A bizarre evening in the House of Lords

In case you missed it (and chances are that you did), last night's debate in the Lords on the Government's proposed EU Bill and 'referendum lock' was a bizarre affair, with many of the peers literally being all over the place. For a while there, it reminded us of some of the debates we've come across in the European Parliament - in many cases, what was said didn't actually correspond to anything taking place in the real world, nor any shade of public opinion.

We have looked at the 'referendum lock', which we're broadly in support of, on several occasions and argued that it would have been a much better 'lock' if it had incorporated the transfer of crime, justice and immigration laws - the Coalition has said it will continue to make its decisions to 'opt in' to these new laws on a case-by-case basis (and it continues to do so in roughly two-thirds of the cases it has the opportunity), rather than via a formal mechanism that could give MPs and the electorate some control over these transfers of power.

But back to the debate. A sign that something is broadly hitting the right note is when it is attacked from both sides. The Bill has been attacked for both preventing any future EU integration and as a sell-out by those who feel it won't stop the transfer of powers to Brussels (many of these people's real problem with the 'referendum lock' is that it doesn't roll back the existing transfers of power, which it was never designed to do) . Now, surely, both cannot be right.

Former Tory Minister and Conservative peer Lord Deben was seemingly having a particularly bad day, suggesting that the Government was pandering to "head-bangers". He added that he was "ashamed" of the Government's plans to hold referendums on whether to approve new EU treaties or major changes to existing ones and promised to vote against the legislation "again and again and again" unless changes were made.

The irony of an unelected peer being "ashamed" to consult the British people on major transfers of power to the EU (including the unelected Commission and unelected ECJ) - seems to have been lost on the noble Lord Deben. This is the full quote:

I do not believe in referenda in any circumstances. They are wholly unsuitable in a parliamentary democracy; they are a foreign invention used by people for ulterior motives; and they have never been part of the sort of society in which we live. I am ashamed that my Government have brought this forward.

Er, out of touch? The argument that the Bill would lead to referenda being held on every minutiae of EU policy seems to have gained credence amongst the peers discussing it yesterday. The only problem is, this argument is absolute nonsense, which anyone who has followed just a bit of EU politics over recent years would realise.

The Bill only covers transfers of competence under a new treaty or through changing the existing treaties - some of the major the "passerelle" clauses will also trigger a referendum. But there are a lot of stuff that won't trigger a public vote, because of what the EU already can do within its existing legal framework.

To get an idea of the kind of action that the EU can take without touching the Treaties, take the creation of the eurozone's €60bn temporary bailout fund, the EFSM. The hugely controversial decision to reinterpret EU law, through a qualified majority vote, and ignore the existing "no bail-out" clauses in the Treaties did not require a treaty change and therefore wouldn't have been caught by the lock. Or take the creation of three new EU financial supervisors, with binding powers over national authorities - again, that decision was taken by a qualified majority vote. A Treaty change wasn't even on the cards.

Rather than trading in hyperbole, Peers should focus on the meat of the Bill and seek to improve it, so that some trust can be restored in politics. Realising that European and British politics have moved on since the 70s/80s/90s (take your pick) would be a good place to start.

Incidentally, if ever you thought that the Lords were more mature than their counterparts in the Commons and less susceptible to ‘Punch and Judy’ knockabout, check out these comments from Lord Kinnock (whose family we’d point out earned a tidy £10m at taxpayers' expense during and after its stint in Brussels) directed at UKIP peer Lord Pearson:

My Lords, when the noble Lord, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, says that he wants to stick to his guns, I am inclined to hope that he goes very near to the muzzle of those guns-indeed, just in front-because that would be a suitable location.

Now that’s not very nice, is it Neil?

Lib Dems abstained on Lisbon Treaty referendum because they thought it "would fail"

One of the latest leaked US diplomatic cables has confirmed what many of us had suspected all along. The Lib Dems' U-turn on their pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was not motivated by a principled preference for an 'in or out' referendum on EU membership but by a belief that a referendum on Lisbon would be lost.

Here's the relevant passage:

A Very Bad Day: The Lib Dems and The EU Reform Treaty

--------------------------------------------- ---------

2. (SBU) March 5 marked the worst day for the Lib Dems since one infamous week in January 2006, when the party became the laughing stock of Britain after sex scandals involving two of the four candidates to succeed leader Charles Kennedy emerged one right after the other. This time around, the party imploded in the House of Commons over a Conservative Party motion to hold a nationwide referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. The Lib Dems' convoluted official position on the referendum was part of the problem. As Clegg sought to explain it to the public, the real issue for his intensely pro-Europe rank-and-file was not the Lisbon Treaty itself, but confirming UK membership in the EU once and for all. The Lib Dem official position therefore was to propose an alternate "in or out" referendum on whether the UK should remain in the EU, and abstain on the competing Conservative motion to hold a referendum on just the Treaty itself.

