Disgusted at signing of the Lisbon Treaty (From Falmouth Packet)

Disgusted at signing of the Lisbon Treaty

9:30am Wednesday 7th May 2008

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I WRITE to both voice my disgust and total opposition, to our Prime Minister signing the Lisbon Treaty, with the referendum he promised us, when it contains controls over most of our lives.

We in the United Kingdom now have to face monumental political decision that will define our democracy for generations to come. We have been told to trust those who apparently know better than us: the political classes and the Eurotocracy' that nothing changes. Well it most certainly does change and your readers should be aware of this fact. In the mean time, as the argument rages on and on, don't for goodness sake, let anyone mention the European Constitution. If you thought the Maastricht and Nice masterpieces needed a whole afternoon in a political seminar to understand, then try Lisbon, a masterclass in confusion and obscurity.

It would be funny if it wasn't so serious; indeed, were any student in Europe to submit the Lisbon Treaty as an academic political thesis, they might well be thrown out of their faculty. Why is this? Why is it so beyond the literary abilities of our Brussels bureaucrats to produce something that is reasonably intelligible? The answer, I believe, is neither sinister nor conspiratorial as some have suspected, but rather more arcane. Lisbon represents the final confused consensus of over 20 governments all seeking simultaneously to do two opposite things: to create a new governing structure for Europe, while at the same time covering their political backs. Here is a document of monumental confusion for a new European political experiment, which in itself reeks of monumental confusion. European federal state or European super-state or European union of states: basically. Under Lisbon, Germany's relative voting weight vis-a-vis the other 26 member states would more than double, from its current 8 per cent to 17 per cent; France's would go from 8 per cent to 13 per cent and Britain from 8 per cent to 12 per cent Lisbon envisages that, in future, countries can only suggest someone for membership of the commission, instead of proposing them, as is the case now. Is this acceptable? Who can deny that Lisbon will utterly transform law-making in the EU? Our government are now selling us all down the river, by the way that they have allowed uncontrolled immigration, full benefits for all of these visitors, while our pensioners are having to be means tested to get any sort of basic living conditions. Every one can see what is happening. We are being treated with contempt by our politicians, it's time we all stood up and are counted. Remember the old adage. Charity begins at Home. Not in the UK it doesn't.

Barrie Elliott Councillor UKIP Boscundle Avenue Falmouth

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