The double referendum penny just dropped at the Telegraph

The Torygraph have finally realised what we've been saying for the last couple of years - the EU referendum we've been promised by 2017 isn't necessarily the only one we're going to get.

Under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, any state wishing to leave the EU has to give two years' notice during which time it has to negotiate a new relationship with the EU. On the face of it, it's a sensible clause because it allows for a two year transitionary period where the exiting member state can get its treaties lined up ready to take effect on the day it leaves to govern its new relationship with the EU outside of the shackles of political union.

In reality, however, it's a "last gasp" clause to justify a second referendum. After a vote to leave, the EU is going to offer concessions for the member state to remain in. After extracting concessions from the usually intractable EU - a victory for the statesmanlike prime minister showing them lot in Brussels who's the boss of course - it would be perfectly reasonable to hold another referendum because things would be so much more different than they were when the first referendum was held. Just like the EU Constitution and Lisbon Treaty which were completely different and not at all the same thing with a different title and a change of payload.

A second referendum was so inevitable, in fact, that we helpfully pointed it out in this handy graphic from a couple of years ago ...

It's nice to see the media finally catching up with the real world.

Telegraph apologises to UKIP IoW candidate for publishing false quotes

The Daily Telegraph have published a correction on their website to an article they published during the May elections falsely attributing extreme remarks to Isle of Wight UKIP candidate Richard Wilkins.

The reporter in question - who has now moved to the Guardian - appears to have lied to the police about recording the phone conversation with the hoax caller.  Lying to the police is a serious enough offence in itself - publishing false statements about a candidate in an election makes it a far more serious offence.

The Press Complaints Commission have carried out an investigation and found against the newspaper and the journalist, Rowena Mason.  The paper have apologised to Wilkins but his good name and reputation has been dragged through the mud and the election unduly influenced.

Wilkins was tipped off about the person impersonating him by a local member of the Conservative Party.  The Chairman of the Isle of Wight Conservative Party also made an allegation at the same time that Wilkins had falsified signatures on his nomination papers.  If memory serves me the word at the time was that the alleged false signature was a member of the local Conservative Party.  Nigel Farage personally intervened in the case and wrote to the Tory Chairman, Alan Wells, pointing out that Wilkins submitted 14 signatures to the elections office when only 10 were necessary and so had no need to falsify any of them.

The evidence suggests a dirty tricks campaign by the local Conservative Party and hopefully Hampshire Police will reopen their investigation into this very serious matter and get to the bottom of who is behind it.

An open letter from Nigel Farage

Today's Telegraph carries a full page letter from Nigel Farage inviting "swivel eyed loons" in the Conservative Party to join UKIP.

Farage will be "insufferable" if England beat Germany

Nigel Farage, the Europe-hating xenophobe, has told the Telegraph that he will be "insufferable" if England beat Germany today.

Farage is pretty unique amongst Europe-hating xenohpobes in that he's married to a German. Who is a European. And foreign.

His wife Kirsten will be supporting Germany, he will be supporting England and his two daughters?  Their mother has apparently got them shouting "Come on Germany" to wind him up.

I can sympathise with Nigel's predicament - my two step sons are a quarter Scottish and they sometimes pretend to support Scotland to wind me up and have even managed to get their younger brother and sister to do it as well.  They don't mean it of course but they have a wicked sense of humour and love winding people up (wonder where they got that from).  One of them even put on a Celtic t-shirt the other day and refused to take it off until I told him he wasn't allowed to leave the house unless he did!

Daily Telegraph: We must give in to the EU - or give it up

We must give in to the EU - or give it up

A Tory referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would be futile, says Simon Heffer, but politicians can't hide from the real question forever.

I know it is bad of me, but I had hoped Tony Blair would become President of Europe. The prospect of his goading and provoking a possible Tory government for a few years seemed irresistible: not least because it might have been the final straw needed to convince the Tories about just what a lost cause Europe is.

