This is the nub of the matter – do we really want to be part of a constant, remorseless, unlimited, irreversible, forced process of “ever closer union” with our neighbours, or not?  Ask a question like that in a referendum, and it’s very likely that the majority of Britons would now decide that they didn’t want their country to be further integrated with other European countries, as fast as possible, until there was simply nothing left to integrate.  But ask the same Britons whether they wanted to leave the EU and it’s very likely that the majority answer would be “no”, because they didn’t want to be “isolated” from those other countries with all the dire consequences which would be threatened.  Herein lies the paradox and the problem, because the treaty commitment to a process of “ever closer union” is fundamental to the EU, and always has been.  It’s in the very first line of the Preamble to the 1957 Treaty of Rome, immediately after the list of the six heads of state who were making the treaty:  “DETERMINED to lay the foundations of an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe”  and re-iterated in the Preamble to the Maastricht Treaty on European Union:  “RESOLVED to continue the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe”.  And it will still be there after December 1st when the Treaty of Lisbon has come into legal force, as can easily be checked by searching for that phrase in the consolidated versions of the treaties as amended, here:  Note that while this “ever closer union” was to be “among the peoples of Europe” – and note, “peoples”, plural – in 1957 the six governments agreed the Treaty of Rome without consulting their respective peoples, and in each case the treaty was approved by the national parliament without any serious thought that maybe they should ask the people directly whether they wanted to embark on this course.  There were no national referendums on the Treaty of Rome; the first referendums were not until some fifteen years later, when the peoples of Ireland, Denmark and Norway voted on whether to join the EEC, and the French also voted on whether those countries and the UK should be allowed to join.  In the event, the Norwegians said “no”. The first of two occasions when they have made that wise choice, to the great annoyance of most of their political class – who are still very keen to join the EU politicians’ “club”, so they can start to free themselves from national democratic control.  I shall listen with great interest to whatever Cameron has to say this afternoon.  If he says that we must stay in the EU but also call a halt to further integration and start to repatriate powers, then I’ll have to ask myself whether he simply doesn’t understand that under its founding treaties the process of “ever closer union” is inescapable while we remain in the EU, or he realises that and is just following half a century of Tory tradition by trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
So that's it then. The Lisbon Treaty passes into law and brings an end to the great two hundred year old experiment in modern western democracy. And you never got to have your say on whether you were prepared to give up on the idea of government of the people, by the peop...