Ireland’s yes to the Lisbon Treaty was emphatic (albeit at the second time of asking): 67% voted to approve it, with just two of the 43 constituencies rejecting it, on an icnreased turnout of 58%.
Nick Clegg was quick to welcome the result – and to note the awkward situation David Cameron now finds himself in:
This result finally puts to rest years of wrangling over Europe’s future and paves the way for a stronger and more democratic European Union.
“The worst thing would be to re-open this self-indulgent debate. David Cameron should now finally accept the treaty as a fact of life instead of plotting with Eastern European nations to have it blocked. The Conservatives are already embarrassing themselves and Britain with their petulant impotence on Europe.
“Big issues like the economic crisis, climate change and cross-border crime cannot be tackled by any country on its own. The EU offers us safety in numbers and this is why best place for Britain remains at the very heart of Europe.”
David Cameron has emailed his members in anticipation of Ireland’s yes vote, in an attempt to quell the overwhelming clamour for a tougher Eurosceptic stance from the Tory leadership over their post-ratification plans:
I want to make one thing clear: there will be no change in our policy on Europe and no new announcements at the Conference. There will be no change in Conservative policy as long as the Lisbon Treaty is still not in force. The Treaty has still not been ratified by the Czechs and the Poles. The Czech Prime Minister has said that the constitutional challenge before the Czech Constitutional Court could take 3-6 months to resolve.
I have said repeatedly that I want us to have a referendum. If the Treaty is not ratified in all Member States and not in force when the election is held, and if we are elected, then we will hold a referendum on it, we will name the date of the referendum in the election campaign, we will lead the campaign for a ‘No’ vote.
If the Treaty is ratified and in force in all Member States, we have repeatedly said we would not let matters rest there. But we have one policy at a time, and we will set out how we would proceed in those circumstances if, and only if, they happen.
So there we go, then: if Lisbon is ratified, Mr Cameron “will not let matters rest”. That’s cleared that up, hasn’t it. Good job the Tory leader believes in straight-talking, or who knows what convoluted formula he’d have come up with in an attempt to buy himself a bit more time.
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16 Comments
didnt nick clegg promise us a referendum? is he embarrassed about lying to us?
1. Nick Clegg isn’t PM
2. The European Constitution was ditched in favour of the Lisbon Treaty, which keeps the consolidation aspects but gets rid of the, eh, constitutional aspects of the Constitution.
“The European Constitution was ditched in favour of the Lisbon Treaty…”
I’d love to know how many of those who peddle this half-baked garbage actually believe it, and how many know how ridiculous they sound but say it anyway out of a sense of party loyalty. I guess it’ll always remain one of life’s little mysteries though.
Seeing as there’s now a chance Tony Blair could be President of Europe I should damn well think we’re entitled to a referendum.
“The worst thing would be to re-open this self-indulgent debate. David Cameron should now finally accept the treaty as a fact of life instead of plotting with Eastern European nations to have it blocked. The Conservatives are already embarrassing themselves and Britain with their petulant impotence on Europe.”
What Clegg fails to mention is that the British public as a whole is deeply Eurosceptic and would probably vote against the Treaty. Does he therefore think that they are petulant? His attitude comes across as extremely arrogant.
A short road to Tower Hill for you boys.
Ianm, the nasty thing about saying that, and believing it is – err… well, it’s what happpened. The constitution was abandoned. Lisbon did replace it. You….. might not like that, but trying to claim it didn’t happpen… well, it ignores the felling of a great many trees which the replacement was printed on, for one thing….
Two Parliament committees have found that it’s different, and if you’re so far removed from reality as to think they’re somehow identical in spite of that, you might like to read Chris Huhne’s comprehensive rebuttal.
Even 61% of Tories want to stay in the EU according to a ConHome poll recently, so I really think this silly, and lazy, thoughtless Europhobia should be put to bed where it belongs.
The Irish vote seems to have seriously unbalanced David Cameron if today’s e-mail from him is anything to go by…
‘This weekend we will hear the results of the referendum in Ireland on the re-named EU Constitution.
I want to make one thing clear: there will be no change in our policy on Europe and no new announcements at the Conference. There will be no change in Conservative policy as long as the Lisbon Treaty is still not in force. The Treaty has still not been ratified by the Czechs and the Poles. The Czech Prime Minister has said that the constitutional challenge before the Czech Constitutional Court could take 3-6 months to resolve.
I have said repeatedly that I want us to have a referendum. If the Treaty is not ratified in all Member States and not in force when the election is held, and if we are elected, then we will hold a referendum on it, we will name the date of the referendum in the election campaign, we will lead the campaign for a ‘No’ vote.
