Oh yes, there's nothing that Klaus can do. The constitutional court has thrown out the appeal against the treaty once and they'll almost certainly do it again. The BBC was talking about Poland signing the treaty in days and the Czech Republic in weeks. None of the analysts they had on could see how the Czechs could hold off much longer than that and certainly no way they can hold out until the British election in May or June.



Euroscepticism in Britain is mainly down to it being completely off the debating table for most of the duration of the Labour government. Labour just avoided talking about it and because the Tories were divided (less so today, perhaps, but certainly back in the day when the pro-Europe Kenneth Clarke had more widespread support) they also didn't want to talk about it, whilst the Lib Dems have been unapologetically pro-Europe (and seen their popularity go up since 1997 as well). UKIP have dynamically seized the ground of the "No to Europe!" campaign and pushed it against light opposition, leading to the current Eurosceptic climate.

But that's more down to a lack of debate on the issue recently. A competently-managed campaign could turn things around.



I'm not too sure about this. The BBC just had several Tories on, including an MEP, and they all seemed quite happy that there will be a referendum no matter what, and if it will be a referendum on the overall future of Britain in Europe, then bring it on. If Cameron says no to that, that lands him in hot water with his own party and could cost him votes from people backing him purely because of the Tories' commitment to a referendum (although they'd be unlikely to go to Labour or the Lib Dems instead, but maybe UKIP).

Looking at the British news today, I'm surprised that there does seem to be this belief that Lisbon could have a serious impact on the British general election next year, especially if the economic recovery gets underway in earnest and that is no longer the sole issue of the election.