Sunday, October 28, 2007

The great demonstration

Well, the great demonstration made the International Herald Tribune and, strangely, The Belfast Telegraph plus AFP. Apparently, Sky News filmed the proceedings, but it does not appear to have broadcast a report. However, all is not lost - my co-editor will file an eye-witness report in due course. In the interim, Chris Palmer has filed his own report.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Times is circulating an ugly rumour that Brown will, after all, give us a referendum. But it will not be on the treaty. Rather the intention is – according to unnamed “senior Tories” – to offer a vote on Britain’s membership of the European Union.

This would, of course, force the Tories to join Labour to campaign to keep Britain in the EU, and cause damaging splits in the Party.

Otherwise, referendum news has virtually dried up, apart from a spirited posting from Daniel Hannan - which we’ll look at in a little detail later today. It is as if the media have run out of things to say about the treaty, which will probably remain the case until the signing in Lisbon on 13 December.

Would that we had been able to put a million people on the streets. But that was never going to be the case. Eurosceptics simply do not "do" demonstrations, although their absence from the pavements does not mean their views are not strongly and widely held.

If there is a hiatus now, the tempo will most certainly pick up in the New Year, when the treaty goes to Parliament. Then the fun will start.

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