Instruments of ratification

There was much huffing and puffing last week, when the judge in the Stuart Wheeler case told the gummint it ought to stay ratification of the Lisbon Treaty until he had delivered his ruling (which ought to be any day now!).

Our Sub-Prime Minister then "told a Brussels press conference that the court ruling fitted the government's ratification timetable, which could take weeks or even months to complete."

Denis Cooper did a bit of digging on this; it turns out that 'Any lie will do, if they think they can get away with it':

The FCO's internal procedures (see part 5 of this) could probably be sorted out in a day or two, bearing in mind that these people all work within a few hundred yards of each other and have e-mail and telephone and stuff. If they need a steer on Step 5b) "Treaty section to draft Instrument of Ratification", they can just cut and paste from this handy two-page template for an 'Instrument of ratification'.