It’s not even six months since the Irish people firmly rejected the Lisbon Treaty, yet already we are seeing the opening shots of the mostly unelected political elite in the EU, in a campaign to tell the Irish they were wrong and must vote again next October.
Of course to have any success the EU will have to change the Treaty and give Ireland so many derogations, that what Ireland will be presented with will be a fundamentally different treaty. Under any normal rules of course, a new treaty should require signature by all member states afresh. Will this happen? Is the Pope a Catholic?
Of course it won’t. The UK government are fortunate in one way. After telling us that the Treaty was virtually the same as its fore-runner the EU Constitution, (which was roundly rejected by France and Denmark), and that the British people don’t therefore need a referendum, they would have had more of a problem attempting to justify their position when Ireland will be told that The Treaty is both completely different to the Constitution, and the first Lisbon Treaty that Ireland rejected.
