Perhaps we should combine Caroline Jackson's recent comments with the reality behind what is currently being force-fed to Parliament.
First, the Treaty of Lisbon/EU Constitution was the response to the Laeken Declaration. That text recognised that the pro-integration camp kept losing referenda, that people distrusted the process of integration, and even stated that some powers might be better off run by nation states. The text, incidentally, seems now to have mysteriously fallen off Communities websites.
Second, during the Convention, a number of alternative texts - including a minority report - were submitted that did address these problems. These were subsequently compiled and can be found here - even if the lead review seems to have been compiled by an depressed Lithuanian dentist. These proposals, which gained serious international support (including incidentally from a then-backbench William Hague) were ignored.
Thirdly, that the impact of these failures remains with us today, as proven in comedy form here.
So why the surprise that it's so difficult to take Brussels at face value? Not so much a case of troubled British oak as Europe's Dutch Elm, Mrs Jackson ...
