Move along, nothing to see

Who does he think he is kidding. Gordon stands there with his new bestest pal Mr Socrates from Portugal and tells us that there is no need for a referendum on the treaty no need at all, but what did he actually say,

Well he talked about the red lines,

"The first is obviously that the Charter of Rights should not be justiciable in British law; the second was that there had to be an opt-in for the justice and home affairs sections of the amending treaty; the third was that the foreign affairs and security work of Europe should be on an intergovernmental basis and that should not be changed; the fourth was that the social security provisions should allow for an emergency break, in other words that Britain could not incur extra costs as a result of these; and the fifth was that national security issues should remain a matter for member states. These were what you might call our red lines in negotiating the new amending treaty".

But Gordon, virtually everybody apart from you believes that the Charter will be justiciable in UK law. And they are better qualified to comment upon this than you are. Former Commissioner Vitorino, Professor Chalmers, Uncle Tom Cobley and all. The 'Opt in' rather than an 'opt out' is hardly protection of our interests as it allows the UK government to become utterly linked without debate anywhere, whereas an opt out (that could have been secured) would have meant that debate would have taken place before such an action was taken. On foreign affairs this is so much hokum, we have a new Foreign Minister, whether the EU plan to call it a a High representative or not. From the Foreign Minister will flow Foreign Policy. Oh we do not have to go to war without our own agreement, but there is a damn sight more to Foreign Policy than war making (I suppose that is what 10 years in the Treasury gets you, an utterly headline driven blinkered vision of what makes up foreign policy). First I have ever heard of this social security break being a red line, come to think of it this is the first I have heard about it at all. National security issues a national issue, don't make me laugh Gordo, what is a 'Common Asylum Policy"? What does he think the European Army is, what about the whole range of CSFP. Only today the EU is signing Passenger Data agreements with the US, what is that other than national security?

What were the red lines again, he has five here, I am sure there were only 4 before the summit and one was tax raising powers.
Here we go,
"they were the fundamental charter of rights, foreign policy, common law, and tax and benefits".

So what the is the benighted manse slider talking about?

Oh yes and of course, we cannot have a referendum.