Your future messiah
After Ireland gave the Lisbon Treaty the yes vote, where are we left now?
As it stands, the UK deposited its “yes” in July 2008, and after Ireland the only other states that have not ratified this Treaty are the Czech Republic and Poland.
Labour wont give us a referendum on it. If he gets in, David Cameron has promised a referendum but only if the treaty is still being discussed by a member state: what that means in real terms is there wont be a referendum if Poland and the Czech Republic have ratified it between now and the election.
So how will we be affected by this?
The EU will be reorganising to become its own legally defined entity. For a start, power will be determined proportionally. This means that the seats, or power, any member state holds in the European Parliament is decided based on its population when previously all member states were equal. This change gives a lot more power to Germany, and we know what happened last time they had power..
The EU will get a President, a Foreign Minister and so on. It’s said that Teflon Tony is waiting in the wings to step into the presidential role.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union will become part of law, whereas currently it exists but it is not legally binding. It is this document that people have labelled the “EU constitution” because it defines rights and principles that must apply to all member states. I don’t particularly want a United States of Europe but this document does attempt to create one. Having briefly read it, though, it isn’t particularly radical and almost all of it is already in application in the UK.
However, it is still a highly important document which to some degree does give the European Court of Justice immense new power. My own view is that it’s a self preservation exercise. We don’t currently need an EU court but this document creates a need and purpose for it. It is a list of things such as the right to strike or the right to social security which under the Lisbon Treaty will be fully enforcable by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Once this document is implemented, though, they could then start introducing all the unpopular things they really wanted but knew people would not vote for.
For most countries, the Treaty gives the European Court of Justice the right to overrule their laws in case of any conflict between laws, however the UK and Poland have clauses in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which say that the EU cannot trample over the laws of these states. However, the EU would have powers to create new laws and impose them upon us.
The Treaty aims to create a level playing field when it comes to companies and tax. It will be made impossible for countries to offer taxation incentives or state aid to companies to encourage them to set up there, and in fact the EU wants to take control of this taxation and administer it centrally. This was in fact one of the main points of the Irish “no” campaign – low taxes in Ireland have encouraged a lot of multinationals to set up there, boosting their economy. They don’t want the EU banning it, nor do they want the EU reaping in the tax from smaller countries like Ireland and handing it out to larger countries as a proportional share of all company tax.
Furthermore the Lisbon Treaty gives the EU the power to levy “Europe Taxes” upon member states. These taxes must be agreed by all heads of state, though.
Everyones favourite revenue raiser – climate change – also features in the Lisbon Treaty so expect to be absolutely hammered with taxes based on this because extracting cash from people saves the planet.
By ratifying the Treaty, the UK would hand control over immigration policy to Europe. This means that we would no longer have the power to decide who can and cannot enter the UK. On the face of it I am utterly against this, but given that we have no grip on immigration at the moment perhaps it’ll be an improvement!
This is the shape of things to come anyway. For the most part it’ll pass by unnoticed until Brussels starts flexing its muscles with its new found power and purpose, crushing national identity and forcing us all to serve it.
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You are right in so many ways but it wouldn’t matter if you where completely wrong the UK joined the EEC not the United States of Europe. Perhaps there are lots of people in the UK are in favour of joining the USofE perhaps if there is a debate about this then everyone in the UK would want to join. But and it’s a big But should we not have this debate and a referendum on this. It does not matter if you pro or anti USofE we are meant to be a democratic country lets put it to a vote and find out what the people of this country wants.
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Problem is, it’s too late for that.
We have already submitted a yes vote for it, so all that remains is for the Czechs and the Poles to submit a yes, then the treaty is ratified and we cannot then get out of it so there would be no point in a referendum.
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Oh I am well aware of that what I was trying to say is that we should have an open and honest debate on “should we be in or out of the EU”. If we vote to be in the EU then we (by we I mean the general public) should be fully in it take the lead and stop the euro sceptic talk. Equally if we vote no to the EU then we should leave and walk away. What I really think is that the public should be allowed to vote on should we be part of the USofE or not and not just drift into it because that is clearly what we are doing now.
