Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Lisbon treaty referendum....

I'm annoyed at the inherently undemocratic way the UK has ratified the Lisbon Treaty (essentially, Labour and the LibDems broke their election promise of 2005 to hold a referendum).

David Cameron promised that if a Conservative government was elected before the treaty was ratified, he'd hold a referendum on the treaty. The treaty is now ratified.

If he were therefore to hold a referendum on Lisbon now - it wouldn't have any effect - the UK can't simply renege on a signed, ratified international treaty. Simply running that referendum is going to be the behaviour of those who can't accept reality.

That's not to say a referendum shouldn't be held on something - merely that Lisbon can no longer be the subject of the referendum per se. We're told an announcement will take place this afternoon - it will be interesting to see what happens.