Which Way Now?

The French have done the dirty deed for us, which may be the first time it was not the other way around. What happens next? The EU commission will try to revive some parts of the treaty, particularly the most important bits (Foreign Minister, voting system etc.) How successful they are depends on how well we resist them. Whatever they propose, however small, we must remind them that the idea has already been put to the vote and rejected. The future of the EU now becomes a hot topic. The previous assumptions have all been put to rest. The election of so many UKIP MEPs last year was a major step in this direction for the UK last year. France is following and will soon be joined by the Dutch. Now, the BBC and Europhiles can no longer talk about us being out of sync with the rest of Europe. Although the political elite will resist, the referendum cat is out of the bag. Any further integration is severely curtailed. The reason is simple. From today on, any politician wanting to make a name for themselves has a very easy option. Call for a referendum on some issue to doing with Europe. With 25 chances of it happening, all future treaties will have to pass the referendum test. That basically means no more treaties. Tony Blair is out of the frying pan into the fire. He doesn’t need to face the public, but instead become the face of the EU at the worst possible time. Unless the heads of government agree to kill off the treaty within the next month he will be in an impossible situation. He will be unable to cancel the UK referendum, despite everyone knowing that it will never happen. The French want a social Europe. We want a free market. From now on its gloves off and the French have just lost their natural advantage. There is no chance of France forming an inner core. They have lost credibility as a leader of the EU. An inner core would be a nightmare, as they would try to push all of their ideas onto the wider membership and would do so as a block. Across Europe, all Eurosceptics, whatever their core beliefs have taken great heart from this result. Our opponents are now on the back foot. Its our job to keep them there.