Britain Conceeds Lisbon Defeat

The Sunday Times yesterday reported that PM Gordon Brown has privately conceded defeat over the whole treaty of Lisbon affair.

As we all knew, the Irish "NO" vote in the referendum was going to cause a bit of a furor on the European scene. Some of the ideas that have apparently been kicked about are to plow ahead with the Treaty regardless (completely undemocratic, but hardly surprising), freeze Ireland out and link it to the rest of the EU with some sort of 'legal bridge' (in other words punish the people for exercising their democratic rights against the European elite), or create a two-tier system of European affairs.

It's clear that this kind of system would leave not only Ireland but others like the UK in the "First Division" rather than the "Premier League". The main problem with Britain on this front is that it is too eurosceptic, won't join the single currency and have too many opt-out clauses. It would be much easier, perhaps, to then relegate them into the lower leagues.

Can you really imagine the British government letting this go unchallenged? Great Britain, once the masters of the world, now nothing more than a footnote to the rest of Europe? Somehow I don't think so.

I'm wondering as well why the other countries of Europe are so keen to press ahead anyway. Have they no idea the effect that this would have on their electorate? It's a message of "we did not allow you a referendum. And even if we had, it wouldn't have been respected anyway. Just look at the Irish." Surely this is tantamount to political suicide?

It seems strange to me the level of disparity of opinions that the European Project can cause. Here in the north of Ireland, I never dreamed that I would side with Sinn Fein on anything, and the fact that they were one of the biggest players in the NO campaign I'm sure nudged a few people towards the YES side. Across the water, it seems that David Cameron has been shockingly impressive in his calls for the UK to have their own referendum. How bizarre?

In any case it seems, by the Sunday papers at least, that Number 10 is going to back up the Irish vote should it be undermined in the European Council. Hopefully with the might of Britain backing it up, the Irish NO will be an actual end to the farcical constitutional relic of the Lisbon Treaty.

Yet let's not count our chickens yet. Ideology's a fine thing, but we'll have to wait and see how it fits into practice.