Douglas Carswell's Blog

New EU treaty, same old spin?

First there was a cast iron guarantee to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty - which never materialized.

Now there could well be a new EU treaty, without any referendum - despite what we were promised.

Prepare for the government spin, which will likely say:

1. This new agreement involving France and Germany etc is not really a new treaty.

2. It doesn't involve giving the EU new powers in new areas. Just transfers in existing areas.  And when we promised a referendum on any further transfer of new powers, we meant in new transfers of power within new areas. Obviously.

3. Besides, this is not a significant transfer of power.  We were careful to say there'd be a referendum only when there were significant transfers.  And we don't think this is significant.  So there.

4. This new thingy, which isn't really a treaty, doesn't involve us, as we're not in the Euro. Despite what the small print might say.

5. Anyhow, look how tough we've been, getting Europe to mug us for a little less with a slightly reduced budget increase!     

By Friday, there's a fair chance you'll have been fed variants of all five of the above....

Where is the referendum on any new treaty, like we were promised? Same EU policy. Same tired old spin.

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