In referenda in 2007 the French and the Dutch people rejected proposed changes to the EU Constitution which would lead eventually to the creation of the Euro. Following this Brussels abandoned the treaty and a new form of words, the Lisbon Treaty, was drafted which was the same as that put to voters in France and Holland but ‘rearranged’ so it could not be understood by the general reader.
The new treaty was then smuggled through both Dutch and French parliaments without asking the people again.
A previous President of France Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, alarmed at the possibility that anybody might actually take notice of voters, something almost unheard of inside the French establishment, unless people take to the streets burning and looting, explained;
“The Treaty of Lisbon is thus a catalogue of amendments. It is impenetrable for the public. In terms of content, the proposed institutional reforms are all to be found in the Treaty of Lisbon. They have merely been ordered differently and split up between previous treaties.”
The Irish however were obliged under their terms of their constitution to hold a referendum – which they did, with the following result;
The first referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon held on 12 June 2008 was rejected by the Irish electorate, by a margin of 53.4% to 46.6%, with a turnout of 53%.[5]
Brussels was very angry about this and threatened Ireland with bankruptcy if they did not vote correctly, which they duly did a year later, this time with the ‘correct’ result.
The second referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon held on 2 October 2009 and the proposal was approved by 67.1% to 32.9%, with a turnout of 59%.[6] . Wikipedia.
The treat was then ratified, the only national representative not to sign at the ceremony attended by all of Europe’s heads of states was Prime Minister Gordon Brown ,who having previously denied a referendum by the British people, flew secretly to Lisbon later to sign it in semi secrecy.
We are about to do exactly the same as the Irish, getting it ‘right’ the second time in a referendum. It is what the EU intended from the outset as did Mrs May.
When Chamberlain and Halifax visited Rome in January 1939 to see if there was any possibility of detaching Italy from an alliance with Germany, Count Ciano, the Italian foreign minister (standing behind and to the left of Il Duce in this photograph), recorded in his diary that Mussolini was unimpressed by them and had said: ‘These men are not made of the same stuff as the Francis Drakes and the other magnificent adventurers who created the empire.’
Now, eighty years on, we might observe that Mrs May is not made of the stuff of Boudicca, unless it is to go down to defeat before the empire of the Treaty of Rome.
Ciano was correct. Chamberlain was weak and Halifax traitorous. As such, they did not represent the British nation.
And neither do child-less, fixated weirdos like May and Macron represent their respective nations today.
Recall that strange visitation the day after the referendum in 2016.
The then American Secretary of State John Kerry flew in to see the weeping Cameron. At a press conference Kerry said that he thought that the referendum result could be ‘walked back’, but not immediately.
It is now 2.5 years since the EU referendum and during that time TV news and current affairs has given remainers a disproportionate amount of time to express their anger and sneering contempt for those who voted leave. In spite of this I still find it difficult to understand exactly why remainers are so horrified at the prospect of leaving the EU.