gets used. And if it does get used, we always have the option of refusing to recognise the change. Such is the voluntary nature of international (albeit the special character of EU) law.
The only real problem with the Reform Treaty is that it gives the Charter of Fundamental Rights legal effect, which is just absurd because all the Member States have to ratify the ECHR anyway.
02/11/2007 at 22:02 |
I have to agree with Daniel. The Conservatives need to face the fact that we are an OPPOSITION party we simply do not have the strength to force a referendum… nor should we when we can watch the government sign its own suicide note. We should voice our oppositiion to the treaty and emphasise our belief that a referendum should be held. We have done this. However we cannot let this one issue eat away at our policy platform and dominate our media coverage.
The public know we oppose what brown is doing in regards to the treaty and when all this blows up in his face at election time we will have a nice little weapon up our sleave… we opposed the treaty… Brown sold us out… If we continue to obsess over this issue we will never convince the people we have changed. There are far more important issues to focus on…. issues that really matter to the British people… Yes we as a nation are inclined to be skeptical of anything to do with the bureaucratic bog known as the European union… however the people are far more interested in the issues that affect them on a daily basis… such as tax, immigration, education, health, law and order!
06/11/2007 at 11:57 |
[...] An interesting article about how the Conservatives should react to the Reform “Treaty” over at the University of Birmingham Conservative Future Blog: [...]