Jim Murphy, Minister for Europe, was interviewed on TV News last night, and got away with the entirely spurious argument that, because the previous EU Treaties had not been subject to referenda, the present (Constitutional) Reform Treaty should also not be referred to the people. Does he think we are all stupid? The politicians should have asked the public for a mandate before the previous Treaties were signed, but the current one is the final, culminating Treaty, that incorporates and legitimises all the foregoing legislation in the name of the new legal entity of the EU, and goes further - establishing the Presidency, the Lord High Foreign Minister and his diplomatic service, and creating the principle that when our heads of state meet in Council, their duty is to forget national loyalties and considerations and act solely as officers of the EU. It also contains a self-amending provision which will allow the EU to take any further powers piecemeal, eroding Blair’s pathetic ‘red lines and opt-outs’, in due course.
This is it, the big one, the Treaty that takes away our nationhood. Of course it is constitutional and must have a referendum.
It is demeaning that a Minister of the Crown should attempt to deceive electors and misrepresent the enormous implications of this legislation. It should be a resigning matter, not just for Murphy but for Brown, who put him up to it.