On The Lisbon Treaty.

Well spotted here. Lord Pearson of Rannoch has highlighted in the debate over the Lisbon Treaty the absurdity of the creation of the offence of "xenophobia".

Now, I must declare an interest here, I'm a member of UKIP (ooooh, gosh, you can hear the crowds sucking in their breath there!) and I've also thrown my hat into the ring to stand at the next euro-elections. And My Noble Lord Pearson was one of my sponsors in doing so. Clearly this post is thus just another exemplar of the embouchure to posterior ritual without which no political career advances.

But it's also true that the point he raises is a valid one. How can we have a crime for which one can be extradited, when the "crime" isn't actually a crime in English law?

Now given all that there is in fact a way to show that EU law is simply a ghastly and hopeless mess. For the very same EU Constitution Lisbon Treaty also contains a provision making it illegal to discriminate between people on the basis of national origin.

So, to recap, xenophobia is essentially an Englishman like me saying nasty things about Frogs. The capital F kind, yes. However, such things would not be xenophobic if said by another Frog....because while they might have exactly the same measure of truth to them (insufficient aquaintance with soap, inadequate changes of les pantalons, that sort of thing) they would not be being said about foreigners.

But if we are not allowed to discriminate between people upon the basis of national origin then if it is legal for a Frenchman to say something then it must be equally legal for an Englishman to.

And thus the law is an ass.