Skip to main content

When the facts change...

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? — John M. Keynes

The English version of the European Union reform treaty was published this morning, a few days later than the French version which came out last week.

The Constitutional treaty is a dead letter. Is the Reform treaty just an attempt to impose the controversial "constitution" by a more roundabout way?

Well, the UK Conservatives certainly seem to think so and demand an immediate referendum on the new treaty. Their reasons for asking for this are dressed in the language of principle, but as so often with the use of referenda, high principle is more like low politics. The Conservatives are highly sceptical of British membership of the European Union. Many of them advocate complete withdrawal, and they believe- indeed hope- that the British would certainly reject any treaty, no matter what.

I do not share their view.

Firstly, upon a close examination of the text of the new treaty, it is radically different from the Constitution. In particular it makes plain the sovereignty of the member states and affirms their right to leave the Union. It also sets out far more clearly the powers of National Parliaments over the European Union itself, and makes clear that its legal force is as a set of amendments to the original treaties, rather than a replacement to those founding treaties. To that end, the Reform treaty is actually less than half the size of the Constitutional treaty.

Furthermore, the entire legal basis of the Reform treaty is different from the constitutional treaty. Much of the treaty is in fact fairly non-controversial. No mention of flags and anthems, and while establishing a separate legal identity for the Union, it reaffirms the powers of the member states.

Now I have spent some time reading through the documents today.

William Hague announced at 7.45 this morning that his party opposed the treaty and that they would demand a referendum. So not only had the Conservatives apparently read through the treaty since dawn, they had also taken the serious step of deciding that it was completely wrong and should be entirely opposed before many people had even eaten breakfast.

Please bear in mind that the document that was published was a discussion draft, and is by no means the completed treaty. However, the Conservatives refuse to engage in discussing precisely what they oppose, just simply that they do oppose. It may be that they have been in deep thought since the French version was published, considering all the nuances in that language, but there is no evidence that more than a handful of the Conservative front bench can even read French, and those that do, do not seem to have been engaged in detailed discussions with their mono-lingual colleagues. So they must have adopted their position in the very brief period between the publication of the English text and appearing on the Today programme.

This is a Party that seriously believes that it is a contender for power?? To denounce a treaty that they can hardly have read is a contemptible display of banal and shallow politics. This is what shows up Cameron's house of cards. Their positions are based on ignorance- bullspiel and spin- and not considered or thoughtful and still less informed positions in any way.

William Hague should be ashamed of himself and anyone who wants the best for our country should note that the skiving Tories continually fail to do their home work. On Europe, as on much else, the Conservatives adopt ignorant and often extreme positions without even bothering to check their facts.

Those facts have changed, but the prejudices of the Tory Party will not allow them to even consider this. They press on with a dangerous and negative approach without pausing for breath. This immaturity is what makes the Conservatives unfit for office and will tragically continue to hand power to an over-mighty Labour party that despite its long, and increasing, list of faults at least has the advantage of appearing to take politics seriously.

I am happy to support any necessary referendum, but on the principle that significant constitutional change is involved. After the decisive rejection of the Constitutional treaty, the Reform treaty is now amendments of previous treaties, and therefore by definition no longer an issue of changing the constitutional status of the UK (indeed it is arguable about whether there was any fundamental constitutional change even in the original Constitutional treaty). At the least more reading of the new treaty causes me to reconsider my previous view that a referendum should indeed take place.

The Conservative position is simply absurd, and the vehemence with which they hold onto a policy based on ignorance is not far short of disgraceful.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Your comments are spot on. Of course the Tory house of cards fails before even two have been balanced together with the fact that they didn't call for a referendum in 1972, when a Tory Prime Minister signed the original accession treaty, in 1985, when a Tory Prime Minister signed the Single European Act and in 1992, when a Tory Prime Minister signed the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht).
Devil's Kitchen said…
"... they had also taken the serious step of deciding that it was completely wrong and should be entirely opposed before many people had even eaten breakfast."

Or, of course, they may, like other bloggers and thinktanks, have translated the Treaty themselves, long before the "official" version had been released. There are people in other parties who speak a foreign language, you know.

Let's not beat about the bush here; just say that you are in favour of abdicating our country's sovereignty and have done with it.

But in the name of all that's unholy, don't muck about with these weasel words: the method by which the Treaty has been amended to perform the same function as the Constitution has been well documented – not least by Christopher Booker today.

DK
Cicero said…
Well Chris, speaking from the sunny south of France, I still don't get this weird hang up on this word- sovereignity is not like virginity (you either have it our you don't) anyway- when it comes to defence, our reliance on the US makes us dependent in a way tht we certainly are not with the EU, and I don't see you moaning about NATO. My point is that the Tories have been skiving (again) and it is pretty crap that they can not engage in an intellectual debate on someting so critical.
Anonymous said…
thank you nice sharing

cep program

Popular posts from this blog

Concert and Blues

Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field The Weeknd and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn. It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t. Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe. We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year. Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hop

Media misdirection

In the small print of the UK budget we find that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the British Finance Minister) has allocated a further 15 billion Pounds to the funding for the UK track and trace system. This means that the cost of the UK´s track and trace system is now 37 billion Pounds.  That is approximately €43 billion or US$51 billion, which is to say that it is amount of money greater than the national GDP of over 110 countries, or if you prefer, it is roughly the same number as the combined GDP of the 34 smallest economies of the planet.  As at December 2020, 70% of the contracts for the track and trace system were awarded by the Conservative government without a competitive tender being made . The program is overseen by Dido Harding , who is not only a Conservative Life Peer, but the wife of a Conservative MP, John Penrose, and a contemporary of David Cameron and Boris Johnson at Oxford. Many of these untendered contracts have been given to companies that seem to have no notewo

Bournemouth absence

Although I had hoped to get down to the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth this year, simple pressure of work has now made that impossible. I must admit to great disappointment. The last conference before the General Election was always likely to show a few fireworks, and indeed the conference has attracted more headlines than any other over the past three years. Some of these headlines show a significant change of course in terms of economic policy. Scepticism about the size of government expenditure has given way to concern and now it is clear that reducing government expenditure will need to be the most urgent priority of the next government. So far it has been the Liberal Democrats that have made the running, and although the Conservatives are now belatedly recognising that cuts will be required they continue to fail to provide even the slightest detail as to what they think should guide their decisions in this area. This political cowardice means that we are expected to ch