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	<title>Chris Palmer &#187; EU Referendum</title>
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	<description>A Strong Conservative Voice</description>
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		<title>So Where’s That Referendum Mr Cameron?</title>
		<link>http://www.chrispalmer.org/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&#038;feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&#038;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chrispalmer.org%2F2011%2F07%2F23%2Fso-where%25e2%2580%2599s-that-referendum-mr-cameron%2F&#038;seed_title=So+Where%E2%80%99s+That+Referendum+Mr+Cameron%3F</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2011 10:29:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Palmer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[David Cameron]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EU Referendum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberal Elite]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.chrispalmer.org/?p=1943</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Before the General Election, you may recall that we were repeatedly assured, despite all evidence to the contrary, that David Cameron was actually really rather conservative and eurosceptic, and that he would show his true colours once in office. Commentators within the right-wing media assured their readers that obtaining office was absolutely vital, and that [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.chrispalmer.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/davidcameron14.png" alt="" width="80" height="80" />Before the General Election, you may recall that we were repeatedly assured, despite all evidence to the contrary, that David Cameron was actually really rather conservative and eurosceptic, and that he would show his true colours once in office.</p>
<p>Commentators within the right-wing media assured their readers that obtaining office was absolutely vital, and that in a press dominated by the BBC and the liberal-left then Mr Cameron was forced, hands behind his back, to kowtow to the liberal elite in order to not so much gain their support, but pacify their criticism.</p>
<p>Not to worry we were earnestly told. If the Conservatives portrayed themselves as the heirs to Blair and moved to the Left on a number of supposedly minor, largely irrelevant social and economic issues then the BBC and Guardian would be totally wrong-footed.</p>
<p>All that hugging of hoodies, understanding rather than punishing criminals, reneging on referendum pledges, capitulation to equality and diversity, dictatorial control of party candidate lists, promises to match Labour’s state spending plans, attacks on selection by academic ability, the protection of the bloated welfare state, sexual liberalism, ‘investing’ yet more of our money in the lumbering and inefficient NHS bureaucracy, further commitments to maintaining British troops in Afghanistan, and so on – it was all a front to deceive Parliament’s gatekeepers in the liberal media establishment into allowing the Tory party back into office.</p>
<p>Dave really didn’t mean it at all. Honest. Upon entering the door of Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister, his leftist visage would dissipate, and as if by a miracle, a great light would shine down upon him from the heavens and seconds later the real David Cameron would re-emerge to govern as a real, true-blooded Tory eurosceptic rather than under the very limp-wristed social democrat policies by which he had been elected.</p>
<p>Many of us didn’t believe it then, and of course even more are, if slowly, beginning to realise the truth now. David Cameron is not a conservative; he is a social democrat. He was elected as one and he will govern as one. Thus, the circle is now complete. The transfer from Blair and Brown to Cameron has seen the personnel change, but the policies have not – and they won’t change.</p>
<p>It therefore comes as little surprise that our Prime Minister has ruled out a Referendum vote on the proposed creation of a new EU Treasury, revealed today by the <a href="http://www.chrispalmer.org/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-feed-statistics/feed-statistics.php?url=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5kYWlseW1haWwuY28udWsvbmV3cy9hcnRpY2xlLTIwMTc4MzIvQ2FtZXJvbi1ydWxlcy12b3RlLWNyZWF0aW9uLUVVLXN1cGVyc3RhdGUtOTZiaWxsaW9uLWJhaWxvdXQuaHRtbA==">Daily Mail</a>. That supposedly robust euroscepticism from our boy Dave is looking rather thin on the ground isn’t it? The Mail comments:</p>
<blockquote><p>In a move likely to infuriate his party, Mr Cameron has already ruled out the prospect of giving the British public a say on the plans for a superstate. The Prime Minister will argue that a referendum on the proposals is unnecessary because the changes would only affect the countries in the single currency. But that stance was dismissed yesterday on the grounds that the plans will still have a profound effect on Britain by radically changing the nature of the EU, effectively shackling the UK to any new institutions. Tory MPs branded the likely changes ‘bigger than Maastricht’ – the treaty which led to the creation of the European Union and the single currency – and demanded a referendum.</p></blockquote>
<p>In reality, Cameron’s referendum lock on transfers of power to the European Union was always a sham. When it was announced, the measure was used in an attempt to put the EU issue to bed, at a time when Mr Cameron was coming under sustained attack for his reneging on his commitment of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.</p>
<p>The lock itself is utterly meaningless as the Government can simply deny that a transfer of power will occur, as many European states did with the Lisbon Treaty, and therefore deny a referendum. A more useful measure would be to ask the Government in what situations a transfer of power would exist to allow a referendum? I don’t think Mr Cameron and company would like that though.</p>
