I am blogging a bit late on this issue as the past week has been completely taken up by university admin and other odds and ends. But I feel this is a subject that needs opening up, even if the media circus has rolled out of town and no one any longer seems to recognise the magnitude of what we recently witnessed in the Republic of Ireland. I talk, of course, of the 'Yes' vote.

Just what exactly is it that the EU fails to grasp about the word no? In one form or other, this document has now been put to France, Holland and Ireland. All three gave a resounding 'No' to the document, enough (you would think in a democratic society) to condemn it to the history books. Yet instead what we find is an incessant pestering of these so-called rogue nations into accepting their place in the federal map of Europe slowly emerging from the embers of the European Coal and Steel Community.

It is a curious thing indeed that when the people vote 'No' it is because they do not understand the document, yet when the question is asked again and the people vote 'Yes', there is no question of their ability to comprehend to document. As Hannan has pointed out in the past, this is a clash of eurocratic will versus popular will. The people have made clear on numerous occasions that this is not the fate they wish for, yet it is what they shall get.

Factor in the ratchet clause which, to all intents and purposes makes this treaty self-amending, and we really do begin to get a scary picture of the future. The EU will no longer have to go through the inconvenience of asking the people, because we know that never works out well for the Brussels institutions.

Casting proxy votes for the whole of the EU, a country which voted no to a treaty had millions of euros worth of propaganda poured down its neck in order to influence a vote. The conspirators of the 'Yes' campaign succeeded and what we are now left with is a treaty that looks inevitable despite every single nation asked rejecting it flat out. This is not democracy.

Let us pray that a future Conservative government is elected in time to put this treaty to the sword.