Irish can silence the Euro vision

THE Irish are Eurovision champs yet again. No, not that self-parody of a music competition they have won more than anyone else, yet drives Terry Wogan to despair. Yesterday the Irish were casting their votes, not to select the most mind-numbing little ditty in Europe but to determine, for all three hundred million people of the European Union, what political European vision will eventually materialise.

By a quirk of fate, only in Ireland does the law state that any treaty that its politicians enter into that changes their constitution must be put to the people – as if the constitution itself was being amended.

Whoever thought that paragraph up deserves a statue erected in his or her honour. Many other countries should, or could, have had a referendum.

The French and Dutch had their referenda on the original draft constitution and threw the proposal out.

It was as much an expression of distaste towards their political classes as a rejection of the constitution that was offered. For their impertinence they were to be denied a second chance to do the same.

Britain was committed to hold a referendum and would no doubt have rejected the constitution too, but Tony Blair's face was saved by the ingratitude of those continentals – making it already dead in the water.

Gordon Brown and Ming Campbell both pledged to give the British people a say – but both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have shamefully ducked the issue by saying the Lisbon Treaty is not the same as the constitution originally proposed.

True, it is not word for word the same, but it is universally recognised in other European states that the Lisbon Treaty does what it says on the tin – it delivers the same draft constitution for the European Union.

The result of all this is that the Irish, and only the Irish, can save us from the distant and detached, power-hungry politicians who want to transfer more powers to Brussels and Strasbourg (one Parliament just isn't enough) by adopting a treaty that will create a proper European president, a European foreign minister, a foreign service with EU embassies, other European ministers and eventually a European cabinet. It will need more staff, more taxes and more laws.

That's all very well if you believe that Europe should be run like the United States of America, but this evolving United States of Europe is not a melting pot of immigrants with democratic rights enshrined on the individual.

Instead, it is a jigsaw of patriotic nations jealously guarding their cultures from the homogenisation of bland Eurocreep.

The European people don't want to be the same – they take great pride in their differences.

Politicians who use Euro laws to make us all the same are just not listening – and when politicians don't listen the people throw them out – and if they can't, they eventually turn to violence. If the Irish say no in their referendum, they will be doing Europeans a favour.

If they say yes, then there will be further resentment built into the European project and one day it will erupt.

The shame is that, unlike the other Eurovision, we are not given a say. Shame on Gordon Brown for his cowardice and deceit. So much for his belief in the brotherhood of man.

Boris leads the way
I was impressed with Boris Johnson when, after winning the election for London Mayor, he announced that he would resign his parliamentary seat so he could concentrate on serving the residents of London.

I heard no more about it and presumed, rather cynically, that it would not happen until the general election and must therefore be considered an empty gesture.

Well, how uncharitable I was. Boris is the man. He's actually resigned his Henley seat and there will be a by-election on June 26.

I suggest that Alex Salmond takes note. Instead of being in the best men's club in London – at the taxpayers' expense – while also serving at Holyrood, he could forego the extra pay and benefits and dedicate himself to being solely the First Minister by resigning as an MP and forcing a by-election.

It's not as if the SNP would lose Banff and Buchan. For a judicious tipster, Alex does, in this case, appear to be hedging his bets.

And Davis follows
But it's not just Boris Johnson who has shown some gumption and decided to resign his parliamentary seat.

Lo and behold, so too has David Davis, the Tory shadow home secretary. What are the Tories drinking and can we not give it to Labour MPs?

In an almost unique and unheard of example of political principle, Davis has resigned his seat in Haltemprice and Howden to force a by-election over the 42-day detention issue.

With the Liberal Democrats unlikely to stand a candidate, Davis should be a shoo-in – giving Gordon Brown another very public bloody nose. If Labour refuses to contest the election it will look yellow.

Now, will no-one resign over the issue of the Lisbon Treaty and keep the pressure up?