madam president i think our constituents would be interested to see how far we have gone in these fields
in the run-up to the irish referendum and then especially after it we were told that the european union was not really progressing towards a common foreign policy and that it certainly was not meddling in the field of abortion law and yet here we have those two issues tied together in one report
despite all the promises we made about listening to the people and tailoring our policy to suit their demands we have carried on regardless
there was a very neat illustration of that earlier this morning when we listened to the president of the czech republic
he made a speech that was in some ways almost platitudinous
he made the very banal and unarguable point that governments are better when there is an opposition and that we should tolerate other points of view
what was the reaction of this chamber when he said that we should tolerate other points of view
people in the pse and the ppe-de groups turned their backs and walked out
not only will they not respond to alternative points of view they cannot even bear to listen to them
what neater example could you have of this house's attitude towards the electorates out there
if you think i am wrong prove me wrong hold the referendums you promised put the treaty of lisbon to the people
