A hiding in the european elections could force gordon brown to call a british lisbon referendum. The prospect of a hiding in the 2004 eurpean elections helped force tony blair to call a referendum on the european constitution. Hague commits the tories to renegotiating britains relationship with europe after the next british election, if lisbon is in force the tories will seek a retrospective referendum. It seems even ken clarke has been whipped into line.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...eferendum.html

That would be bad news for the YES side there all right.

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I seriously doubt Browne will call an Election on anything if he can possibly avoid it.

But its good news indeed that Hague is keen to undo the LT ASAP.

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The tories are now dominated by eurosceptics. In the past europhiles like john major and ken clarke were very powerful. A british no would kill the treaty.

Ken Clarke is a has been - he wields nothing like the influence in the Party he did under Major.

Genial Ol Codger at this stage really.

Fingers crossed there is a Referendum in Britain on Lisbon within the next 12/18 months.

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With the exception of a small fringe, the Conservatives aren't nearly as Eurosceptic as they were under Thatcher. What they do realise, however, is the importance of keeping the large eurosceptic vote under the Tory roof - and as such they make suitably bellicose noises now and then, but it rarely amounts to them actually having to do anything. Likewise here, you have to remember that whatever the prospects are of Brown holding a referendum, the prospects of him doing so because Cameron tells him to are zero. So with Britain having already ratified through the Commons, when Ireland and the Czech Republic ratify (as I believe both will) later this year, all the talk of a British referendum becomes irrelevant, as at that point Lisbon will come into being as the modus operandi of the EU.

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"The elites are mostly wrong" says FutureTaoiseach. But FutureTaoiseach is also mostly wrong. Does that mean the elites are mostly right?

If Lisbon is not ratified by the time the Tories get back in, it is finished. Hence the rush to ratify by the end of this year. I can't see Brown agreeing to a referendum, he knows what the result would be and he's toast at this stage barring some miraculous turnaround or a Tory scandal of the sort his mates were trying to manufacture before last weekend.

As I understand it under the British 'Constitution' there must be a General Election every five years.

As the last one was held on 5 May 2005 the Clock is ticking fast on Browne's time as PM.

At this stage he just might as well ride it out till the bitter end and make the most of the brief time he has left in the role he spent a Lifetime pursuing...

Sure the Tories are not as near anti EU as they like to make out but they know they have a winner on this one and my gut feeling is they will go for a Referendum in some shape or other on Lisbon if they get back in.

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HBAP's got it right, the Tories are quick to exploit the Euroskeptic vote but wait until they get into power and see how they act then.

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The Tories are a lot more eurosceptic when on the opposition benches. They are not nearly as eurosceptic when in power when they have to deal with reality. The tories brought Britain into the EEC. Maggy brought in the single European act and John Major was present in body if not in heart at the birth of the single European currency and all else that went with it under Maastricht.
Reality has to be dealt with in power.
Any "gain" won and brought home in Britains re-negotiation would be quickly paid for when Britain has to turn around and look for something from its European neighbours.

Gordon Brown started of being cold towards all things European and has to change his tune and jet of to look for co-operation and a united front to deal with the international problems affecting his own country.

So if you are that way inclined keep reading the Oirish daily mail and torygraph and keep having wet dreams about maggie but believe me dealing with reality will not be the same.