The Quislings Amongst Us

The Sunday Telegraph also has a Leader on Europe.

It is quite extraordinary that Blair is apparently trying to sign us up inextricably to a 'Treaty', thinking that he can dupe the British public once more, when the cat has already long been let out of the bag by Mrs. Merkel: that this 'Treaty' is no more and no less than the old. discredited and rejected constitution that has been through the rehashing machine with its phraseology changed here and there and is to be presented in a different way so that the people can be deceived into thinking it is just a bit of tidying up.

What is Blair up to? Why does he think we are going to be hoodwinked by all this?

Perhaps the intention is to land Brown with one last timebomb that will duly explode in his lap and mire his administration with interminable guerilla warfare on Europe. If so it is a disgraceful act of Quisling proportions.

Britain Must Vote On This Treaty

For the past two elections, Labour's manifesto has been admirably clear on the issue of a constitution for the European Union: "We will put it to the British people in a referendum and campaign whole-heartedly for a Yes vote."

Tony Blair's final act as Prime Minister is likely to be to break that commitment. As we report today, he will sign the new European constitution just before he leaves 10 Downing Street. There will be no referendum. His signature alone will be enough to bind the United Kingdom in perpetuity to the constitution's strictures.

Mr Blair will justify this blatant perfidy by claiming that the document is not a constitution: it is just a "treaty". This is utterly false, as he and his Cabinet know very well.

Ever since the EU constitution was decisively rejected by the voters of France and Holland two years ago, Europe's bureaucrats and politicians have been desperately searching for an alternative way to get it adopted.

They have finally come up with a strategy for doing so: by not calling the document a "constitution", but referring to it as a mere "treaty". The subterfuge is not sophisticated. The text is unchanged, except that various paragraphs relating to issues which "have already been agreed" have been deleted.

Those paragraphs have not, of course, been agreed to by Europe's voters, only by the politicians allegedly representing them. But that is the whole point. The European project has systematically denied voters any opportunity to voice their opposition to, or endorsement of, the basic principles of the European Union.

The danger is that, given the chance, they might come up with the "wrong" answer, as they did in France and Holland. Europe's leaders are not going to repeat that mistake. Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor, has admitted that the new document is the same as the old one: the only difference is that the new constitution uses different terminology without changing the legal substance of the original.

Earlier this year, Geoff Hoon, the Europe Minister, tried to justify breaking the promise to give the British people the chance to vote on the constitution by saying that the new "treaty" would not "alter the basic relationship between the EU and member states".

Even Mr Hoon sounded unconvinced by that argument. Altering the basic relationship between the EU and member states is precisely what the new "treaty" does. By altering the voting rules, it will make it harder for Britain to block laws it does not like.

It will give new powers to the EU president, and create a new post of EU foreign minister. And it will codify doctrines to which many of Europe's voters object: for instance, the principle that "the constitution shall have primacy over the laws of member states".

The deception over the constitution demonstrates that the European project, in its present form, is not just undemocratic but anti-democratic: it depends on ensuring that the electorate cannot express its will.

For once, David Cameron and the Conservatives have an easy target: they must harry Gordon Brown relentlessly until he promises a referendum on the new treaty. Nothing less will do. And unless he undoes Mr Blair's last act of dictatorial hubris, Mr Brown will merely be following his predecessor's trail of deceit and dishonesty."