The Lisbon Treaty is a great betrayal of the British people. The Labour government's reneging on its promise – made by Mr Blair – to hold a referendum on the matter will stand as the most unprincipled and dishonest act in our politics since Ted Heath took us into the Common Market nearly 40 years ago.

The notion that the treaty as it now exists is materially different from the original document vetoed by the French and the Dutch – the excuse given for breaking the promise – is preposterous. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president who drew up the document, has said as much. So we have lost more of our sovereignty, and our democracy has gone into reverse, thanks to a blatant act of deceit by Gordon Brown.

Dave has made all the right noises about being unhappy with this, and I don't doubt that he is. However, short of the nuclear option – asking the people not whether they like Lisbon, but whether they think we should stay in or get out of the European Union – there is absolutely nothing he can do about it. Lisbon cannot be reneged upon without reneging on the Treaty of Rome itself. Once ratified by the Czech Republic, Lisbon will be consolidated into the original treaty. So any talk of post-facto referendums is simply drivel, and that is why Dave has not committed himself to one.

The other bad news for him is that Europe threatens to become a toxic issue in his party once more. On the one hand, the ratchet effect of Lisbon will lead to further cessions of sovereignty over the next few years without any consultation with Westminster: at which point the fundamentally anti-democratic nature of this process will become even more apparent. The Right of the Tory party will become more and more angry. Our ability to govern ourselves will diminish.

We shall be especially aware, I expect, of an EU foreign policy (especially if it is executed by little Miliband, with or without his banana) that is done partly in our name, but which may well be at odds with that of Her Majesty's Government. However, at every bellow of rage from the Eurosceptics, there will be loud, attention-grabbing rebukes from federalist dinosaurs such as Lord Heseltine, "Chris" Patten and the rest. It has always been a boil and, believe me, one day it will have to be lanced.

Still not quite grasping how bad things are, some Tories say they will seek a referendum anyway on the need to have a renegotiation of the treaty. Apart from being expensive, this would be futile. We know the result already. And when Dave, armed with a mandate from that small fraction of the electorate that could be bothered to vote in such a pointless exercise, told Europe he wanted a renegotiation, Europe would tell him to get lost. It may take two to tango, but it takes all 27 to reopen the Pandora's box of rebuilding the EU constitution. The other 26 simply won't do it.

For good measure, the completely undemocratic Commission is on the record as having said there will be no inter-governmental conference for at least 10, and possibly 15, years, because Europe has had enough of them.

Which brings us back to the only question, therefore, that it is meaningful to ask: do we stay in, or do we get out? Dave wouldn't dream of offering to ask it now. But one day he, or a successor, will simply have to.

EU admits energy saving bulbs are inferior one day before ban

The European Empire has admitted, just one day before the ban on proper light bulbs comes into force, that energy saving bulb manufacturers are "exaggerating" their claims about equivalence.

The British government, its Energy Saving Trust quango, the European Empire, bulb manufacturers and environmental extremists have been telling us that the energy saving bulbs will save us money. They usually quote the magic figure of £37 per year invented by the British government's Energy Saving Trust quango based on replacing a 60W incandescent bulb with an 15W energy saving bulb and a 100W incandescent bulb with a 20W energy saving bulb.

The Daily Telegraph has today published the results of its own tests on energy saving bulbs which found that an 11W energy saving bulb which claims to be equivalent to a 60W incandescent bulb, even after a 10 minute warm-up period, produced only 58% of the light given off by the incandescent bulb. It would take a 20W energy saving bulb - almost double the power consumption - to get the same amount of light from an energy saving bulb as you get from a 60W incandescent bulb which will pretty much wipe out any supposed cost saving from replacing your bulbs.

This won't exactly be news to anyone who has experienced the joys of blundering around in half light after changing their proper bulbs to energy saving bulbs but it shows how fundamentally dishonest the European Empire, British government and green lobby is. The European Empire has only today - one day before proper light bulbs are banned - admitted that the claims of equivalence are false, that the energy saving potential from replacing bulbs is false and that the cost savings are a big fat lie. One day before the ban, too late to do anything about it.