What a big porky pie!

Alas, dear readers, the website for the Council of Ministers has crashed and so I can't send you a working link to the text for the EU Consitution.

However, because I'm a helpful and friendly young lady, I can tell you a couple of interesting points about it.

Shoved away amongst 76 pages of protocols (after the 2 page preamble and the 250 pages of treaty text) are two very interesting little clauses:

Protocol 10 Article 10 (4) the EU by Qualified Majority Vote can force the UK to pay financial penalties for the opt out.

The opt out, by the way, is a five year derogation from the UK having to accept EU rulings on Justice and Home Affairs. But here's the 'science bit' as those folks at L'oreal would say: it's only a delay of five years for the laws which are made before the Treaty comes into being, expected around 1st January 2009 - because let's face it, they aren't going to let something like democracy stand in the way of their plans. So we'll just be 3 years late in amalgamating these laws into our statute book, and then we'll have to do them all at once.

Unless, unless...

we pay them MORE money! They don't get enough from the tax payer to waste on their stupid, harmful and nonsensical laws and trips for cankers like Lady Kinnock to go on jolly holidays to the Carribean to understand poverty. Oh no.

It gets better. According to a new article, 4a (2) in the Protocols, they have included this lovely little snippet which says that the Council of Ministers (yes, those foreign chappies who you don't have any say in electing and no say in removing)can decide by QMV to put pressure on the UK to sign up to the whole shebang and let the EU take control of our legal system.

Bye bye habeas corpus! Hello corpus juris. Bye bye Juries! Hello being thrown in jail and not being formally charged.

Don't you just love 'em?

(it was bust earlier, but now it might be available