Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-06-Speech-3-467"
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"en.20090506.41.3-467"2
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"Mr President, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. I think it has been an interesting debate, whatever one’s view is on the European project and on the Lisbon Treaty.
There have been lots of references to old men and old fossils, but let me talk about it from the perspective where I sit. To me, I see an older generation of politicians here stuck in a mindset of the 1950s – stuck very much in a 1950s solution to problems and challenges that the world faces. If you look across the Chamber, you see much older people all speaking out in favour of the Lisbon Treaty, all condemning those people of Ireland and other countries who voted ‘no’ to the original Constitution and voted ‘no’ to the Lisbon Treaty. We even see old men of arms now talking about putting down your guns and speaking for peace.
Yes, in the 1950s that was a post-war solution to what had gone on before, but we must keep moving with the world. When you talk about democratic accountability, let us not forget one thing. When we started with the Constitution, the rules were that every country had to ratify it or it fell. When we started with the Lisbon Treaty, the rules were the same: every country had to ratify it or it fell. So let us not push ahead with the Lisbon Treaty until every country has ratified it. If you really want a proper democratic debate, let the people of Britain have a choice. Do they want the vision that Mr Corbett proposes of a federal United States of Europe, or a looser, free trade vision of a Europe that my party supports?"@en1
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