Lisbon III? You had better believe it if Chancellor Merkel has her way

ARE you ready for Lisbon III?

You had better be, if Angela Merkel has her way. Yes, contrary to all those promises that there would be no more constitutional treaty-making for a generation, Frau Merkel wants to put Europe through the agony once more. And why? Because the treaty-cum-constitution eventually passed here barely six months ago hasn’t proved to be the panacea for the EU’s ills that it was hailed as.

Leave aside for a moment the fact that, just to confuse everybody, Europe now has three presidents. Let us pass over too that the quasi-foreign minister Baroness Cathy Ashton is patently out of her depth. No, what has Angie cross are the spendthrift ways of the rest of Europe.