Affording Lisbon

The Conservative position on the Lisbon Treaty, which William Hague failed to make completely clear in his recent interview with the Times, seems to be that if it is not ratified by the time of the next election they would put it to a referendum, whereas if it were already ratified they might and they might not. In neither circumstance are they able to say whether the referendum result would be binding on the government.

It is not just Parliament’s loss of control over foreign affairs and other areas, as if that weren’t bad enough; this Treaty creates new layers of bureaucracy and cost which we simply cannot afford. There must be cost cutting in Britain and that must start with Brussels, and reduction of the EU budget must begin with not increasing it due to the Lisbon Treaty.

It used to be that the Conservatives pledged to repatriate powers from Brussels, I suppose that has gone out of the window.