<p>Instead, while Dave continues to break his pledges and further increase the size of our national debt, the European Union lurches on with its usual attempts to further ever closer union in this latest ‘beneficial crisis’ in the Euro zone. Don’t expect our MPs and castrated Parliament to come riding to the rescue either. It’s mass economic default that lies ahead, or ever closer union (courtesy of Dave). Whichever way you look spells disaster on a grand scale.</p>
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		<title>Prepare For The Worst</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:28:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Palmer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[David Cameron]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EU Referendum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Labour]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.chrispalmer.org/?p=1573</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You cannot be betrayed by those that you do not trust. Labour’s predictable reluctance and later refusal to fulfil their promise of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was not a betrayal because we had never placed our trust in them by voting their representatives into office. What is more, the Labour Party, as a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.chrispalmer.org/images/davidcameron6.png" alt="" width="80" height="80" />You cannot be betrayed by those that you do not trust. Labour’s predictable reluctance and later refusal to fulfil their promise of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was not a betrayal because we had never placed our trust in them by voting their representatives into office.</p>
<p>What is more, the Labour Party, as a whole, are ideologically in favour of the European project and ever closer union between EU member states. They are willing backers of the increasing burden of unaccountable regulation that arrives daily from Brussels and now enthusiastically support ‘the destruction of a thousand years of history’ as their former leader Hugh Gaitskell once pertinently observed. They do little to disguise their views on the issue.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, millions of conservatives will feel deeply betrayed by the Conservative Party; an organisation in which they had placed their trust and support, often over decades, through the ballot box and paid membership. Cameron’s climb down on his formerly ‘cast iron’ guarantee of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has signalled that the party no longer represents their interests.</p>
<p>Even after all that has happened many millions of people will continue to consider the Conservative Party to be ‘eurosceptic’ – a phrase that supposedly betokens a stance of disapproval and opposition to the European Union and all its works. In reality however, ‘euroscepticism’ has revealed itself to be nothing more than a facade for Conservative politicians both past and present to make vaguely anti-EU statements in opposition, only for them to betray their voters and capitulate to the perpetual slow motion coup d&#8217;état of ever closer union once safely in Government.</p>
<p>Tomorrow, David Cameron will announce his party’s new stance on the European Union. Do not expect much. Despite knowing for months that the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty would be likely, they had not prepared for such an eventuality. Such planning does not exactly bode well for their performance in Government.</p>
<p>In his statement tomorrow, much will be made by Cameron of Labour’s deceit in reneging on their promise of a referendum. Much will be made of how the Treaty will have been implemented into EU and our law by the time of any UK General Election in which the Conservatives could obtain office. Little however will be made of what the Conservatives might do about this. It will all be rather vague. Pointers will be made to the repatriation of powers, though without specifics or indeed how this will be achieved.</p>
<p>Cameron is therefore set for an historic moment. As <a target=\"_blank\" href="http://www.chrispalmer.org/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-feed-statistics/feed-statistics.php?url=aHR0cDovL2Jsb2dzLnRlbGVncmFwaC5jby51ay9uZXdzL2dlcmFsZHdhcm5lci8xMDAwMTU1NjQvZGF2ZXdhdGNoLWNhbWVyb24tbG9va3Mtc2V0LXRvLXJhdC1vbi1oaXMtcHJvbWlzZXMtZXZlbi1iZWZvcmUtZWxlY3Rpb24taWYtc28taGUtbXVzdC1mb3JmZWl0LW91ci12b3Rlcy8=">Gerald Warner</a> in the Daily Telegraph noted, he will be the first British leader to have ratted on his commitments before even taking office. Warner also remarked that:</p>
<blockquote><p>There is always some shambling excuse, some pseudo-sophisticated ‘reason’ for submitting to humiliation: we cannot have a referendum on a ratified treaty… It would lead to our ejection from the European Union… We mustn’t let Labour back in… The illusion of inevitability – a fundamental Marxist tenet – has successfully been foisted upon British voters by the Frankfurt School Marxists who control the EU.</p></blockquote>
<p>Despite Team Cameron’s best efforts to sideline the major issues surrounding our membership of the European Union, they have come back to bite him in the backside – as we knew they would.</p>
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		<title>A Thousand Years Of History</title>
