Chip

Cameron is now saying that we should ditch the Treaty. Does this mean he will get out of it if Brown does go ahead and then losses to the Tories at the next election?

Millennium3

Perhaps the best ploy might be to try to encourage the Labour MP's to get shot of Brown, who is making the party more unpopular by the day, and replace him with someone who would hold a referendum. If the Tories get stuck with a ratified LT, by the time they achieve power, they will rightly claim that they are powerless when things go wrong in the many areas where the EU has jurisdiction. Such a steady drip could well put Labour out of office for generations as Frank Field has suggested.

The Strange Death of Labour England?: Revisiting Bagehot’s English Constitution - Printer Friendly Page - In the Spotlight - The Witanagemot Club

gremlin in the works

i was thinking the seem thing he has no exscuse now to give us that referendum since the eu constitution has no legitimacy been here, becouse one of 27 states has said no and it requires all 27 states to agree as we know.

Lawrie Boxall

I also want to record my thanks to the Irish voters. This is a clear demonstration of the superiority of their constitution over our own. We have some catching up to do - and we can only achieve that by becoming electable politicians ourselves as Anthony suggests, by providing a workable alternative model to the "take it or leave it" EU.

Meanwhile I predict massive pressure will be applied to Irish politicians to change their constitution to remove this block to what the EU sees as its progression.

Millennium3

The Irish vote does put additional focus on the strands of activity available to eurosceptics.

In the short-term, based on the principle that it is better to stop the LT being ratified by Britain if possible:

Some hope for Stuart Wheelers initiative.
A rebellion by Labour MP's causing a change of leadership - with the new leader giving a referendum.
Pressure from Cameron for a referendum.

In the medium-term:

Pressure on Cameron to provide a promise a post ratification referendum assuming the Tories win the next GE. If the result did show a good majority against the Treaty, it would give him a strong mandate to re-negotiate.

In the longer-term:

Eurosceptics provide a more appealing alternative to the EU and gain power/some power at Westminster to enable them to make a change.

kernow

I sincerely hope you're right! After the publicity this Irish No vote has received, if Joe and Jane British are still unaware of the EU, then they're even thicker than I thought they were. Good on Paddy and Colleen for kicking the EU in the nuts!

Roland

Funny you say that. Wile i'm not a member of UKIP or any other party I'm strongly against the EU. It is an undemocratic body made up of careerist politicians who beat on about how they can make the world perfect with no regard for the damage they do by they're ill thought out schemes. In my opinion it has all the hall marks of the road to tyranny. So when given the opportunity I try to wake up people to what the EU actually is and the potential dangers of an unelected and unaccountable government.

When I say "given the opportunity" it is rare most people are just not interested.How ever after the Irish vote people have asked me what the EU is all about and they don't understand it. The first thing I say to try and keep they're attention is "you don't understand it because they don't want you to understand it, if you did you would never agree to it"

I'm hoping if they do carry on with the treaty it will show to a wider audience the absolute contempt the EU have for the people it claims it wants to represent.