Inevitably, Ed M tried to paint the fiasco of the ‘save the Euro’ negotiations as being wholly down to Dave’s incompetence and the Eurosceptic hardliners on the Conservative back benches. Nothing could be further than the truth; the seeds for this disaster were sown by the cowardice and sophistry of his erstwhile boss, Gordon Brown, in signing the Lisbon Treaty in 2007.
Dave walked out not because he was trying to avoid a Financial Transaction Tax (which can be introduced anyway), but because he was seeking to avoid the more catastrophic impacts arising from the Lisbon Treaty in what is a a new scenario of a 26 member ‘Euro’ block.
Critically, this agreement paved the way for the introduction of Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) in almost all every area of what should have been domestic UK matters, undermining democratic accountability in the UK. Admittedly, he was following in the footsteps of ‘history re-writing’ Blair and ‘Beano’ Vaz, amongst others.
Listen to the proclamations of Gordon on this Treaty
“If we needed a referendum we would have one. But I think most people recognise that there is not a fundamental change taking place as a result of this amended treaty.” — Gordon Brown, The UK Prime Minister, interviewed by the BBC, 24th September 2007
Compare this with the views of Angela Merkel on exactly the same treaty
“The substance of the constitution is preserved. That is a fact.” — Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, speech to the European Parliament, 27th June 2007
Are they talking about the same document? It is the irritating propensity of politicians to seek to describe black as white which devalues the democratic process in the eyes of citizens and ferments apathy – ultimately parliamentarians get the voters they deserve.
Read Gordon Brown’s statement to the House of Commons on 17th December 2007 in Hansard, for a cringing obscuring of the impact of Lisbon.
Further, all the parties repeatedly promised referenda in the event of any material transfer of power, and all parties (but particularly Labour, being in power during much of the treaty revisions) then reneged on those promises, even though it is surely self evident that the Lisbon Treaty fundamentally eroded the primacy of parliament. This included the UK signatory, the slippery Scot.
We will put it to the British people in a referendum.” — Gordon Brown, General Election Manifesto, 2005
… or listen to the real villain of events, the 21st century Napoleon, Sarkozy
“A referendum now would bring Europe into danger. There will be no Treaty if we had a referendum in France, which would again be followed by a referendum in the UK.” — Nicolas Sarkozy, French President, The Daily Telegraph, 14th November 2007
We should not be surprised by this. The EU is fundamentally anti-democratic (and admittedly so by the leading figures)
The end result of Gordon’s treachery was that Dave took the hit for trying to claw back some of the QMV provisions that would have been used by the Franco-German alliance to punish the UK. Dave should have figured that in an election year Sarkozy would wish to fudge the notion of having to submit French budgets to Brussels (read Berlin) and was given a perfect opportunity to avoid this and shaft the English big time by blaming them. Even better, with Dave out of the room, he could take revenge on the City for – well, not being in Paris.
There is a telling item on Gordon’s speech to the house, cited above. It is worthwhile reading slowly to remind ourselves of the unstable base on which our standard of living and even fundamental democratic freedoms depend.
“All 27 member states agreed at the Council – and this was expressly set out in the conclusions – that this amending treaty provides the Union with a stable and lasting institutional framework and that it completes the process of institutional reform for the foreseeable future.
The conclusions of the Council state specifically that the amending treaty ‘provides the Union with a stable and lasting institutional framework. We expect no change in the foreseeable future’. “
That hope lasted less than 4 years. Who would now bet on the Eurozone surviving the next 4?