Comments on: Mr Milliband lies for Europe

By: Steven_L

Steven_L — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 23:07:39 +0000

Ever since Miliband announced he was planning to make me swipe a card debiting my ‘personal tradeable carbon credits’ when I fill up the car and charge me to fish in the sea I have stopped listening to a word this idiot says.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:23:15 +0000

Milli says the treaty is good for Britain. I hope he believes that. I’d hate to think the government wants to ram through a treaty that was going to be bad for kingdom. However, that doesn’t negate the point these Labour backbenchers are making that it should be ratified by the people.

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:47:16 +0000

I’ve just noticed an official BBC guide to the differences between the constitution and the treaty that was posted on August 3rd: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6928737.stm

I would be very interested to know what Mr Redwood makes of our public broadcaster’s attempt at an impartial, not-at-all-Europhiliac explanation of this controversial issue.

“…is the result the same or different? The DNA of mice and humans is 90% the same, points out British Labour MEP Richard Corbett - but the remaining 10% is rather important.”

(If this were Private Eye, I could imagine the punchline “Richard Corbett is 15 years old”)

Reply: it is a more balanced appraisal than we get from interviewers on the anchor current affairs programmes, but it misses the point about the trick to claim it is no longer the “Constitution”

Of course it is now more complex and written in a different way, because instead of ditching all existing Treaties and introducing the complete rewrite in the form of the Constitution, they are taking all the new powers from the draft Constitution and inserting them by way of amendments to the existing Treaties. The mice and men DNA analogy is flawed. The differences between the draft Constitution and the Amendment Treaty are related to means, not to the ends, the power grab by the EU.

Nor should you believe it when they say they are dropping the anthem, the flag and the trappings of a state. I bet we still hear the Ode to Joy and see the 12 Stars flapping on flagpoles. Renaming the Foreign Minister the High Respresentative also makes little difference to the thrust of the Constitution. Once he or she is in place there will be endless pressure on delinquent states to tow the line and accept whatever such an official wants the Union to do or say. If our Foreign Secretary and the Union High Rep are waiting to see an important PM or Foreign Minister abroad, who will be taken more seriously once we are under pressure to sign up to a common policy?

By: Referendum or bust? « The Wilted Rose

Referendum or bust? « The Wilted Rose — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:08:16 +0000

[...] or bust? 27 08 2007 10.57am update: On his blog John Redwood exposes Miliband’s porkies on Today: and brilliantly debunks Miliband’s claims that the Constitution is ‘good for [...]

By: Mountjoy

Mountjoy — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:04:06 +0000

As usual, these claims went unchallenged on Today - where is Paxman when we need him?

The ‘rebellion’ by 120 MPs is disclosed in today’s Telegraph, but the question is will Labour MPs have the guts to rebel against Brown when most didn’t dare back anyone against him in the Leadership

By: Tony Makara

Tony Makara — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:32:59 +0000

How the original EEC which was meant as a block to promote free-trade has become the bureaucratic political state that it is today is facinating, and a lesson in how statism can develop. The EEC/EC/EU has developed by degrees, has grown into a European superstate by stealth. The EU constitutional treaty is yet another rung on the ladder. A character like Mr Milliband has no concept of where we have come from and where we are going. He is just another party functionary who cloaks himself in catchphrases, without really understanding what these handed-down phrases mean.