Imagine if Cameron hadn’t vetoed…

telemachus'

So the City saved the Government.Just watch they will be ever so grateful

Mirtha Tidville

Or perhaps he might consider what position he would now be in if, at the time of the last General Election, he had promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty!!

Publius

"The pressure from the Tory benches to let the British people vote on it would have been immense."

Perhaps they retain some distant memory of the "Cast-Iron Guarantee". You know, the one Cameron wrote in water.

Charlie

I always rather assumed Cameron was doing whatever it took to make sure that no EU treaty came anywhere near the HoC. It doesn't matter what it might have contained; his BOO backbenchers would have been unable to resist the temptation to force at least a demand for repatriation of powers on the government by threats of rebellion. Major's fate would have looked cushy by comparison. The coalition could have been rent asunder. In the circumstances, far better to be 'forced' to veto the EU-wide treaty path, whilst encouraging Eurozone consolidation among the relevant countries.

Russell

It still will come to a vote in the House of Commons, and the government will be defeated.

Taxpayers are thoroughly sick of our money (£millions per day) being given to the EU with all their useless beurocrats and MEP's with massive salaries and expenses and our government is borrowing (£millions per day) and reducing our standard of living.
The waste in the EU would massively help reduce the deficit, never mind the actual amount of money we pay into it.

Our membership of the EU must be finished.

Nicholas

Bulverised.

Boudicca

Are we seriously supposed to believe that Cameron said NO to the Treaty in defiance of Merkozy.

Pull the other one.

It suits Merkozy to have a Treaty outside the EU. They have managed to avoid Referenda in all the 25 signatory countries except Ireland. They still get to use the EU's infrastructure and institutions and they don't need to worry about the UK scuppering their plans to rule the FU-zone by diktat.

For his part, Cameron got a brief glow of EU-scepticism lift in the polls; avoided a Commons row and a split in the Conservative Party and prevented a Referendum.

This was a stitch-up job. We're not fooled.

TrevorsDen

No one can fool you Boudicca. Someone with a skull an inch thick is beyond fooling.

But would not the nature of the treaty have triggered a referendum in the UK as well?

Something more interesting which the numskulls ignore is, where does this leave Ireland if it votes NO?
What are the prospects of an ever closer union between the UK and Ireland? Unlikely, but if Ireland move away from the Euro where else could it go?

Dimoto

Trevorsden -

Nice pipe dream, but the Irish politicians are "fully committed" to Euro bondage, so will no doubt find a gerrymander to get their way.

Koakona

Ireland could always come home for rule.

El Sid

AIUI the main reason that the Irish are having a referendum at all is because it is an agreement between the 25, outside the EU, and not a standard EU-27 thing. So if Cameron had signed up to the fiscal compact as a full-EU thing, the Irish would not be having a referendum and so James' point is moot.

El Sid

In any case, the referendum is pretty irrelevant. If the Irish vote no, they don't stop anything happening at a Europe level, it just means that Ireland isn't subject to the fiscal compact and can't be bailed out by the ESM. On balance, if I was Ireland, it's a small price to pay for the insurance.

strapworld

Mr Forsyth. Am I the only one of the view that you are desperate for Cameron to invite you to be one of his advisors?

I cannot recall one post from yourself critical of this weak, vain man,whose promises to the British people are forgotten as soon as he makes them. It is really time that he was given a reality check by the conservative press.

telemachus'

Gordon liked the Arctic Monkeys after their album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not"
Dave of course is all things to all men like Tony

telemachus'

Apols-wrong thread (thinking about the relevance of Ezekiel Bulver)

RCE

He wouldn't be PM now, for a start.

AN Grey

A veto is when your vote stops a proposal from taking place. Cameron's disagreement prevented nothing, he simply voted for Britain not to be involved. He had no influence over the other 26.

Nicholas

Bulverised. Window licking.

TGF Euros

This is a treaty about balanced budgets - ie constraining government to spend what it takes as income and not impose massive deferred taxation via deficits.

Why is the Conservative Right opposing this? there is much to criticise about the EU - but balancing budgets is the last thing any real Conservative should be manning the barracades against.

In2minds

@AN Grey - What you say is correct, the facts. But this article is a bit of propaganda so facts are not required.

Tiberius

strappy: that's an interesting take. I hold the view that CH (James included) ensures that there are more critical blogs on Cameron published than supportive ones. Many of them are contrived because he does actually know what he's doing.

starfish

"A veto is when your vote stops a proposal from taking place. Cameron's disagreement prevented nothing, he simply voted for Britain not to be involved."

So something did happen then - are we or are we not part of this new treaty?

"He had no influence over the other 26."

25 actually - Czech Republic has no part in it, I suspect some of the 25 are only grudgingly part of it - when the full enormity of the commitment hits them we will see how well it hangs together

Dimoto

TGF Euros -

Ha ha ha, balanced budgets eh ?
In fact, the treaty includes unspecified "exceptions".

It's really about German hegemony, a repressive, rigid Eurozone, and an end to any democratic accountability.