UK ratifies the EU Lisbon Treaty

The UK has officially ratified the European Union's Lisbon Treaty. Without a word from the British people. Do the people of the UK want this treaty....NO!!!

The documents were deposited with the Italian foreign affairs ministry in Rome on Wednesday.

The move came despite doubts over its future after the "no" vote in the Irish referendum. All EU states must ratify the treaty for it to come into force.

The EU treaty has proved controversial with unsuccessful attempts in Parliament and the courts to force a referendum to be held on it.

Conservative MP Bill Cash sought a judicial review of the ratification process after the rejection from Ireland.

And two High Court judges dismissed a claim by millionaire businessman Stuart Wheeler that there was a "legitimate expectation" of a public vote.

Mr Cash branded the ratification a "gross impertinence", while Mr Wheeler described the ratification as "absolutely atrocious behaviour".

On Friday he will seek permission from a Court of Appeal judge to appeal against that decision.

He said he believed although the "instrument of ratification" has been deposited in Rome, the government still had the right to withdraw it and reverse its decision.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said the prime minister had "no democratic or moral authority to sign Britain up to the renamed EU constitution".

It was "a total breach of trust with the British people and a flagrant breach of his solemn election promise to the British people", Mr Hague added.

He branded the government "arrogant and out of touch", and accused it of "joining in the ugly bullying of the Irish people, who have clearly rejected this treaty".

But Commons leader Harriet Harman insisted it was "in Britain's interest to be at the heart of Europe and it's in Europe's interest that Britain should play a leading part".

And Europe minister Jim Murphy said it was right to ratify the treaty "since both Houses of Parliament voted by substantial majorities in favour of it" and because it was "a good treaty" for Britain.

"The Tories are playing games and engaging in political stunts as usual. The fact is that the Tories cannot be trusted to safeguard Britain's interests in Europe," he added.

Source: News.bbc.co.uk

Meanwhile......

If the Irish had voted yes, would they still be made to vote again?

Sarkozy: ‘Irish will vote again'

Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, held a strictly off-the-record lunch briefing for international Brussels-based correspondents on Tuesday at the Elysée.

The Daily Telegraph was not invited, in fact deliberately excluded. Officials at the French Foreign Ministry have disapproved of questions put to the President by the Telegraph during a recent Brussels summit.

But despite the best efforts of the Quai d'Orsay's diplomats, I am able to reveal on-the-record, as a blog exclusive, Mr Sarkozy's more relevant comments.

The French strategy during their six month EU Presidency, which began on July 1, is to isolate Ireland after last month's referendum rejection of the Lisbon European Union Treaty.

With the Irish people in quarantine, the other 26 EU countries will press ahead with ratifying the Treaty - 19 have done so. Mr Sarkozy made it very clear that there would be no renegotiation of a Treaty that was Part II of the EU Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters three years ago.

"There will be no Treaty Part III," he said.

The Irish do not count.

France, along with the rest of the EU is looking for "escape hatch". "We need a soft landing in October," said Mr Sarkozy, when there will be EU summit in Brussels to find way forward by the time of European elections on June 4.

The Irish either will be asked to vote again, in a rerun of Ireland's second referendum on the Nice Treaty in 2002 - or Ireland's people will be bypassed.

The rest of the article can be found here....Blogs.telegraph.co.uk