The Lisbon Treaty has been ratified

The deed is done. Václav Klaus has signed the Lisbon Treaty and thus it becomes enacted. (BBC News: Czech leader signs Lisbon Treaty) Now it is no longer a question of "if" but "now what?"

Inevitably attention is now going to turn to the UK Conservatives as to what policy they will follow if the next election puts them in government. The wilder ends of the blogosphere are already demanding a retroactive referendum be held early in the new parliament in the hope of undoing things. But let's be clear - such a referendum that votes "No" can have no legal force. The changes can't be unenacted.

(A slight diversion here as I expect someone is already about to post a reply on the lines of "Yes it can be undone! Parliamentary sovereignty means anything can!" Parliamentary sovereignty is all well and fine on matters within the full jurisdiction of Parliament. But it doesn't apply to areas beyond the scope of the jurisdiction or where jurisdiction has been withdrawn. For example Parliament could repeal the Canada Act 1982, but try enforcing that withdrawal in Canada! Similarly Parliament cannot undo an action transforming the EU, anymore than a person can unscramble an egg and put it back in its shell.)

All a post-ratification referendum would do is consume a lot of time and taxpayer money for no discernible difference. At the end of it the United Kingdom's relationship with the European Union would remain the same no matter what.

There are only two real ways forward. One is to grin and put up with the situation we have. The other is for a new government to undertake a renegotiation of the terms of membership of the European Union and then put those terms to the people in a referendum, much like the 1970s Labour government did, and if a satisfactory arrangement cannot be found then to withdraw.

However too many on the Eurosceptic wing of the party are rarely realistic on these matters. They have just spent the last four years focusing all their energy on the rather trivial matter of which grouping we sit with in the European Parliament after all!

A year of Nick Clegg

Apparently Nick Clegg has been leader of the Liberal Democrats for exactly one year today. (Hattip to Iain Dale's Diary: Nick Clegg: A Year of Progress or A Year of Disappointment? as I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.) So what has happened in his year as leader?

Well to be honest not much. The Liberal Democrats have stabilised, have managed to have a year without a leadership election (the first since 2004) but generally have been rather obscure. Their biggest news story was the massive splits when Clegg decided to oppose calls for a referendum on the EU Constitution "Treaty", when they are the party that has called for referendums on such treaties before. (Liberals continue ditching democracy and And so continues the Lib Dem Muppet Show) So that's one strike against democracy. (However I'm not sure that Clegg himself is responsible for the party's youth wing ditching students and democracy - see Young Liberals abandon students and democracy.) Otherwise the party has continued to be all over the place when it comes to tax cuts and that's about it really.

What about Clegg himself? Well he hasn't really made a great political impact and he's best known for the admission of sleeping with thirty women. It confirms that there are times when the public have the right not to know but has otherwise made him into a figure of fun. (However Jeremy Vine came off even worse - see Never again!) Then there was the revelation and attempted cover-up about the fact that Clegg was a member of the Conservatives at Cambridge. (Clegg's murky past) But beyond that Clegg hasn't made any real impact.

Still he can take some consolation when compared to the Liberal Democrats's counterparts in other countries. In the last twelve months their Canadian counterparts have suffered their worst election results since federation and seen their attempts to pervert democracy backfire big time with the leader deposed (When was this put to the electorate?), Has Canadian democracy triumphed?, "Forest Gump as a Prime Minister will not go over well in Quebec" and Harper 1, Dion Nil), their Australian counterparts have disappeared from parliament and their Irish counterparts have voted to dissolve themselves (The end of the Progressive Democrats).

Now Sinn Féin become heroes?!

It seems that the Irish have rejected the EU Constitution "Treaty" in their referendum. (BBC News: Irish minister says EU vote lost) And the only party in the Dáil who campaigned for a "No" vote was... Sinn Féin.

Sinn Féin are not exactly ideological soulmates to many Eurosceptics in the UK. So I can well imagine that many are looking on in amazement at which side they've found themselves on. Of course to attribute this result to Sinn Féin alone would be absurd - they're only a tiny force in the Dáil and it seems that other campaigners and general scepticism have contributed as much to this result.

Now the big question is whether or not this "No" vote will be accepted by an EU that is notoriously weak when it comes to democracy. Or will the Irish have to have more referendums until they "get it right"?

Has Young Fine Gael lost the plot?

Young Fine Gael, the youth wing of one of the Irish political parties (but don't ask me what they stand for!), have launched posters in support of the European Constitution Lisbon "Treaty". And these are frankly some of the silliest arguments made in its favour yet:



Aren't they truly dire? Has Young Fine Gael got no serious reasons for people in the Republic of Ireland to vote yes?

Still at least the Irish get a say on this "Treaty", thanks to Supreme Court rulings, which is more than everyone gets. But then if other countries let the people have a say, they might "get it wrong" and that would never do for the "European Project", would it?

