13/06/08 - Luck of the Irish strikes on Friday 13th as they say "No"

Cllr Justin Tomlinson & Rob Buckland with the thousands of responses in support of our campaign for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty

Time for the EU to listen to the democratic will of the people as the Irish reject the Lisbon Treaty Brussels, 13th June 2008.

Local Conservative MEP, Neil Parish has welcomed the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty and has urged the European Union to finally listen to the democratic will of the European people.Ireland was the only EU member state to put the Lisbon Treaty to a public vote, and although 14 out of the 27 countries have already ratified the Treaty, it must be ratified by all member states before it comes into force. The Irish rejection means that the Lisbon Treaty should be dead in the water and will put further pressure on Gordon Brown ahead of the House of Lords vote in the UK.  The Treaty, designed to ressurect the ill fated European Constitution now faces the same fate as its predeccesor which was rejected in referendums in France and The Netherlands in 2005.

Mr Parish, South West Conservative MEP said :-

"I congratulate the Irish on their wisdom. This was a Treaty too far and I am delighted that it has been rejected. Whilst Gordon Brown denied the British people the chance to vote on their future, the Irish people have exercised their democratic will and have sent a big "No" to the Euro integrationists in Brussels."Europe now needs to sit down and look at where it is going. First the Dutch, then the French and now the Irish people have voted against the EU's plans for further integration. "Europe needs to take notice and work at improving the things it can do, like facilitating internal trade.  Instead it is integrating far too fast and is riding roughshot over national sovereignty against the wishes of the people. The Comission say they have no plan "B". My advice would be to go with plan "G", and give up with attempts to grab more of our sovereignty."

Cllr Justin Tomlinson, Prospective MP Swindon North said:-

"It is no wonder this arrogant out of touch Labour Government cheated us out of a referendum as they knew their plans to surrender further powers to Europe would have been rejected.  Each and every Labour MP who has refused to listen to the public should hang their head in shame, and remember this is being added to a very long list of reasons why they will be booted out of power as soon as Gordon Brown can no longer run from the electorate."