		<link>http://www.chrispalmer.org/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&#038;feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&#038;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chrispalmer.org%2F2009%2F10%2F05%2Fa-thousand-years-of-history%2F&#038;seed_title=A+Thousand+Years+Of+History</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:57:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Palmer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[EU Referendum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media Class]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Political Class]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.chrispalmer.org/?p=1494</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Our late Indian summer is at an end and the first chilled winds of October bring with them tidings of Ireland’s eventual capitulation to the unceasing machine of European integration. Despite a valiant rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish last year in the face of overwhelming opposition from their entire political class, the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.chrispalmer.org/images/irishyes.png" alt="" width="80" height="80" />Our late Indian summer is at an end and the first chilled winds of October bring with them tidings of Ireland’s eventual capitulation to the unceasing machine of European integration.</p>
<p>Despite a valiant rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish last year in the face of overwhelming opposition from their entire political class, the media and big business, the nation that once sought independence from British rule has been bullied into accepting rule from distant Brussels.</p>
<p>Only Poland and the Czech Republic have yet to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, and it will likely not be long before they do. As the Czech President <a target=\"_blank\" href="http://www.chrispalmer.org/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-feed-statistics/feed-statistics.php?url=aHR0cDovL25ld3MuYmJjLmNvLnVrLzEvaGkvd29ybGQvZXVyb3BlLzgyODk5MjAuc3Rt">Vaclav Klaus sadly noted</a> to waiting journalists:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Irish had the last chance to say something about Lisbon&#8230; because after today&#8217;s Irish referendum there will never be another referendum in Europe.</p></blockquote>
<p>And slowly but surely, as day turns to night, the EU’s slow motion coup d’état takes effect. Our sovereignty has been strangled, our independence dissolved. Squandered are centuries of hard won liberties, rights and freedoms – so often without our knowledge or even a care. It is, as Hugh Gaitskell so accurately predicted, to be the end of a thousand years of history.</p>
<p>Yet, there is hope. We, as a nation, are still capable of saving ourselves from the jaws of defeat as we have so many times before. Perhaps it will be that resilience of character and spirit that sees us through again – but only if we will it to be so. For there will be no-one else behind us to catch us should we falter or fall; no foreign intervention to rescue us from our fate.</p>
<p>That decision is up to us now. Either we wake from our delusions of a benevolent European Union, realise that our future as a truly democratic nation lies in grave danger, and resolve to act – or we slowly subside into bureaucracy, and foreign rule by an unelected state, a fate for which we will only have ourselves to blame.</p>
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		<title>The Real Reason</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:26:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Palmer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EU Referendum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Political Class]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.chrispalmer.org/?p=98</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Despite public protestations from most EU leaders and Commissioners to the contrary, it is becoming increasingly clear that the only public vote on the Lisbon Treaty will not be respected. Vice President of the EU Commission, Margot Wallström has given the game away and admitted the real reason why the elite feel it is perfectly [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.chrispalmer.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/margotwallstrom.png" alt="" width="80" height="80" />Despite public protestations from most EU leaders and Commissioners to the contrary, it is becoming increasingly clear that the only public vote on the Lisbon Treaty will not be respected.</p>
<p>Vice President of the EU Commission, <a target=\"_blank\" href="http://www.chrispalmer.org/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-feed-statistics/feed-statistics.php?url=aHR0cDovL2Jsb2dzLmVjLmV1cm9wYS5ldS93YWxsc3Ryb20v">Margot Wallström</a> has given the game away and admitted the real reason why the elite feel it is perfectly acceptable to ignore the Irish Referendum result on the Lisbon Treaty.</p>
<p>Speaking in a debate on the Lisbon Treaty in which anti-treaty MEPs held a protest, Ms Wallström told the EU Parliament:</p>
<blockquote><p>Don&#8217;t forget the European leaders have invested a lot of political capital into this whole procedure.</p></blockquote>
<p>So, there you have it. The European political elite can safely ignore Irish public opinion because they have put a lot of effort into securing their Constitution. That must make it alright then.</p>
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		<title>Inevitability Mr Anderson</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:44:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Palmer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EU Referendum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scandals]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.chrispalmer.org/?p=91</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So, the Irish people have had the good sense to vote against the Lisbon Treaty. Hurrah! Or at least it would be if their say actually mattered &#8211; which quite clearly it won&#8217;t. Even before the final result was announced, numerous European politicians including José Manuel Barroso had made plain that the Lisbon Treaty was [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.chrispalmer.org/images/irishno.png" alt="" width="80" height="80" />So, the Irish people have had the good sense to vote against the Lisbon Treaty. Hurrah! Or at least it would be if their say actually mattered &#8211; which quite clearly it won&#8217;t.</p>
