No referendum on Lisbon gets a rare mention in Brtain's media

I missed Jeff Randall's Telegraph column yesterday, (pressure of pointless international summits perhaps) but it is now linked here with this worthwhile and memorable quote:

As for the promise, "Britain cares about me", it turned out to be true only if you are an MP with your fingers in the Commons' petty-cash tin, a fully abled claimant of incapacity benefits, or a bogus asylum seeker. The rest of us have been subjected to a remorseless onslaught on our traditional values, civil liberties and freedom of speech. Now we are angry; really bloody angry.

It is the contained ire of citizens who don't have the time or inclination to join a riot because they are too busy fulfilling their duties of personal responsibility: caring for children, paying the bills, funding the profligacy of ministers, some of whom are not merely dim-witted but dangerous.

When the will of the people runs contrary to Government intentions, it is simply bypassed. How else can we interpret an admission by Caroline Flint, the Europe Minister, that she had not even bothered to read the Lisbon Treaty?

Isn't this what we pay her for? Having claimed £158,000 in expenses, it would have been nice had she done a little homework. There again, why bother? She knows that we will not be offered a referendum on the EU Constitution because it would be rejected. Instead, the treaty is rammed down our throats.