mr president i had been hoping that mr pöttering might perhaps be in the chair tonight as i wanted to thank him publicly for giving me the opportunity of leaving the epp group a few years ago
i am delighted that my conservative colleagues will all be leaving the epp group shortly an objective which i have worked towards for ten years
we are here to debate the lisbon treaty so i would have reminded mr pöttering that his own country germany has not yet ratified
we in the eu claim to be a union of values based on democracy and the rule of law yet we ignore democracy
we ride roughshod over the wishes of voters
we rejected the results of referenda in denmark on maastricht in ireland on nice in france and holland on the constitution and now on lisbon in ireland again
we treat the aspirations of our electorates with outright contempt
so much for democracy we are no better on the rule of law
we are implementing plans and spending based on the lisbon treaty ahead of ratification
this is little less than a bloodless coup d état
mr pöttering says that a million irish voters cannot stand in the way of four hundred and fifty million europeans
he is right
so let the four hundred and fifty million vote on the treaty
britain will vote no
in all probability france and germany will vote no but you dare not let the people vote on the treaty because you know their answer already
in britain all but eight of our six hundred and forty-six mps were elected on a commitment to a referendum yet our discredited labour government has scandalously broken its promise
let me give colleagues due notice
we in the british conservative party will make a lisbon referendum a key plank of our european election platform
we will deliver a referendum and we will kill this wretched and shameful treaty stone dead
