Pinched from Witterings:
From Hansard 19th May 2009 - Column 1327:
Mr. Evennett: Can the Minister confirm categorically that any changes to the Lisbon treaty for any country would mean that the treaty needed to be re-ratified? Would the Government then hold a referendum on this matter?
Caroline Flint: I think that it is dead if people vote against it.
It Makes No Difference
1 hour ago
4 comments:
Ta for link MW
Caroline Flint: I think that it is dead if people vote against it.... "So we're going to make damned-sure that nobody gets the chance".
Pogo got it in one there! Of course, by proposing to allow MPs a "free vote" on the treaty or on proposals for a referendum on the treaty (ie Conservative policy is not to veto the treaty but to allow the vote) Cameron, in effect, toes the same line. It's exactly the same hypocrisy and moral dishonesty which saw the LibDems voting against the original proposal for a referendum because they claimed to prefer an "in or out" vote on the EU: a proposal they knew would never see the light of day.
I don't know why anyone would ask such a stupid question, unless it was supposed to be a bear-trap.
The whole point of the Lisbon Treaty is that it's self-amending.
That is to say, it includes within itself, the mechanism by which further changes - any further changes at all - can be implemented, without any need for another treaty.
It was deliberately designed that way by the "colleagues", so that there would not been to be any more unpleasantness about ratifications, referenda, public opinion, or indeed anybody's opinion except the Commission's, at any time in the future.
Once Lisbon's a done deal (and it will be, you watch), then everything else is possible, whenever they want it.
In some ways, this is our last chance to stop the juggernaut. But actually, once started in any way, its future path was all too clear to those who paid attention; the real watershed was the European Communities Act 1972.
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