Labour suffered its worst post-war election result as it gained just 15.3 per cent of the vote, even worse than party bosses had feared, and was beaten into third place by UKIP.

Oh. My.

UKIP!?

Imagine the horror!

Polly Toynbee must be burning her bra in incoherent rage...

...

(That falling-off-chair thing again...)

Dear Your Majesty

May it please Your Majesty,

We, the British people, request that should your Government's bill to ratify the EU Constitution (otherwise known as the Lisbon Treaty) be passed to you for Royal assent, that this assent be withheld.

It has been made quite clear by the authors of this document that the Lisbon Treaty is merely the EU Constitution with a few cosmetic changes. All major UK parties promised a referendum on the Constitution, which has now been denied by the Government.

In the interests of democracy we request that you intervene to prevent your Prime Minister so blatantly ignoring the wishes of the people whom you have trusted him to govern, and to remind him that you will only permit him to continue to govern should he do so in a democratic manner.

Your obedient servants,

The Undersigned

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.

Without a shot being fired

So that’s it then. The EU constitution treaty is all but through the House of Commons, facing merely the formality of Third Reading. At a stroke, much of what remains of the UK’s power of self-government will now be negated and the rest will surely follow in due course. The solemn manifesto pledge by both Labour and the LibDems to give the British people the final say in the surrender of their nation’s sovereign right to rule itself has today been tossed into the garbage, along with what little remains of public trust in politicians. Three LibDem MPs have resigned from the front bench in protest. Who cares? Parliament now becomes Westminster Regional Council in the kingdom of Euroland, continent of Antidemocracya, planet Dystopia. One thousand years of British history have been extinguished without a shot being fired — and until now, in the virtual news blackout resulting from a conspiracy of boredom in the British media.

Well, that's it then...

MPs have rejected proposals to hold a UK-wide referendum on whether to ratify the EU's Lisbon Treaty.

The House of Commons rejected the Conservative proposal by 311 votes to 248 votes following a six-hour debate.

The result means Parliament itself will decide whether to ratify the treaty, signed by EU leaders last December.

Thirteen Lib Dem MPs rebelled against the party's orders to abstain on the referendum vote, with three frontbench spokesmen resigning their posts.

MPs rejected the Conservative amendment to the EU (Amendment) Bill by 63 votes. It is not yet known how many rebels there were among Labour and Conservative MPs.

It's the Moment of Truth at Westminster

This vote could, I believe, have a lot of influence in the next general.

At least, so I most fervently hope.


It's time Britain came first

There are moments in the lives of our elected representatives
when everyday, petty, party concerns should take a back seat in favour of
the greater national interest. This is one such moment.

After all the bargaining, the obfuscation and deception of recent months, our
MPs will finally vote in the Commons on whether or not to allow what the
overwhelming majority of voters in this country want: a referendum on the
ratification of the EU Constitution. Masquerading as a treaty, it removes
another slice of British sovereignty and pulls more power to the centre in
Brussels.

The odds are in the Government's favour, as the brave group of Labour rebels
led by MPs Kate Hoey and Frank Field is almost certainly too small. The
Conservatives will vote, overwhelmingly, for a referendum and have fought
valiantly.

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The Liberal Democrats, under Nick Clegg, are in the tightest spot of all.
If, as their leader wants, they betray their manifesto commitment and their
country, there are many voters who will neither forget nor forgive.

If there are MPs of any party unsure what course of action to take, it is
quite straightforward. Vote to put country ahead of party. Vote for a
referendum.

But things really aren't looking good. It looks like the pivot is that party that no one seems to know how to define, the Lib Dems. If ever there were a political party that Gary Trudeau would love to portray as a disembodied voice coming from nowhere and saying much of nothing, it's these guys. They seem to exist only to split important votes to give Labour whatever it wants. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say that the Lib Dems were an idea cooked up at a frat party one night by Blair and Brown to siphon off votes and make sure Labour never had to relinquish its grip on this Sadde Olde England.

Today is the day that MPs vote themselves closer to obscurity if, as
is widely expected, they defeat an amendment for a referendum on the constitutional
Lisbon treaty.

If they needed any reminder why they should allow a referendum to go ahead – the
last, best hope of slowing down the encroachment of European integration - they
need only look to Brussels where our supreme government was hard at work yesterday,
achieving nothing at all.

With the "growing" revolt from his own party and the Tories uniformly in favour of a referendum, Brown doesn't have enough to cover it with just his own MP's but it's the LD's who are going to give him what he wants.

[Lib Dem leader] Nick Clegg this morning on the Today programme wriggled
and wriggled, faced with Sandra Gidley saying Lib Dems promised a referendum on the
Constitutional Treaty in 2005 and should honour their pledge. He sounded even worse
when the BBC managed to ask him if he would vote for a double referendum,dealing
both with the Constitutional treaty and with In-Out.

Why can’t he bring himself to vote for that? Because he is Euro Clegg, and is
petrified that the British people if ever given a vote on Europe will show how much
they distrust federalist MPs like him. He wants to avoid a referendum at all costs.

So we now have this pathetic leader putting his own MPs on a three line whip to
ABSTAIN! Worse still for him, a number of them will understand just how angry their
voters are about their conduct, and will vote with the Conservatives for the
referendum we all promised at the last election.

Lord what fools these mortals be! If you kept your word and said what you mean
you wouldn’t get into these difficulties, Mr Clegg. Does he really think these
contortions are the way to help restore faith in politicians?