European Affairs

Precisely, but everybody pretends that there are. Similarly, when one tries to explain to the British public how the European Union operates on a political level, one can explain the rules, but they are complied with only inasmuch as it suits the institutions to do so. The Lisbon treaty is the classic example of that. A referendum is held, but we do not take any notice until people say yes. The Government say, "Well, we're not going to get into hypothetical discussions about what will happen if it isn't ratified," while the Opposition say, "Well, you know, don't trust what the Irish are going to say." The only thing that the public out there really know is that there is a political agenda that is defined by people whom they neither elect nor can remove, but who relentlessly pursue a direction over which they feel they have no influence. [Interruption.] It is no good scowling—that is how it is. If it were not so, why, for 20 years—over my entire political career—have European elections not been fought on anything to do with Europe? I do not know what the political families stand for, and I certainly do not know how they vote once they are elected. This is not a party political point, but I put it to the Foreign Secretary that it is worrying if a governing party has only 13 MEPs out of 72, as we now have. I know that in the past our MEPs have quite often not voted with the Government anyway. We have had our problems, and Opposition Members will have similar problems with their MEPs. However, there is a serious disconnect when the political shaping of those who represent us at the European level is so fundamentally out of sync with the political direction of the Government here.