A Tip O' The Hat To Democracy, A Tip O' The Knickers To The EU

Ireland, the only country out of 27 given an opportunity to vote on the new EU Constitution, have just saved the other half billion people in Europe. They have pulled Britain's crown jewels out of the fire. They have voted no to the Treaty of Lisbon. One can only imagine the number of Guiness Stouts being poured across Britain and the rest of Europe today.

As I blogged below, Britain had three last chances to stay out of the EU. One was the a vote on ratification of the EU Constitution by the House of Lords, an institution radically altered by Labour PM Tony Blair when they were not seeing things his way. Unfortunately, but predictably, they voted with Labour to approve the transfer of Britain's sovereignty to the EU. A second chance was a law suit to force a referendum in Britain based on Labour's pre-election promises to the nation. That one is ongoing. The third chance was the Irish vote. And they have not disappointed.

The Irish just tossed a huge wrench into the anti-democratic wheels of EU. Every other nation in the EU was having the new Constitution imposed on them by their political class. Ireland was required by the terms of its Constitution to hold a referendum. And hold it they did. All 27 nations have to agree for the Treaty of Lisbon to come into effect and the new EU super-state to be born - at least according to existing treaties. There are without doubt thousands of socialists in Brussels right now combing every possible nuance of every EU treaty to see if there is a way around that.

The EU Referendum, whose raison d'etre has been to fight this EU coup in Britain, should have the first word on this:

Overall result so far: 53.6 - 46.4 for the "noes", but Corbett speaks (see bottom of this post) - and so does Barroso. Despite that, there is no way that the "colleagues" can get round this. Spin they might, but the fact is that, in the ONLY referendum on the treaty, the voters said Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! . . .

OPENING A NEW FRONT: As this is not the end, the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning, a new front has been opened in the war. In a day or so there will be more about the BrugesGroupBlog and the thinking behind it.

What you will now hear is loud squealing from the direction of Brussels as the incredibly anti-democratic folks who are determined to make an EU super-state wholly irrespective of the wishes of Europe's citizens try and figure a way around this. And as the EU Referendum documents, it has already started:

UPDATE: Reuters is reporting that France's secretary of state for European affairs, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, is saying that an Irish "no" should not stop other member states ratifying the treaty. "The most important thing is that ratification should continue in other countries and I have good reasons to think that the process of ratification will continue," he told LCI television. "We would have to see with the Irish at the end of the ratification process how we could make it work and what legal arrangement we could come to."

So, the mice are gnawing away at it already. We told you this would happen! . . .

UPDATE: David Heathcoat-Amory says on BBC Radio 4 that the Conservatives should press for the UK ratification to be abandoned. Some chance!

UPDATE: Ahern says: "We're in uncharted waters." You bet!

UPDATE: The founder of Libertas, Declan Ganley, says: "The Irish people have rejected the Lisbon Treaty. "it is a great day for Irish democracy ... This is democracy in action ... and Europe needs to listen to the voice of the people." Ganley adds that Brian Cowen, "has a mandate to go back to Europe and do the best job possible".

Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins has said the likely "no" vote is a "huge rebuff to the political establishment" but a vindication of the rights of "tens of millions of workers" in the European Union. He believes the "no" side "won the argument", despite the fact that the main political parties and "big business" were in favour of the treaty. . . .

UPDATE: Poland's President Lech Kaczynski's office says he will still sign the treaty. "The president has already said the issue of ratification is a done deal," Mariusz Handzlik, head of the foreign affairs department in the president's office, told Reuters.

UPDATE: Andrew Duff, Lib-Dim leader says, "we cannot accept this result". Corbett on his blog says, "there are 26 other member states whose opinion matters too. It is inconceivable that all of the others will simply say 'too bad - one country has said no to the package as it stands, so let's forget reform and stick with the current system for evermore."

UPDATE: Deutsche Welle reports: "A feeling of gloom and uncertainty fell on Brussels on Friday after Ireland's justice minister said it appeared that the 'no' camp had pulled ahead in the referendum on the European Union's new reform treaty." The eurosceptics, meanwhile, have decamped to Kitty O'Shea's - yards from the commission building - drinking pints of Guiness while they hold an impromptu press conference.

UPDATE: EU commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is still calling on other members states to ratify the treaty. "I believe the treaty is alive and we should now try to find a solution," he says.

UPDATE: Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan says Ireland has lost influence in Europe. He was "very, very disappointed" with the outcome, adding: "I think it is a very sad day for this country and for Europe as well." It was a "serious matter for Ireland," he said, then declaring:"We have to accept the decision of the people… and that's democracy and I accept that." . . .

Read the entire post. This certainly ought to be a signal to Tory Leader David Cameron to finally get off the fence and start challenging this stealth coup being imposed on Britain. And hopefully it will put much more pressure on Labour and Gordon Brown to stop the ratification process.

We will give the last word on this to Brits At Their Best who say a very sincere "Thank You" to Ireland:

We think the Irish have said NO to the EU with gusto!

They alone, three million of the half a billion people in the 27 nations of the European Union, had a democratic vote on the undemocratic EU constitution.

Read the entire post. The war is hardly over. But think of this as Dunkirk. The socialists are not defeated, but they just lost their best opportunity to destroy the allies.