In practise, I suspect that that some governments (none named, none forgotten) would be quite happy to open the Lisbon can of worms again and see if they could get a better deal.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
Even the Irish Government doesn't want to do this - with the possible exception of the Commissioner issue which is probably simple and ring fenced and equitable enough for it to be ring-fenced from contaminating any other issue - but even this change would require unanimous agreement and re-ratification - something Governments might be prepared to do to save the Treaty - always presuming this whole process is closed off before the Tories or any other more Eurosceptic Government gets into power anywhere.
If the Tories get in before the Treaty is fully ratified and comes into force, all bets are probably off anyway.
How to handle an EU with 26 Lisbon and one Nice member is indeed a mind boggling task - something I am sure all would like to avoid - if not for Irelnd's sake, then to avoid creating a very difficult precedent which might one day effect them. . Vote McCain for war without gain
