Treaty guarantees are just a cynical ploy

IN his reply to my letter (August 17), Brian Crowley MEP (August 22) misses or sidesteps the main point I made.

I believe that under the heading ‘What is not changed remains the same’ I showed clearly that the much-vaunted “guarantees” do not change the Lisbon Treaty, which means that on October 2 the same treaty will be presented to the people again.

When Mr Crowley still talks of what we will have to vote on this time as “a very different proposition” he finds himself at variance not only with me but with the European Council whose plain statement of the matter I quoted, namely that the protocol containing the so-called guarantees “will clarify but not change either the content or the application of the Treaty of Lisbon”.

The importance of my point will be clear to all who remember that after the referendum of June 2008 the Government solemnly declared it would not ask the people to vote on the same treaty again.

Now it constantly misrepresents the status of the “guarantees” it has “secured” in order to save face in relation to that false undertaking.

If you cannot trust them on such a basic matter, how can you believe them on other things they and their mysteriously well-funded supporters tell you about this complex treaty and its far-reaching and virtually irreversible consequences for our country?

The “guarantees” are nothing but a cynical political pretext for disrespectfully presenting the same treaty to the electorate again withen 16 months.

James N O’Sullivan

Ohnhorststr. 28

22609 Hamburg

Germany