Irish can vote on EU treaty, British cannot

In this video

Jens-Peter Bonde MEP (Denmark) speaks at the European Parliament in Brussels, 27 June 2007, during a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, holding the EU Presdiency (Jan-June 2007).

This follows the EU Summit in Brussels on 21-22 June 2007, when EU leaders, led by Ms Merkel, agreed to proceed forward with the implimentation of the rejected EU Constitution by June 2009. They agreed to do this by removing symbolic elements, like the EU flag and anthem, and transforming it into an amending and reforming treaty without calling it a constitution. This way, they would by-pass the French and Dutch referendum results in 2005 and avoid facing more referendums.

From British daily The Morning Star:

No right for us to vote

(Sunday 08 June 2008)

THE people of Ireland go to the polls this week to vote on the acceptance or otherwise of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty in a referendum required by the country‘s constitution.

The people of Britain, in stark contrast, do not.

Our Prime Minister has decreed, in all his magisterial wisdom, that the Lisbon Treaty is substantially different from the abortive EU constitution, which was rejected by several countries and thus foundered in 2005.

In this judgement, Gordon Brown has not only misrepresented the nature of the treaty, he has committed the biggest electoral fiddle since the saga of George W Bush’s “hanging chads” in the last US presidential elections.

In almost every detail, the Lisbon Treaty parrots the failed constitution and it is almost certain that, given referendums across Europe, it would have been rejected as a transparent attempt to foist the consititution in another guise onto electorates that, quite rightly, are reluctant to hand over their country’s sovereignty, and thus huge chunks of their democratic rights, to the Brussels monolith.