Boiling the Frog

Yesterday was a watershed, when MPs finally abandoned any attempt at concealing that they were representatives of an independent, democratic state.


The day after we joined the (then) EEC, the petrol pumps did not suddenly start selling petrol in litres. The change took some time, so insidiously that few probably remember when it actually occurred.

Strangely, though, none of us actually buy litres – most of us watch the price window on the pumps, the blur of litres going into the tank conveying entirely meaningless information. The change has completely destroyed the concept of volume when we buy this important commodity.

The broader point, though, still stands. The day after the constitutuional Lisbon treaty has come into force, nothing outwardly will have changed. And nor will it change for some time, and many of the changes that ensure will not be obvious. But, as we wake up one day to find that our cars are now powered by litres rather than gallons, they will be there.