THE people of Ireland did what the rest of us would surely have done had we been given the referendum we were promised on the EU Constitution. Their gallant act in the face of blackmail and coercion is a shining beacon in a sea of undemocratic darkness flowing from the European Union.

Jeffrey Titford MEP

THE people of Ireland did what the rest of us would surely have done had we been given the referendum we were promised on the EU Constitution. Their gallant act in the face of blackmail and coercion is a shining beacon in a sea of undemocratic darkness flowing from the European Union.

In the run up to the referendum, the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso threatened the Irish. He said that Ireland would 'pay' if it voted No and followed this disgraceful statement up with more emotive pressure by saying that all the member states would pay if the Irish voted No. It is deeply disturbing that the EU and its officials can so blatantly interfere in the internal politics of Ireland, with impunity.

The Irish are now the naughty schoolboys of Europe. Brian Cowen, their Prime Minister has had to go cap in hand to the headmaster's study at the EU summit taking place as I write, to explain what has 'gone wrong'. No one seems to have appreciated that it is not for the Irish to explain themselves; it is for the EU to put its house in order.

It is well known that the Treaty of Lisbon is not popular with people out there in the real world, which is why the EU hates referendums so much. They can't let a little thing like democracy get in the way of the master plan! Temporarily it has, because no agreement has been reached at the summit and the matter has been deferred until October. Four months to bully the Irish into toeing the line.

Speaking of naughty schoolboys, unlike Gordon Brown, I and my fellow UKIP MEPs along with colleagues from the Independence & Democracy Group did respect the result of the referendum and carried out a protest in the European Parliament Chamber in Strasbourg. We smuggled in green sweatshirts and banners printed with the slogan 'Respect the Irish Vote'.

Predictably, we were vilified amid some angry scenes as our political opponents hurled all sorts of abuse with splenetic speeches from MEPs urging that no notice be taken of 'that lot'. It is water off a duck's back for us and we take great comfort from the fact that our protest was widely reported in Ireland and went down very well.

Emergency measures were announced during the Strasbourg session, designed to help struggling fishermen cope with the explosion in fuel prices. These measures were not offering any magical solutions, since they are aimed at larger vessels and a major part of them involves decommissioning more boats. However, because it is a co-financed initiative i.e. the Government would have had to match any funding from the EU, apparently Britain has decided to opt out of the scheme. Our fishermen are struggling with ever smaller quotas from Brussels and now, because of fuel costs, it is too expensive to put to sea even to catch the meagre amounts that they are allowed to land.

For further information about Jeffrey Titford MEP, go to www.jeffreytitfordmep.co.uk You can email him at jtitford@ukip.org