An exercise in futility

Quite why the government has continued with this farcical procedure was not made clear by Mr Murphy.

But, given that the Irish people have rejected the treaty and that EU rules require unanimity of acceptance by all member states, it would seem clear that the other states, none of which have conducted any democratic process of consulting their citizens, are hoping to pressure the Irish government into representing the issue to its electorate yet again.

One should mention the couple of honourable exceptions here. The Czechs have suspended their parliamentary ratification vote pending a constitutional court ruling and Poland's President Lech Kaczynski has refused to ratify the treaty for the time being, calling it "pointless."

But, still, the big battalions of France, Germany and Britain persist in trying to keep this doomed treaty alive, in defiance of the EU rules themselves.

However, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his French and German allies are likely to come seriously unstuck if they are relying on the Irish government to cave into pressure and tell the Irish people to vote again until they get it right.

That nasty little trick has already had one airing in Ireland and it is highly unlikely that the Eurocrats will get away with it twice, even if the Irish government is prepared to put it forward.

Preparedness is a real issue. The Irish people are extremely sensitive to any hint that they are being bullied by the bigger countries in the EU and caving in to pressure for a revote would be far more likely to fatally undermine the government that suggested it than to win a change of public position.

And no amount of pompous ritual with blue leather-bound documents and chlorine-free paper is going to change that reality.

The EU constitution has been rejected, redrafted, camouflaged, represented and rejected yet again.

Businessman Stuart Wheeler is in the Court of Appeal on Friday to seek permission to appeal against a High Court ruling that there was no "legitimate expectation" of a public vote on the treaty in this country and it is to be hoped that he wins the right to appeal.

Decisions affecting the abrogation of the sovereignty of Parliament cannot and must not be left to the Parliament alone.

MPs certainly exercise that sovereignty on behalf of the people, but they have no right to relinquish it, be it to Europe or to anyone else.

And, as for the "instruments of ratification" being signed by the Queen, who on earth said that she holds that right in our constitutional monarchy?

In the 21st century, Parliament constrains the sovereign's rights, not the other way around.

Should that not be so, the whole nature of democracy in Britain is brought into question.

The signatures of the monarch and of Foreign Secretary David Miliband on that document are a shameful reminder that a Parliament which is set up to preserve and to assert the rights of citizens is collaborating in the sacrifice of those rights.

The consequences, both constitutional and economic, will be serious and will inflict lasting damage in a country in which rights and liberties are already under heavy and constant attack by an ignorant and cavalier government.