3. (C/NF) This position left both the pundits and the public scratching their heads: why would the UK's most pro-Europe party, whose new leader actually worked for the EU from 1994 to 1999, abstain on a vote on the Treaty? The answer, senior Lib Dems have confessed to us, is that the party leadership believes a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would fail.

Hmmm, we kind of suspected that was the motive. Or, actually, it was blatantly obvious as the Lib Dems flip-flopped like crazy on the Lisbon Treaty.

All of this brings back some horrible memories...

If it wasn't for me

We have just come across this rather amusing snippet from Labour leadership contender Ed Balls who, we learn via the Today programme, single-handedly prevented Britain from joining the euro in the latter part of the last decade (and the first part of this decade)

Ed Balls has previous on this - but has never been quite so bare faced in his determination to claim ALL the credit for the decision not to join the Euro:

“On the Euro, I think most people would say, if it hadn’t been for me, we may well have joined the single currency”

Where the problem comes is with the notion that the Labour Government would have been able to 'sow up' Britain's entry into the euro but for Balls' intervention. Additionally - it is a revealing portrait of how voters were treated on all things EU under the previous Government. What about the small matter of the referendum that would have been required? Does Balls not think the public might have had a rather more important say in the matter?

What does the Con-Lib coalition offer on Europe?

As we detailed in our press release today – the Con-Lib coalition Government deal on Europe has some things which reform-minded people, such as ourselves, can be happy about, and some things to feel a twinge of disappointment over. A basic summary of our thoughts on the matter is here:

The Conservatives have retained their pledge for a ‘referendum lock’ – guaranteeing that any future transfers of power to the EU be subject to a referendum – which is welcome, and could give citizens the sense of ownership over EU policies that has been missing in recent years.

They have watered down their pledge for a UK Sovereignty Bill – saying instead only that they will “examine the case” for such a Bill. However, since it was never crystal clear how such a Bill might work in practice, we aren’t particularly vexed about this one.

In a somewhat cynical move, the new Government has also made it clear that the UK will not join, or plan to join, the euro over the lifetime of the next Parliament. Since we would have sooner seen Bill Cash say “I agree with Guy (Verhofstadt)”, than a political party recommend joining the euro in the next 4-5 years, the euro question was effectively neutered anyway.

Rather disappointingly the Conservatives appear to have shelved their plans to elevate the position of Europe Minister to Cabinet – this would have promoted the importance of the European Union in UK politics and shown that the Government was ready to become more engaged and forthright in promoting the UK’s interests in Europe.

The new Europe Minister is David Liddington – and not Mark Francois who has shadowed the position since 2007. While we hope David Liddington will approach EU reform with the tenacity that is required, it is a disappointment that the continuity Mark brought to the role over recent years (amid ever-changing appointments on the Labour benches) will not be maintained under the new Government.

The Conservatives have also dropped their pledge for an opt-out in criminal policy, and instead said they will approach any new legislation in justice and home affairs, and whether or not to opt-in, on a “case-by-case basis”. This is clearer a great deal closer to the position of the Lib Dems, who have favoured much more EU integration on justice and home affairs matters than any other party.

The coalition agreement has also dropped the pledge to seek an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and for the repatriation of powers in social and employment policy. Instead, the agreement only reads: “We will examine the balance of the EU's existing competences and will, in particular, work to limit the application of the Working Time Directive in the United Kingdom.”

This is a touch disappointing, as we have previously argued that this is an achievable, and desirable goal – giving the important impact such legislation has on the UK economy (and which is set to cost £71 billion over the next decade).

However, a key concession on the part of the Lib Dems in the coalition agreement would seem to be this pledge that: “We agree that there should be no further transfer of sovereignty or powers over the course of the next Parliament.”

While the Lisbon Treaty transferred a huge number of competences from member states to the EU, it is clearly a welcome step that the Government has committed to no new transfers of power over the next five years.