If the Treaty is ratified and in force in all Member States, we have repeatedly said we would not let matters rest there. But we have one policy at a time, and we will set out how we would proceed in those circumstances if, and only if, they happen.’
For goodness’ sake. Tory trolls need to decide whether they support the principle of absolute Parliamentary supremacy/Europhobia or the principle of right to referenda.
If it’s not a constitution, why does it create offices such as “President”? I’m sorry, the fact that “two parliamentary committees” (with what political make-up – oh yes, proportional, in which case “Mandy Rice-Davis Applies”). Personally I think the sophistry over whether it was a constitution by any other name and another “consolidatring treaty” (which was the form of words also used to describe the effects of the previous constitution anyway) when it came to welching on our manifesto promise of a referendum was one of the most disgraceful episodes in our recent history.
Even if it is a “consolidating treaty” what it does do is consolidate a whole load of treaties over whicih we have never been offered a plebiscite in a way that makes them more concrete and binding than ever before with a finality that deserves a say now, even when those now calling for a say didn’t think it was a good idea when they ratified them.
It *was* a good idea to call for an “in or out” referendum, but that not being supported we should have taken the line *closest* to our manifesto line and voted with the Tories for a referendum on Lisbon. Now we have no chance for a say and the only party that contains the word “Democrats” in its title were the ones that prevented it.
Welcome to the Thousand Year Reich (or at least this time round it might be the German constitutional lawyers preventing it happening!)
All I wish now is that we could get as many people out on the streets to protest any canonization of liar Blair as “president” as we did for his illegal and disastrous warmongering.
@Greg
Thanks for going some way to answering my question.
Hey Jock, would you rather be actually helping make policy in Europe or be like Norway where they have to wait for Brussels to fax them their laws?
And isn’t it ironic that so many europhobes talk about how undemocratic the EU is and then are relying on either the Polish or Czech heads of state to refuse to sign, defying their parliaments and indeed all the other parliaments in Europe?
And have you read the actual treaty?
I’m not a Europhobe by any stretch of the imagination. I’m very much pro-Europe.
I’m also pro-democracy and pro-honesty though, and those aren’t always compatible with the former position.
It might be helpful if someone could remind us all of what happened to the Lib Dem line: “lets have a referendum on the big picture, should we stay in or should we pull out” approach. …Has this just now withered on the vine? If so, why?
We should take no lectures from Tories on referendums. Can’t remember them fall over themselves to offer referendums on Maastricht and the Single European Act both of which had much greater integrationist measures than Lisbon.
I’m not a europhobe. Why is it that EUPhiles always portray those of us not enamoured of ever larger and more entrenched power structures as “Europhobes”?
I am a libertarian, a mutualist. I would prefer us to turf our own national politicians out of Westminster, let alone having supra-national bodies that are only representative mostly at “second hand” (even with the enhanced competencies of the EU Parliament which, however much I may love and cherish our Catherine, and I do, is remote and also impenetrable).
Since the Lisbon Treaty is an amending treaty and not designed, or even possible, to be read on its own, no, I have not bothered. However the consolidated texts of the three treaties amended by it with the resulting amendments makes for scintillating bed-time reading for us insomniacs, even on the “twelfth recital”!
In fact I think that is part of the problem. Even though I would be likely to vote against given the opportunity I would have preferred for them to use the “Constitution” approach than this “amendment” approach. However Giscard D’Estang being no match for Thomas Jefferson, both were impenetrable from the start.
I have no personal problem with the word “constitution” – even Oxford City Council has a “constitution” – it is not in itself a word that signifies a claim for sovereignty so much as a statement of the ways in which it will operate, though that was how it was portrayed (mostly because of the offices it created and the trappings of statehood it adopted – and, for the most part, continues to adopt with the amending treaty).
Since the treaty seeks to achieve most of the aims of the constitution without using the word constitution it should be considered as important a change as the constitution on which the party promised a referendum. Yorkshire Guidon – whatever we may think of the Tories on Maastricht and the SUA the fact that this consolidates and amends all the founding documents gives us the opportunity we have not had since 1971 to have some kind of say as to whether to tell them to think again about the direction they are going or to give them “full steam ahead”.
Norway should turn its fax machine off.
The world is moving inexoirably into an epoch of interpersonal relationships and I simply reject the need for great “blocs” based on soon to be anachronistic “nation states” that claim to “represent” us. I am revolted by the sight of so called “world leaders” strutting around – it’s no better than the various monarchs in “Oh What a Lovely War”.
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[…] job encapsulating the whole thing, but has anyone else noticed the glee with which Labour and the Lib Dems are using the Irish Lisbon vote as a stick to beat the Tories? Doesn’t that seem, in light of […]