On The Good Ship Lollipop

Oh, a storm is threatning
My very life today
If I dont get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away

EU treaty 'will shift power to Europe'
The EU Reform Treaty backed by Gordon Brown paves the way for "a massive and fundamental" shift of power to Europe, a senior Labour MP charged by Parliament with assessing its impact will tell the Commons today.

The comments from Michael Connarty, the pro-European chairman of the all-party European Scrutiny Committee, will mark an explosive start to five weeks of Parliamentary debate on the Treaty - and stoke the growing clamour for a referendum.

Tonight - with Gordon Brown absent from the Commons - rebel Labour MPs hope to stage a substantial rebellion with between 20 and 30 said to be ready to vote for a cross-party amendment demanding a national vote.

The Tories, who support a referendum, last night accused Mr Brown, who is on the last leg of a tour of the Far East, of "running scared" over the vital issue of Europe by making sure he is out of the country when the ratification process gets under way.

Directly contradicting the Prime Minister, who claims he has protected British sovereignty by negotiating "red lines" into the text, Mr Connarty argues these will do little to halt the gradual transfer of power from national parliaments and courts to Europe.

"The Reform Treaty and the red lines are just a postponement of what will be one system for all of Europe," he told The Daily Telegraph last night.

Mr Connarty backs the new Treaty because he wants a stronger Europe but said he had decided to speak out because the British and other governments had not told the people of Europe the truth.

On criminal law, immigration and border controls, the Treaty had set up mechanisms for national vetoes to be steadily eroded and authority transferred from British ministers and UK courts to Europe.

It set the European Parliament on course to gain powers at the expense of Westminster as authority shifted from national capitals to the European centre.

The new Treaty, also known as the Lisbon Treaty, has to be ratified by national parliaments or in referendums in all 27 EU countries to come into effect.

It will scrap dozens of national vetoes, create a new full-time EU President and foreign affairs supremo, and give the EU a legal personality allowing it to sign international treaties.

Mr Brown argues that Labour's promise to hold a referendum on the abandoned Constitutional Treaty in Labour's last election manifesto does not apply to its successor because it is less far reaching.

That argument is further undermined today by a report from the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee which says that in foreign policy there is little or no difference between the two Treaties.

"We conclude that there is no material difference between the provisions on foreign affairs in the Constitutional Treaty which the Government made subject to approval in a referendum and those in the Lisbon Treaty on which a referendum is being denied."

The Labour-dominated committee accuses the Government of seeking to downplay the importance of large parts of the Treaty such as the new post of EU High Representative for foreign affairs and security, who will be served by a new EU diplomatic External Action Service.

Pro-referendum campaigners revealed plans yesterday to stage local referendums, giving half a million people in marginal constituencies a chance to have their say. Organisers of the "I Want a Referendum" campaign say it will be the biggest vote of its kind since the 1975 Referendum on keeping Britain in the Common Market.

While the Government majority is not under threat in tonight's vote, Labour whips were said to be increasingly concerned last night about cross party alliances forming between MPs discontented with the Treaty for a range of different reasons.

The Tories who have vowed to oppose the Treaty are expected to table amendments to the ratification Bill in the House of Lords later in the ratification process.

Left-wing Labour MPs, urged on by the unions, are also planning to put down their own amendments demanding that the UK's opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights be removed.

If the Tories back such amendments - as a way to kill the Treaty - then Mr Brown's faces real problems.

[...]

There's much, much more at The Telegraph

See also Trouble In Gordon Brown's Paradise

Also at A Tangled Web


Gimme Shelter lyrics, Jagger/Richards