This site has moved: click here to visit its far prettier, content-packed new home: Nosemonkey's EUtopia

I'd missed this. The Tories have gone mental again. For some reason I thought Michael Howard had more sense: "If the British people were to vote no, a Conservative Government would veto the Constitution: and we would not agree to any new Treaty which establishes a Constitution for the European Union."

Brilliant idea. Reject ANY constitution for the EU outright, for all time, no matter what any future proposals may say.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that the wording of the current draft has yet to be finalised.

It's just as well that there's still the wonderful principle in this country that no parliament is bound by what any previous one has done. Any and all decisions taken can be reversed at any point in the future via due parliamentary process. We can reject the constitution if and when the referendum takes place (and massively weaken our position within Europe in the process), but sign up later on.

Everyone also seems to have forgotten that the current draft of the Constitution actually provides guidelines for withdrawing from the EU, for withdrawing support for the constitution, and for rejoining once the mistake has been realised.

Just because the current draft of the Constitution isn't perfect doesn't mean that it'll never be something that can be acceptable to a majority of the population. It's only real problem is its length and complexity.

It might also be worth pointing out that the concept of a referendum to decide a specific political issue is even more un-British than is being closely involved in continental affairs. This country is a parliamentary democracy. there's a Genereal Election coming up in a year's time - THAT's when the British people should make their decision. If they want out of Europe, vote for the BNP, UKIP or Tories.

permalink | posted by Nosemonkey