EU's disdain for voters

Rather than establishing a new, founding document, it introduces the desired changes by amending previous EU treaties. This has given Europe's leaders the excuse to bypass any more troublesome referendums. Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who chaired the convention that drew up the constitution, happily admits: "The Treaty of Lisbon is the same as the rejected constitution. Only the format has been changed to avoid referendums."

This time around, therefore, the French and Dutch voters have not been consulted. Their governments have ratified the Lisbon treaty despite the voters having rejected virtually all of its provisions just two years earlier.

The same is true of the Brits. Having promised a referendum on the draft constitution in 2005, the Brown Government has now ratified the treaty in 2008 without troubling the electorate for its views. Of the 27 governments that make up the Union, 26 have decided a referendum on the treaty is not needed, and 18 have already ratified it.

Only the Irish decided to ask the voters what they thought. The Irish have been major beneficiaries of Brussels' beneficence over recent years, so a yes vote was widely anticipated, but in the event, they voted no.

Europe's leaders are furious about this. They insist ratification in the other 26 countries will still go ahead, and they are demanding the Irish government find a way around the referendum result. They say three million Irish voters cannot be allowed to subvert the will of 450 million Europeans, conveniently overlooking the fact that the other 447 million were not actually asked their opinion. With no apparent sense of irony, the German Foreign Minister says "we need this treaty to make Europe more democratic".

Past experience suggests the Irish will either be told to vote again, or their government will find a pretext for signing a slightly-amended version of the treaty without calling another referendum.

I wonder if Mugabe is taking notes?