The Lisbon treaty rejected?

BBC News is reporting that the Lisbon treaty has been defeated by a no vote in the referendum in Ireland! Is this to be believed? That Democracy can work against the huge machinery of Europe? We'll see.......I do know this;

• David Davis, former shadow home secretary hopes to force a debate over the "42 day" bill, hoping to force a by-election in his constituency.
  
• The bill has succeeded in passing the first part of it's "test"...awaiting approval from the house of lords.
  
• A former editor of the sun (!) plans to stand against him if Labour don't have the balls to defend their own bill.

Incidentally, The bill is not just about locking potentially innocent people up for 6 weeks. An offense to anyone who lives in this "free country". If you were fortunate enough to catch the debate in the house of commons over parts 3 & 6 of the bill then you would know that many ministers described the bill as a

"fundamental violation" that breaches "fundamental principles of common law".
That it "grants extraordinary powers to the secretary of state", is "profoundly and comprehensively wrong", and "repugnant, unnecessary and ineffective".

But do we all know about the government succeeding through this bill to secure the ability of the secretary of state to have the discretion of removing juries from inquests?

United Kingdom

Main article: Secretary of State (United Kingdom)

In the United Kingdom, a secretary of state is a cabinet minister in charge of a government department (though not all departments are headed by a Secretary of State, e.g. HM Treasury is headed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer). There is in theory only one office of Secretary of State, and legislation generally refers only to "the Secretary of State". In practice, there are a number of Secretaries of State, each of whom can exercise the functions of the Secretary of State, and formally titled "Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for ...". These positions can be created without primary legislation.

This legislation covers areas such as inquests into military deaths, deaths in police custody or pursuit and health and safety inquests involving negligence or malice. This is a huge array of possible cases where family members and friends of victims who have died at work or any other of the situations covered by the above face the possibility of having the jury deliberating on the case REMOVED from the case! He/she also has the authority to change the Coroner itself! and appoint "special Coroners" at their pleasure.

But back to the referendum......

It is essential if the global plan is to go ahead that the ratification of this treaty is successful. They are reporting another "very close" or "too close to call" result - just like the commons vote on the counter-terror bill.

The interesting thing about these two issues is that they are important pillars of policy for Brown. We have heard much recently of Brown's leadership problems, u-turns etc. His position will be reported as threatened tomorrow I'm guessing. Two possibilities of the outcome of the David Davis issue may be that the by-election provokes a firm vote in favour of the "42 day detention" bill - consolidating the official quotes that 70% of British people agree with it. Or, by not challenging this by-election, combined with a defeat for the government on the Lisbon treaty, the "pressure" on Brown to step down or concede the need for an election will ensure that the conservatives will come to power. This may seem to offer the public the long awaited change in government that will be nothing of the sort. The "42 day" bill will stand regardless of the promises by the conservatives that they will repeal it when they get to power (a reference on newsnight 12/06/08). "the whole point of the lisbon treaty is to make decision making easier" is the BBC line on the issue...repeated over and over and over. It will go ahead in one form or another..they will give it a jazzy new name like Lisbon treaty instead of EU constitution. (a reference to angela merckel's remarks that it was 98% EU constitution.)

Where is all this going? The machinery of Europe, while publicly claiming to act democratically in this whole process, ( only god knows how when Ireland are the only constituent country to be asked it's opinion & permission!!!) grinds on negligent of the wishes of the majority of it's people. This whole farce of a referendum is designed to cement an idea in your mind that democracy is alive and well in the "developed" world. I am reminded of Paul Warburg who once exclaimed:

"We shall have world government, whether or not we like it, by conquest or consent".
- His council on foreign relations address to the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Feb 17th, 1950.