Leading article

De quoi avez-vous peur, Gordon?

20 October 2007

Tony Blair promised a referendum on the EU constitution to defeat 'Eurosceptic myths'. Is Gordon Brown afraid of such a contest?

Let us step aside for a moment from the political posturing and horse-trading at the Lisbon EU summit and go back to the beginning. On 20 April 2004, Tony Blair announced to the House of Commons that there would, after all, be a referendum on the EU Constitutional Treaty. It is important to restate the precise reasons the then Prime Minister cited for his dramatic U-turn.

Mr Blair was emphatic that his decision did not in any sense signify a recognition that the proposals represented a fundamental constitutional change. ‘The Treaty,’ he stressed, ‘does not and will not alter the fundamental nature of the relationship between member states and the European Union.’ Set aside for a moment the accuracy or inaccuracy of that claim. Officially, the Labour government decided to endorse a referendum not because it had finally acknowledged the huge constitutional shifts implicit in the text, but because Mr Blair wanted to defeat, once and for all, the supposed myths propagated by Eurosceptics.

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