For 700 years Ireland was Britain’s outer defence - nolens volens - against the great powers of continental Europe.

By a twist of fate, the Irish must now cast the ballot on the EU constitution for both islands, since Labour has defaulted on its pledge for a British referendum.

Our shared Anglo-Celtic culture has long been a well-spring of free enterprise (with Dutch, Swedish, and Hanseatic help in fighting European absolutism along the way), and that is what is so threatened by the Lisbon Treaty, the treaty to end all EU treaties.

The text strikes the words “free and undistorted competition” from the core objectives of the Union. Corporatist aims will enjoy a higher legal status at the European Court (ECJ) and must prevail if the two clash. The Rhineland Model has locked in a permanent advantage.

Euro-creep is already eviscerating the Common Law that underpins the British and Irish way of doing business. Lisbon quickens the pace. It upgrades the ECJ to a de facto supreme court, with broader jurisdiction. It will have the last say on a raft of new economic and social rights. Who can stop them imposing a Colbertist agenda by court rulings, if they so choose? The ECJ is beyond appeal. Continued…

Source: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor, Telegraph

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, now the Telegraph’s International Business Editor, was the Telegraph’s EU Correspondent in Brussels from 2000 to 2005. He covered the original drafting of the EU Constitution.