Creating a new country ?

People in Britain have every right to express their concern at the direction the European Union is taking.

The " Lisbon Treaty " is being interpretted as allowing Brussels to set up a diplomatic service, open embassies in other countries and sign international agreements which are legally binding on the member states.

That is a fair description of a new, sovereign country !

Ireland just held a referendum on ratifying the treaty, similar referendums are yet to be held in Poland and the Czeck Republic - but the people of Britain are being denied a voice in their country's decision.

The British people went to a referendum thirty-four years ago, and that question was about joining " the European Community ". That is very different from Britain being absorbed into a new nation - with it's capital in Brussels and it's laws over riding the laws of the British parliament.

Basically, if the present government gets away with refusing it's citizens the right to a referendum, then Britain will be in a similar position to any of the states of Australia.
They will have limited rights of self government, but within the membership of a new country which has authority over matters of income tax, trading treaties, relations with other countries - and eventually - defence.

That is a major step. It would mean the end of Britain as the self governing world entity that spawned Australia, Canada and many other parts of the world.

It may be a matter of self survival for Europe in a rapidly changing world with issues such as global warming and falling food production about to wreak havoc, but for the British people surely such a decision should come from a poll of the public - not from government diktat ?

And why is Britain the only country denied a referendum ?