If interpreted strictly, this pledge has the potential to be very radical indeed, with Angela Merkel stepping up her calls of late that some kind of Treaty change is desirable to strengthen the rules of the eurozone. The Commission's new proposals, set out on Wednesday, do suggest that the possibility of further transfers of economic competence to the EU may be on the horizon.

The Greek crisis has meant that commitments to no more ‘institutional change” for ten years are all well and good, but countries such as Germany need some reassurance that the rules of monetary union will be toughened up and German taxpayers won’t be called on to bail out other eurozone countries who have run into financial difficulties.

Therefore a strict pledge that no more powers should be transferred to the EU/or if they are they should be subject to a referendum, presents the Government with the opportunity for the leverage in negotiations it needs, e.g. on the EU budget.

Is the Con/Lib agreement a good deal?

Well, some of the most important bits from the Conservatives’ Europe policy are still in there – notably the referendum lock and a pledge to transfer no new powers to the EU.

It is a disappointment to see a weakening in their stance on social and employment policy and justice and home affairs, but all marriages need compromise and given the gulf that lay between the two parties on the question of Europe, there is reason not to be too glum.

While the Europe issue may be a ‘sleeping dog’ at the moment – rest assured that the preparations for a full-throttled push for a European economic government will mean that the question of new transfers of powers are not far off.

One reason to oppose a Lib/Con coalition

For all the talk now of the Lib Dems as the kingmakers, wooed by both Labour and the Tories for their 60-odd votes, it is possible to forget that Nick Clegg is not some shiny, unblemished debutante, but a seasoned politician with his own electoral baggage that could throw up sticking points with both Tory and Labour backbenchers (should Con-Lib coalition talks end in much ado about nothing). Indeed, if there is one reason for the Conservatives to turn around and attempt to go it alone with a minority Government, it’s the Lib Dems’ appalling record on whether British voters should be given the referendum they were promised on the Lisbon Treaty.

The expression ‘flip-flopping’ doesn’t even begin to describe Nick Clegg’s behaviour when the issue was on the table in 2008 (see here for our reaction at the time).

Let us re-cap:

The Lib Dems, just like Labour and the Tories, promised in their 2005 election manifesto to put the European Constitution to a public vote. In 2007, in a bid to circumvent the No votes in the Netherlands and France, the EU Constitution was renamed the Lisbon Treaty and articles were recast, but the content remained virtually identical.

A bill to put the Lisbon Treaty/EU Constitution to a referendum went through the Commons in March 2008 (after the Commons debate on the Treaty was cut short). While most Labour MPs voted against a referendum, and most Conservatives voted in favour, Nick Clegg ordered his MPs to abstain on the vote, insisting that the Lib Dems were instead in favour of a referendum on the UK’s continued membership of the EU. Three frontbench Lib Dem MPs were forced to resign because they felt bound by their election promise and decided to defy Clegg by voting in favour of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

After the failure of the referendum amendment in the Commons, Nick Clegg continued to insist that his party was committed to the idea of a referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the EU. He said : “I argued for an In-Out referendum – and have done so for years – because I am convinced it is the right thing for Britain”.

However, the Lib Dems tabled no amendment to that effect when the issue was discussed in the Lords a few months later, and actually abstained from voting for an in/out referendum when such an amendment was put down, and instead voted in favour of the Lisbon Treaty. If the Lib Dems had abstained, like they did in the Commons, the referendum would have been passed.

With the Lisbon Treaty ratified in all member states, the in/out referendum pledge then appeared to have been dropped, with former party leader Sir Menzies Campbell saying in December 2009 that there was "no public appetite" for such a vote since the Lisbon Treaty was now in force. However, the pledge then re-appeared in party’s election manifesto.

Absolutely extraordinary. Perhaps we have too high expectations, but should politicians – particularly those who profess to want to ‘clean up politics’ and reconnect with voters – really get away with this kind of schizophrenic behaviour, which leaves voters wondering exactly where they stand on their manifesto pledges?

If we can put aside any potential uncertainty in having a less-than-secure minority Government in place for at least a year and that is a big If – (for injecting confidence in the economy and for the ability of the UK to influence what’s happening in Brussels at the moment), this would be as good a reason as any for David Cameron to go it alone – not least since a key challenge for MPs over the life of the next Parliament is to be able to restore trust in politics.

Footnote:

On a similar, but distinct, question of referendum promises, Nick Clegg spent last week doing some serious backpedalling in a bid to try and distance his party from their pledge to join the euro, which they featured slap band in the middle of their election manifesto.

On Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show last week, Nick Clegg couldn’t have distanced himself from all of his previous talk of the benefits of ‘anchoring’ our currency to the euro any faster. When asked by Vine: “Of course, but just to bring you back as it is quite important this – because you did want us in the single currency in 2003, and the other two didn’t, and you don’t want us in now, and so I’m just checking that you accept you’ve changed your mind”, Clegg said:

“No, let me be clear – in the 2005 General Election, which was the general election which counts, we did not recommend, as we’re not recommending now, that we should go into the euro. We are saying that there may be economic circumstances, and by the way the Labour government under Gordon Brown’s tests has said something very similar, there may be circumstances where you can imagine that might be the case. It’s not for now, we’re not recommending it for now, we would only ever recommend it if it was good for the British economy, not out of sentiment, because it’s good for savings and jobs and so on.”

Quite clearly “there may be circumstances where you can imagine that might be the case”, is not the most ringing endorsement for joining the single currency ever to pass one’s lips, and yet their official position remains that joining the euro is in the long term interests of the UK? Perhaps the events of the weekend may be enough to convince some of them that such a scenario would never come to pass.

If only it was true...

The dilemma thrown up by a hung parliament will obviously remain the main focus of British politics for some time. We will certainly return to what the result means for the UK's relationship with the rest of Europe as possible government arrangements become clearer.

In the meantime, the TaxPayers Alliance sparked some hope the other day by suggesting that we may get our promised referendum on the Lisbon Treaty after all that, since the Treaty would need ‘re-ratification’ to accommodate for some additional MEPs - the so-called 'ghost MEPs'. They wrote:

Due to various procedural changes, the Lisbon Treaty is going to have to be ratified by Parliament yet again after the General Election. David Cameron has always been explicit that had he been Prime Minister when the Treaty came forward for ratification, he would have held a referendum. Until now that has simply been a hypothetical situation – but now it is set to become a reality.

However, even before considering the complexity added to this question by the possible deal the Tories will strike with the Lib-Dems, this is very much a case of something being ‘too good to be true’ .

Having campaigned tirelessly over the years for a referendum on the EU Constitution/Lisbon Treaty we would love to share the TPA's optimism. But a referendum on this amendment to the Lisbon Treaty is, sadly, a non-starter - although the TPA does make several important points that the Conservatives should take on board.

The TPA’s latest post on the subject cites the Lisbon Treaty's 'passerelle clause' and a 'Foreign Office confirmation' that an amended Treaty would require Parliamentary approval, but this over-complicates something that is actually fairly simple – even if the UK were to hold a referendum on an amendment to the Lisbon Treaty, it wouldn’t in any way unpick the Treaty itself. Let us explain:

Several member states want to amend the Treaty in order to allow an extra 18 MEPs to take their seats in the European Parliament. Lisbon provides for 754 MEPs but, because Lisbon had not been ratified before the European elections last year, only 736 were elected as per the rules of the previous Nice Treaty.

The need for treaty change is a consequence of the further complication that the new rules would require three German MEPs voted in under Nice to give up their seats. So the proposed solution is to change the Lisbon Treaty in order to allow the three German MEPs to remain in their seats for the rest of the term and allow the 18 new 'Lisbon' MEPs, including one from the UK, to take their seats.

The TPA are absolutely right to point out that the treaty change requires unanimity - i.e. the UK has a veto - and that Parliament will need to ratify the amended Treaty.

The desire for a referendum is completely understandable, given Gordon Brown’s and Nick Clegg’s shameful broken promises to give the people a say on this Treaty. However, a referendum on an 'amended Lisbon Treaty' would be almost completely meaningless as it would not change the fact that the Treaty as it currently stands is already ratified in the UK and throughout the EU. It would therefore only be a referendum on whether the 18 extra MEPs, including one British MEP, take their seats before the end of the current term, it would not repeal the existing Treaty.

It is simply not credible to ask an incoming British Government to call a referendum on whether to send one more MEP to Brussels – and for a potential Cameron government it’s even more unreasonable given that the extra MEP would be a Tory.

It could be argued that this presents an early opportunity to call for the renegotiation of powers, which David Cameron outlined last year, but the ghost MEP amendment is actually of very little worth as a bargaining chip, since if the changes are not agreed they will automatically go ahead after the next European elections in four years time.

