LISBON RATIFIED – WHAT NEXT FOR BRITAIN?

The Czech Republic’s ratification of the Lisbon Treaty leaves the way clear for the European Union to introduce sweeping new powers across all 28 member states. Every action has an opposite and equal reaction and the Czech move to adopt the Treaty has closed the door for Britain’s last remaining mainstream political party to offer an opt-out via a referendum.

Labour effectively closed the door for Britain to opt out of the ramifications of the Lisbon Treaty. By refusing to hold a referendum after the Dutch and French “No” votes for the proposed EU Constitution, Labour again refused to hold a referendum, claiming instead that the Lisbon Treaty was fundamentally different to the previously heralded Constitution. The key changes; the anthem, flag and word constitution were dropped in a hastily edited and renamed document, the Lisbon Treaty.

Against popular and Parliamentary opposition, the Labour majority brushed aside concerns and signed up to the Treaty and its consequential loss of British sovereignty to the Brussels bureaucracy. The British people were denied an individual say on whether or not they wanted British borders controlled by Europe, or British streets ultimately policed by a European police force, or a European head of state and Foreign Minister to negotiate on the World stage on behalf of all member states, regardless of Britain’s position as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the Head of the Commonwealth or place amongst the G7 group of the world’s richest economies.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have collectively undermined Britain’s global role and reduced it to nothing more than a member state of a federalist European Union. The next ten to twenty years will see Britain reduced further as the EU bureaucracy grows and its arguably less powerful Parliament insists first that Britain must adopt the Euro, and then extend tax raising powers uniformly across all member states to bankroll a new European government ever more remote from its citizens.

Paradoxically under Labour, the internal agenda has been driven by devolving power to regional assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland and the creation of a new Parliament in Scotland. With an even greater emphasis in England, Labour government’s have adopted more and new parish councils as the internal political agenda has been broadcast with headlines on returning powers back to local communities so local communities can shape their own futures. The sell out to Europe cannot be under-estimated in terms of domestic policy.

David Cameron has consistently stated his policy line that no public statement on the Party’s position on the Treaty of Lisbon can be made until either:

• The Treaty is ratified; or
• The Conservatives are elected before ratification.

With Czech ratification the option of a referendum has become a non-starter as Britain will be bound by the Treaty as a consequence of Gordon Brown’s and David Miliband’s signatures to the document on 13^th December 2007. Cameron, as widely reported in the British press has not reneged on the promise of a referendum, the option has been taken out of his hands by an un-elected Prime Minister failing to call a General Election and take a mandate from the British people on whether or not Britain should have signed the Treaty at all. By stalling on a General Election, Gordon Brown, by default has relegated the British Parliament to the equivalent of a state legislature in the United States of America.

A re-negotiation of Britain’s rights, vetoes and opt-outs is the bare minimum the electorate will expect from an incoming Conservative government. However with a domestic agenda pre-occupied by record borrowing and debt levels, it remains to be seen on how many fronts a relatively inexperienced cabinet team will be able to fight on. The protection of British borders by a British force has to be a major commitment to adhere to.

Although the Treaty will create a European Defence Force, Britain’s Commonwealth position will dictate that a retention of the British Armed Forces is a necessity. It is unlikely that an EU defence force under the command of a European President and Foreign Minister will look sympathetically at British demands should a repeat of the invasion of the Falkland Islands occur in Federal European times.

As mainland Europe has embraced a more federalist collective, the xenophobic, far right parties in those countries, France, Holland, Germany, Austria, etc, etc, have gained prominence. The great danger for Britain is that an insufficient renegotiation of Britain’s position in Europe will led to a resurgence of support for minor parties such as the UK Independence Party of the British National Party.

Mainstream participation by the BNP leader in a BBC current affairs programme and recent clashes in Manchester and Leeds have demonstrated high tensions between the far right and minority ethnic groups in England. Capitulation in Europe will, as Britons already dissatisfied by European Immigration policy as exemplified by the refugee fiasco at Calais, give a legitimacy to extremist parties. A more fractured and ultimately divided society seems a certainty.

For the Conservatives, their survival beyond one electoral term may well rest with how well they manage to re-negotiate Britain’s terms under the Treaty of Lisbon as well as how well they bring the economy under control. The next Parliamentary term will be one of the toughest faced by any one political party since the First World War and the legacy of the next government may well determine the future survival of whichever party wins the election.

As European control exerts over many of Britain’s institutions from interest rates to immigration, border control to the foreign deployment of armed forces, the movement for a complete withdrawal from Europe will look more attractive to a British electorate that will feel abandoned by its Parliament and an ineffective nation of 60 million in a federal state of 830 million and look for a Party promising a British withdrawal from Europe.