<p>Even before the final result was announced, numerous European politicians including José Manuel Barroso had made plain that the Lisbon Treaty was not dead and that ratification in all member states must continue.</p>
<p>Thus the Irish will discover in time that within the European Union there is no such thing as real choice. Either you subjugate yourself to the will of the Brussels bureaucracy or leave – and since all political parties in Ireland are in favour of remaining within the Union, in much the same way they were all in favour of the EU Constitution, then it is almost guaranteed that the Lisbon Treaty will be forced upon the Irish people eventually.</p>
<p>Some people still talk of creating a looser European Union of independent trading nations. They fail to realise that if the EU and its politicians are prepared to ignore the will of the French, Dutch and Irish voters in very specific referendums, then it is entirely unlikely they will suddenly feel the need to allow members to simply trade freely without any political baggage.</p>
<p>The EU is irreversibly set on the course of ever closer political union. Its elites will not listen to the people, whom they secretly despite for democratically voicing their doubts, and will plough on regardless – even in the face of popular adversity. How does anyone continue to believe that is democratic or favourable?</p>
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		<title>The Great Deception</title>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:54:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Palmer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EU Referendum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.chrispalmer.org/?p=89</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today in the Daily Telegraph,]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.chrispalmer.org/images/parliament3.png" alt="" width="80" height="80" />Today in the Daily Telegraph, <a target=\"_blank\" href="http://www.chrispalmer.org/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-feed-statistics/feed-statistics.php?url=aHR0cDovL3d3dy50ZWxlZ3JhcGguY28udWsvbmV3cy93b3JsZG5ld3MvZXVyb3BlLzIxMTM0MDEvRXVyb3BlYW4tVHJlYXR5LUlyaXNoLXBsYW4tdG8tZ2V0LWFyb3VuZC0="no'-vote.html\">Bruno Waterfield</a> confirms that the EU and the Irish Government have indeed been working on plans to implement the Lisbon Treaty even if the Irish people vote against the document in their referendum.</p>
<p>Since the Irish Government is not required to hold a referendum on an enlargement treaty, the remaining Lisbon protocols could easily be slipped past the Irish electorate when Croatia joins the European Union in 2009 or 2010.</p>
<p>This really is as much as to be expected. When faced with the thorny issue of ‘Europe’ even the usual pretence of democracy disappears out the window as national governments and ministers fall over one another to please their European masters and deny their own electorates a say on their future.</p>
<p>Equally unsurprisingly were yesterday’s events and the way in which this country’s political class and media had everyone looking the other way again when it could have mattered.</p>
<p>Last night in the House of Lords a coalition of Labour and Liberal Democrat Lords defeated a Conservative bid to force a Referendum by 280 to 218 votes, but most people were too busy focusing on the House of Commons vote on the Government’s amendments to its forty two day detention policy.</p>
<p><span id="more-89"></span></p>
<p>So enveloped were the political commentariat with the issues surrounding detention without charge that they missed the last ditch attempt to secure a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty (aka. the EU Constitution) that all major political parties solemnly promised at the last election – or rather, is more likely the case, they conveniently chose to ignore it.</p>
<p>What a coincidence that the vote on detention policy fell on exactly the same day as the Lords’ referendum vote – or perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence at all&#8230;</p>
<p>Frankly though, the issue of detention is rather minor when compared with the huge issue of whether we remain an independent democratic nation state or continue to cede our powers and liberties to the undemocratic bureaucracy in Brussels.</p>
<p>I find that those who rather noisily but uselessly opposed the Government’s plans on forty two day detention on the grounds that it reduced our civil liberties (which it does) had very little, if anything, to say on the fact that the Lisbon Treaty will massively reduce our civil liberties in the sense that our own elected Parliament will be made even more irrelevant.</p>
<p>Still, at the end of the day the politicians maintain their privileges and the media have their supposed controversy and headlines – and that’s all that matters to them. To hell with the rest of us.</p>
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		<title>A Wilted Clover</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:16:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Palmer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EU Referendum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Freedom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.chrispalmer.org/?p=88</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Whatever the result of the Irish Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty tomorrow, its final statistical outcome will matter very little. While supporters of both the YES and NO camps would celebrate a victory for their respective side, the final reckoning is predestined – the Lisbon Treaty will become law in the twenty seven EU member [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.chrispalmer.org/images/euparliament.png" alt="" width="80" height="80" />Whatever the result of the Irish Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty tomorrow, its final statistical outcome will matter very little.</p>