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Uncle Gordon has decided for us, because after all, he knows best!
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Yet another good reason to vote BNP/UKIP.
Why vote lib/lab or con?
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Because unless there is a HUGE swing to a fringe party, there’s no point in voting for anyone else. That said, nothing will change if everything thinks like that.
If there were a credible opponent to Ron Bell, be it UKIP or whoever, then I would seriously consider “wasting” my vote there.
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since the EURO elections, I have vowed never to vote mainstream again.
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I’m with Philtheone, as tempting as a vote for a party like the English Democrats or UKIP is, I will vote tactically at the next election. I am a Conservative supporter anyway and I do like Ron Bell. But admittedly 50% of my decision is tactical. I will simply vote for the man with the best chance of getting rid of Marsden. The only party I despise as much as Labour is Respect with that poncy twat George Galloway so really I would even vote Lib Dem to get Marsden out if I had to.
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This isnt democracy and the twat blair becomes president?
Did we vote him in? We didnt even vote!
The EU is jobs for the boys, nothing else, its a monstrosity.
Jesus wept, what a shambles!
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Hm I’ve been watching this with interest too. The UK is almost universally hated within Europe for our sanctimonious politicians telling other Europeans what to do (which is usually saying something incredibly stupid as it’s our failed politicians that tend to get into Europe) and we’re one of the few net contributors who for years have been piling money into the EU and getting little out (except for our politician’s egos).
Without going into the details of the Lisbon treaty there’s a fundamental problem with how the UK have been caught by this. Tony & Gordon in a stitch up have created this thing and choose to benefit personally from it. And they promised a referendum and then didn’t let us have one. If it was such a good idea, then why renege on the referendum?
I’m all with David Cameron’s current stance – why be labelled as “anti-EU” by idiots when we don’t know what is going to happen. Just how stupid though is this country when whether your pro or anti Europe getting more power over our domestic affairs, you think holding a referendum is “anti-European”. Not holding one is anti-democractic and not for or against the treaty at all.
David Cameron though had better come up with a way of getting some democratic power over the unification of Europe if the treaty is ratified by the Czechs and Poles (who will no doubt be promised more of our money to help push for a yes vote). Otherwise there will be people voting UKIP and BNP in safer Tory seats and he could end up with a surprise electoral result – we’ve seen how close some of the elections in incredibly Tory-strong Fylde have been lately where the people aren’t happy.
We all know the cabinet system and whipping of politicians has eroded democracy at every level of our governance – with pathetic “consultations” that are never listened to and with the people having no power until elections are held. This is obviously more of the same from two of the most deceitful politicians ever to lead a country.
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I seemed to be agreeing with you again frustrated I am fairly pro Europe but most people don’t want a federal European state. So why is it such a bad thing to have a anti Europe stance to say we have to revaluate our position here and see if it is what the people of the country wants. This however is just wishful thinking on my part it seems to me that UKIP is the only party that will bring UK out of Europe.
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The thought of that grinning war criminal becoming EU president makes my blood boil!
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The fact we had two votes in Ireland until we got the result the EU wanted shows there can never be a two speed EU, only a speed that pushes us towards federalism of a country called the European Union.
As such the can be no alternative but to leave the EU and enjoy the benefits of government by the British for the British.
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I agree ZF, the EU vote was a complete farce. They basically just kep holding referendums until they got the result they wanted which is totally undemocratic as far as I am concerned. Its like Labour losing the General Election tommorow and then saying ‘wait a minute can we have one more try’ and then winning. GET OUT OF THE EU IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY.
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TB for mayor!
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[...] The Lisbon treaty has now been ratified. This means there will be no referendum on it in the UK, Tony Blair will end up being President of Europe, and Europe has now gained significant power to overrule state laws amongst other things. The BBC has a good roundup of the ramifications or you can check my own roundup. [...]
[...] and taxes and legislation can be implemented in the name of whatever agreements they make. Remember what I said about the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution being used to impose unpopular laws and taxes once [...]