Oh and for those wondering, Young Fine Gael can hardly be called a counterpart of Conservative Future. The European affiliations aren't the same for one thing - Young Fine Gael is in Youth of the European People's Party and Conservative Future is, for some inexplicable reason, in European Democrat Students.

Hat tip to Iain Dale: Well I'm Convinced, How About You?!

And so continues the Lib Dem Muppet Show

When Sir Menzies Campbell was forced out many Lib Dems were privately rejoicing at the prospects of a firmer leader and a more organised party. Yesterday those hopes were well and truly shattered.

Over 20% of the parliamentary party rebelled on a three line whip and three members of the most senior part of the frontbench team resigned over the issue. The only reasons there weren't more resignations is apparently due to some rule that allows junior spokespersons to rebel and keep their post. Well the Liberal Democrats are a party that like to pretend you can have your cake and eat it.

It's strange because the Lib Dems are the party for whom all the arguments over whether or not the Lisbon Treaty is pretty much the same thing as the EU Constitution should be utterly irrelevant. They called for a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty and have long called for government to trust the people. Then they turned round and decided that the people can't be trusted.

Is it any surprise that the Liberal Democrat blogosphere is now in uproar? (Dizzy Thinks: Is the Lib Dem blogosphere rebelling too?, Norfolk Blogger: Suddenly you realise you are not so different after all, New Model Army: Send in the clowns... and more.) On this first major test of Nick Clegg's leadership he has flunked it and shown that he is more concerned with promoting European centralism than in leadership. The EU is not known for being the most democratic of organisations and is it unsurprising that an ex MEP seeks to block the people having a say and instead makes only tokenistic gestures trying to divide the referendum movement?

Well done David Heath!

Congratulations to David Heath, now the Liberal Democrat Justice spokesperson if not for much longer, for announcing that he will defy the party whip and vote for a referendum of the EU Constitution "Treaty", in accordance with his party's election manifesto. (BBC News: Lib Dem MP to rebel on EU treaty) Let's see if any other Liberal Democrats join him in this.

Liberals continue ditching democracy

As well as the party's youth wing changing the name and ditching "Democrats" (see Young Lib Dems to become a lie?), the party is retreating from democracy in other areas. Nick Clegg has announced that his party will vote against letting the people of this country have their say on whether or not political power should be transferred.

Many often argue against referendums, making the case that we elect Parliament to make decisions for us. And this is true. But that is a very different thing from whether or not Parliament should have the right to give powers away; powers that will be very hard to retrieve. There is an unwritten agreement between Parliament and the people, and any changes to that agreement should be assented to by both.

Nick Clegg seems scared of a referendum - does he think he wouldn't win one? Doesn't he have the self-confidence to put the case for the treaty to the people? If so then he truly is a yellow politician. Instead he's calling for a basic referendum on whether or not we should be in the European Union at all - a worthy thing in itself but since such a vote is currently unlikely he is merely using it to appear to support democracy whilst in actual fact undermining it.

And at the last general election all three parties promised a referendum on the Constitution. That the treaty is very similar is a conclusion reached by even the committees of the House of Commons, so the nomenclature is no excuse for backing away from one. As Austin Mitchell said in the Commons:

If it looks like a constitution, if it smells like a constitution, if it reads like a constitution, so far as I'm concerned it's a constitution.
(Source: BBC News: In quotes: EU treaty debate

One of the reasons for the great alienation from the European Union in this country is the way that politicians have sought to keep the debate amongst themselves, telling the people that it was all about free trade as an ends in itself and then claiming the project was just about "modernisation" and "expansion", rather than being open about the goal of European unity. A referendum would give pro Europeans the opportunity to put their case to the people and seek to re-engage the public on this issue. Instead politicians like Nick Clegg (a former Member of the European Parliament) choose instead to perpetuate and extend the democratic deficit.

You can't have your cake and eat it Gordon!

The EU Constitution "Treaty" has been signed, making sweeping changes to Europe "just tidying a few things up" (BBC News: EU leaders sign landmark treaty) and look who's the only leader not at the signing ceremony.

Yes Gordon Brown, once again bottling out. He's used some committee at the House of Commons as an excuse for not attending, when committees are rescheduled all the time. He just doesn't have the bottle to be seen signing such an important document when he won't honour Labour's election pledge to hold a referendum on it. The argument that the "Treaty" is too different from the Constitution just doesn't wash.

If Brown wants to be taken seriously, he's got to learn that a Prime Minister can't simply hide every time there's something controversial, the way he often did when he was Chancellor. And if he wants the county to adopt the "Treaty" he should be willing to sign it in public. Even Tony Blair had more courage than this.

Or did he just skip the ceremony so he could avoid running into Peter Mandelson?