27/04/2004
Buried in the Times business section today (page 28) is a long article on the constitution by Rosemary Righter. It is a compulsive read and deserves careful study.
In the article, she conceded that Blair âis never on better form than when he is asking voters to believe six impossible things before breakfastâ. âButâ, she writes, âhe cannot simultaneously say this treaty will have little bearing on what is left of parliamentary sovereignty, and that the vote will be as momentous as he now paints it⦠On Europe he is not trustedâ.
âHis bluff having been called, Mr Blairâs new strategy is to put the frighteners on the electorate by presenting the referendum as a vote for, or against, EU membership. This treaty is not an add-on to other treaties; it supersedes them. Since other countries could conceivably, if meretriciously, argue that the British had, by rejecting it, effectively voted themselves out of the Union, this line of argument could make influential converts, not least in the Cityâ.
Business leaders, she warns, âcould be tempted to stay aloof from the constitutional battle, thinking that, unlike the single currency, this is not their fightâ. âIt is very much their fightâ, she declares. This treaty, the Treasury opined last June, âcould have far-reaching consequences for the future performance of EU economiesâ. Most of them will be malignâ¦â.
To see the full article,
click here.