eurealist.co.uk

On Mr Wheeler`s High Court action against the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, on their refusal to hold a referendum on whether the Lisbon Treaty should be ratified.

Information on Mr Wheeler site says that the Speaker of the House of Commons intended to apply to intervene in the case, in order to make submissions concerning parliamentary privilege and the Bill of Rights 1689. Mr Wheeler says “I do not know why the Speaker feels he needs to intervene, as arguments about these matters have already been put forward on behalf of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary.”

Funny that once again we see the politicians resorting to the use of the Bill of Rights 1689, when it suits them, but they seem to be unreceptive to its other clauses when they demand protections for the people against an overpowering government.

I woke up this morning with the vague thought that that I should write about the Conservatives recent

Whatever the tactical gains in the short run from triangulation, in the long term it threatens to poison our political system. The greatest challenge to our democratic process is the growing number in the electorate who find it hard to identify with any party, or to accept the conviction with which political figures hold their views.

rise in popularity as revealed in the polls, local elections and Crew, with relation to the effect that recognition might have on what EU policies we can expect from them come the next election.

It is well understood that the Tories are playing their cards as close to the vest as possible, because when they have announced any policy that has gained public approval, it has only taken the Labour government about a week to copy it, see the scrapping of the Regional Assemblies and inheritance tax.

Not that this is a new theme from New Labour, I well remember an interview on BBC Today programme, back in the days when I still thought it worth listening to, when either John Humphrys or James Naughtie was questioning the looser of the 1997 election, John Major. Who ever it was, made some remark about the Conservative support for New Labour polices, to which Major replied yes of course we support those policies because before they were Labour policies they were Conservative policies. Major could have expanded on that theme and explained that as those policy outlines were agreed in the EU neither party had much choice in the matter. But that is problem with the political and media treatment of the EU, there is so little outward acknowledgement that membership of the Union has evolved in such a manner that it is binding all parties to the same policies.
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