But the TPA is right in principle that the Tories, if managing to form a government, should seek to use Treaty amendments or other changes to their advantage (provided that they constitute genuine bargaining tools). There are plenty of things in the pipeline where a Conservative government could use its veto to get the things it wants. For example, there may well be treaty changes to incorporate new rules for the eurozone - something certain countries will badly want and for which the UK would be well within its rights to exact a price. Or the potential creation of a European Monetary Fund, which would be a clear step towards EU fiscal federalism. Other examples include a potential Croatian accession treaty and the upcoming EU budget negotiations.

We would never discourage people from debating the significant impacts of the Lisbon Treaty, and the undemocratic way in which it came to pass, but moving forward, we should turn our attention to the many future opportunities that the next Government will have to reform the UK's relationship with the EU, reducing the wastefulness of the budget and repatriating powers that are best exercised nationally rather than from Brussels. In the context of a crumbling eurozone and the tangible mood of disenchantment with the EU around Europe, a determined British Government should indeed capitalise on future Treaty changes and find strong allies for returning powers to the Member States. But any tactic for radical EU reform must be strategic, carefully thought through and well-timed. 18 ghost MEPs, regrettably, is not the answer.

Would you trust this Miliband?

With the election only two weeks away now the country has turned poll-crazy as we rate the stars, ahem, politicians with every twist and turn of the election horse track.

The latest intrigue from the poll-vine comes from an interesting study released in yesterday’s FT, by market research firm Harris International. It reveals that David Miliband is one of the least trusted politicians in the UK, with a whopping 38 percent of people saying that they ‘distrust’ him in contrast to the scant 12 percent who ‘trust’ him.

The surprise must come as quite a blow to Labour’s wonder child, and to the party who widely tip him for future leadership. The question remains, what has Miliband done to upset the voters?

We think this poll shows that the public remember oh too well the failed promises that Miliband, and the Labour party, have offered and taken away from us over the years.

In his role as Foreign Minister, Miliband promised to put an end to the UK’s role in overseas torture cases, but instead ended up publishing guidance as to how to interview detainees overseas. He also presided over the financial scandal that saw the Foreign and Commonwealth Office lose vast sums of cash after the budget was left unprotected from exchange rate changes.

But in our view the most fundamental breach of trust was the reneged promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Miliband was at the head of the party in the writing of New Labours' election manifestos which, as we well remember, promised us a referendum on a European Union Constitution. Strike 1 - the Constitution came and went without a referendum in the UK. Strike 2 – the identical Lisbon Treaty came and arrived without a referendum.

By also leading the defence on the Treaty in the Commons (which a clear majority of the British people didn't want) Miliband is very much synonymous with the whole insult to democracy that the Lisbon episode involved. It’s no wonder then that the people don’t trust him.

Whiplash

We confess that we are getting a touch of whiplash trying to keep up with the Lib Dems' constant to-ing and fro-ing over their position on a referendum on the 'EU question'.

As you might remember, the Lib Dems backed a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in their 2005 manifesto, only to abandon that commitment (by abstaining with characteristic decisiveness) and teaming up with Labour to block a referendum when the Treaty went through Parliament in 2008.

They then said they were in favour of an 'in-or-out referendum', but Lib Dems in the Lords again abstained from voting for such a referendum when an amendment to that effect was put down.

Then in December last year, former leader Sir Menzies Campbell voiced yet another position saying that there was "no public appetite" for an in-or-out vote on the EU since the Lisbon Treaty was now ratified.

Now we see, in a debate in the House of Commons last night, Lib Dem Foreign Affairs Spokesman Ed Davey saying: "Liberal Democrats support a referendum on Europe, but on Britain's membership of the EU and not on the legalese of any specific treaty. We believe that the British people want to be able to answer the in-out question, and that that is the sort of constitutional issue that is best put in a referendum".

Parties should be free to change their minds when they have a genuine change of heart but the Lib Dem's flip-flopping on this issue smacks of complete incoherence and more than a whiff of political opportunism. Perhaps Sir Menzies hit it on the nose when he said that they have no interest in a referendum of any kind.

A question of trust

An interesting new poll from Politics Home of 1,200 voters has found that less than half of Labour voters expect the party to fulfill its manifesto pledges.

50% of Labour voters think it is fairly, or very unlikely to fulfill its manifesto pledges, which is a tellingly high number. The equivalent figure for Conservative and Lib Dem voters' confidence in their parties are that 22% think their Party is fairly/very unlikely to fulfill its manifesto pledges.

While not wanting to disect voters' confidence in the political parties they support, this does smack of inevitability.