<p>While supporters of both the YES and NO camps would celebrate a victory for their respective side, the final reckoning is predestined – the Lisbon Treaty will become law in the twenty seven EU member states and there is nothing we or the Irish people can do to prevent it.</p>
<p>As we all well know, if the result tomorrow in Ireland is not the one that the European Union and its supporters want then they will simply ask the Irish people again, and again and again until they do receive the desired response. However, this is of course assuming that the EU would willingly tolerate the formality of another public referendum, which it may not.</p>
<p>A more likely scenario would seem to be that Irish and EU leaders will simply collude behind the backs of the Irish electorate at the next European Council and ratify the Lisbon Treaty (most of which has already been stealthily implemented) despite a NO vote.</p>
<p>This may well involve the Irish Government claiming that a few token concessions from the EU that will be offered up during ‘negotiation’ this time around (naturally only to be done away with in the next EU Treaty the Irish will sign) is enough to make another democratic consultation of the people unnecessary.</p>
<p>Either that, or all EU member states will agree to continue with the process of ratification without Ireland who would be allowed to join at a later stage if they so wish – which of course they will.</p>
<p>Therefore, the result of the Irish decision tomorrow is entirely irrelevant to the European Union. Its continuous drive towards ever closer union will rumble on undeterred and more and more of our powers, rights and freedoms will be willingly signed over to unelected Commissioners and Bureaucrats in Brussels by our own selfish, pampered and increasingly irrelevant representatives in Parliaments across the European continent.</p>
<p>Within a week our House of Lords will vote on whether there should be a Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in Britain. It is highly likely that the Lords and thus Parliament will agree with the Government and decide that there is no need for the people to be consulted. In so doing they will consign to the past this country’s long and celebrated history of being an independent, democratic and free nation. How did it come to this?</p>
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		<title>Last Chance To Say No</title>
		<link>http://www.chrispalmer.org/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&#038;feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&#038;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chrispalmer.org%2F2008%2F05%2F28%2Flast-chance-to-say-no%2F&#038;seed_title=Last+Chance+To+Say+No</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 28 May 2008 16:31:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Palmer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EU Referendum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Political Class]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.chrispalmer.org/?p=86</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On the 12th of June there will be one last chance for any of the peoples of the European Union to publicly say ‘no’ to the Lisbon ‘Reform’ Treaty which the elites of Europe have intolerantly forced upon us all. Despite the original EU Constitution being rejected by the people in France and in the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.chrispalmer.org/images/shamrock.png" alt="" width="80" height="80" />On the 12th of June there will be one last chance for any of the peoples of the European Union to publicly say ‘no’ to the Lisbon ‘Reform’ Treaty which the elites of Europe have intolerantly forced upon us all.</p>
<p>Despite the original EU Constitution being rejected by the people in France and in the Netherlands back in 2005, the document has returned disguised as a series of amendments which the governments of the EU hope they can slip past their electorates as another supposedly harmless Treaty.</p>
<p>Yet, so fearful are the political classes of their people saying ‘no’ to the Constitution-in-disguise that they have actively colluded to deny referendums to the people this time around on an almost unprecedented scale. Only the Irish will have a chance to vote on the document due to clauses within their own constitution.</p>
<p>With just over a fortnight until polling day the pro-EU, pro-Lisbon Treaty camp seems confident of gaining a positive result from the referendum. In part this is because Irish big businesses, the media and all the major Irish political parties are uniformly in favour of the EU and a ‘yes’ vote.</p>
<p>However, those on the ground are suggesting that there may well be a repeat of the Irish Referendum on the Nice Treaty, where despite a ‘no’ vote being continually behind in the media’s opinion polls, on the day saw Ireland vote against the Treaty. Yet, as with Nice, even if Irish sense again prevails and the Lisbon Treaty is rejected then there is no guarantee that the Constitutional Lisbon Treaty will be put to rest.</p>
<p>For the leaders of Europe, bureaucrats and supporters of ever closer union, public opinion is seen not as a reason to change direction but as an irritating obstacle to be overcome. And they will come back again, and again, and again until they find the result they want – but if the Irish vote for freedom, independence and democracy in June, and say ‘no, not in our name’ then it will at least throw a small spanner in the EU works.</p>
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