Misleading the House - by Richard...

Misleading the House - by Richard...

When I checked the business for the day on the parliamentary website, there was no reference to a statement on the European Council meeting. With a number of newspaper sites also reporting that there would be a statement "tomorrow", I have misled myself and others into thinking the statement would be tomorrow. However, the statement was today, at just after 3.30pm, and is now up on the No 10 site.

True to form, we are told by The Boy that, "I went to the Council last December prepared to agree a treaty of all 27 countries but only if there were proper safeguards for Britain". He then tells us, to the raucous cheers of the MPs: "But I did not get those safeguards. So I vetoed the Treaty".

Then we get:

As a result Eurozone countries and others are now making separate arrangements outside the EU treaties for strengthening budgetary discipline, including ensuring there are much tougher rules on deficits. So at this Council 25 EU Member States agreed a new Treaty outside of the EU. Britain and the Czech Republic have not signed up. And we will not be taking part.

So, as we saw last night, The Boy is directly claiming to have "vetoed the Treaty".

There is no equivocation or qualification here but, in order for him to have "vetoed the Treaty", there must have been a treaty to veto. Further, as we know, a veto can only be exercised within the context of an IGC. A European Council acts by simple majority.

We know, however, that there was no IGC convened, and as the government's own spokesmantells us, "There was … no text of a Treaty which was vetoed; it was rather the process of amending the European Union Treaties to this end which was vetoed".

By any measure, The Boy is misleading the House, even without taking into account the spokesman's error, whereby a process cannot be vetoed. Have we got to the final stage in the deterioration of Parliament, where a man purporting to be a prime minister can make things up as he goes along?

Shaping up - by Richard...

It is not only the Tory europlastics who are going to be after The Boy. According to The Guardian , the Baby Miliband is going to have a go as well, with claims that the country has been "sold down the river".

Miliband is a bit late noticing that - it happened decades ago. But the pincer movement "could be uncomfortable for the prime minister", says the paper, although I somehow doubt it. There will be the usual low-grade huff 'n' puff, but all we will get out of it will be some well-rehearsed soundbites.

Miliband is already saying of The Boy, " … it's a phantom veto and, frankly, he's completely mishandled these negotiations." He accuses Cameron of "publicity-seeking opportunism", which is a bit rich coming from that quarter, and probably easily slapped down.

However, for those interested in low-grade entertainment, and can't deal with X-factor, this is shaping up to be an interesting bit of drama.

Après moi la révolte? - by Richard...

Despite the hubris (or because of it?), The Boy is facing a gathering of the clans over his U-turn. "Right wing Tory MPs", we are told, "were due to meet in Westminster to plot how to make clear their unhappiness ahead of a statement by Mr Cameron in the Commons tomorrow".

So it is tomorrow that The Boy will attend upon The House to give his account of the proceedings in Brussels, and it is then – presumably – that we will see the fruits of the Tory "revolt". In fact, though, nothing much will happen. The Tory europlastics are far too compromised and, insofar as they are still blathering about the famous (non-) veto, they lost the plot before the game had even started.

We are now in the land of make-believe: a pretend rebellion over a pretend veto, with a pretend media keeping the score, the result of which will be completely irrelevant as the "colleagues" continue to run rings round The Boy. And that is the only constant here ... the "colleagues" set out to get their treaty. They got it. End of. At a European level, the rest is histrionics.

However, there is another reality here. "Cast-Iron" Cameron has been seen yet again to mess up over "Europe". The popular perception is that he promised a referendum on Lisbon and then resiled. He "vetoed" a treaty and then lets it get through. For his next trick?

I wonder if The Boy is aware of the phrase "three strikes and you're out"? He ain't doing so well is the lad - his credibility is shot to pieces.

We know he's not that stupid - by Richard...

We don't have a great deal of time for Myrtle, but we know that he is not this stupid. The only thing we can surmise is that he has been kidnapped, with the villain taking over his blog and impersonating him.

The Hannan I knew had brains enough to know that were was no veto, and that the answer to the current mess is not an in/out referendum.

One assumes that the kidnapper(s) must be linked in some way to People's Pledge, as this is the outfit that is being promoted, one that is wasting good money on something we are unlikely to get and which, if we did, we would probably not win.

But what do we make of this man, a man who is now maintaining that he did veto the EU treaty? "We vetoed an EU treaty in December," he says. "Nothing changes the fact that we were confronted by an EU treaty and we vetoed that treaty", he says. "There isn't a Brussels EU treaty, it doesn't exist, I vetoed it", he adds, then re-emphasising the point in response to a BBC questioner: "There isn't an EU treaty because I vetoed it".

The man is even now contradicting his own spokesman. The Smethurst said: "There was … no text of a Treaty which was vetoed; it was rather the process of amending the European Union Treaties to this end which was vetoed".

Yet the media – during the press conference - didn't challenge these amazing assertions. Some of the questions following The Boy's statement were even about bankers' bonuses. That is the media for you, the Fourth Estate, guardians of democracy, swooning all over the man. Truly pathetic. But then, there's no swoon like a media swoon, writes Peter Hitchens.