To imagine that there would be no fallout, or decline in trust in the Government, from its shabby decision to renege on its manifesto pledge to give voters a say on the Lisbon Treaty would have been naive in the extreme.

There are other factors at play here to be sure, but manifestos are a question of trust and abandoning manifesto pledges are a betrayal of that trust. If half of Labour voters now feel unable to trust that the Party will deliver on its promises, then those MPs that voted against holding a referendum can have no-one to blame but themselves if they fail to win back their seats at the next election.

"You may not trust the people, but we do"

Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson appears to be a giving a rather strong 'two fingers up' to Britain and the Netherlands at the moment, by refusing to sign the 'Icesave' bill, sending it to the Icelandic people for a referendum instead. The bill in question would see Iceland pay Dutch and Britain savers £3.6 billion in lost deposits from the collapsed bank Icesave, and take on a debt worth around 40% of Iceland's GDP in 2009, equivalent to around 12,000 euros for every Icelandic citizen.

Speaking to Newsnight last night, President Grimsson said "You have to trust the democratic process. You see in France, in the Netherlands, in Ireland, in many European countries, referendums are a normal part of the democratic process."

Is it a coincidence that he selected three countries which chose to ignore the outcome of their referendums on the Lisbon Treaty? They are not the only EU countries to have ever held referendums - so we suspect that by flagging up those three, President Grimsson is making a rather pointed comment, something along the lines of: "just because the EU is afraid of referendums, and chooses to bulldoze over the will of its people, does not mean that Iceland will do the same."

He went on to add, "I know in Britain you don't really have the experience of trusting the people with a referendum, but all over Europe there are countries that trust the people with a referendum."

Hmm...you don't have to be Alan Turing to decode that one either: "Just because Britain reneged on its promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty because it didn't think it could trust the people to vote in the 'correct way' doesn't mean we will do the same."

Meanwhile a new poll out today from MMR has found that 58% of respondents in Iceland said they would vote against the bill in the upcoming referendum, to be held on 20 February, and 42% said they would vote in favour of it. Will the polling numbers remain like that? Possibly not. Iceland might see the same not-so-subtle pressure applied to it that Ireland did (in Lisbon Mark II). See comments from Lord Myners yesterday, threatening Iceland with being frozen out of the international financial system, and not being allowed to join the EU, although following it with a "I don't think it's a case of us having to warn them...The Icelandic Government recognised that this was the case."

In all honesty, the EU might have to think twice about extending membership to a country that trusts the people and is willing to put an issue like this to the test.

Surprise surprise

Now that the Lisbon Treaty is safely in force (as of yesterday) the Lib Dems have predictably abandoned their support for a referendum on Britain's EU membership.

The tactic to support such a referendum was nothing more than a pathetically transparent and feeble attempt to get them off the hook for abandoning their manifesto commitment to a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty. Pretending to favour giving people a referendum that was never on the cards, the Lib Dems shamefully teamed up with Labour to block calls for referendum on the Treaty as it went through Parliament last year.

Safely over that hurdle, Nick Clegg can now ditch the dishonesty and go back to what he really believes - which is that the British public should never be given a say on the EU of any kind.

Pot... kettle

The Prime Minister has delivered a statement to the House of Commons regarding last week's European Council meeting, with more than a few questions directed towards him regarding the hoo-ha surrounding Tony Blair's candidacy to be the EU's first permanent President.

A question from Labour MP Ian Davidson made reference to the news this morning that the Conservatives have indicated they are unlikely to 'un-pick' the Lisbon Treaty via a referendum if it has already been ratified. He suggested that those who "capitulate" on their pledges betray the promises made to the British people.

Quite extraordinarily, Gordon Brown seemed to agree with him, and said that David Cameron had made a "cast-iron guarantee" to hold a referendum, and that it was now up to the leader of the Opposition to make his position on the Lisbon Treaty known.

Perhaps someone should remind the Prime Minister of his own words:

12 May 2004: "If we secure a treaty that is acceptable for Britain, then i believe we can also put it successfully to the British people."

24 June 2007: "The manifesto is what we put to the public. We've got to honour that manifesto. That is an issue of trust for me with the electorate."

and those of the Labour Party manifesto in 2005:

"The new Constitutional Treaty ensures the new Europe can work effectively...We will put it to the British people in a referendum."

This has a very strong and ugly odour of the pot calling the kettle black.

PS - With the debate about the Tories and their Europe policy really cranking up now, watch this space for Open Europe's upcoming take on what should be done...