The UK had one vote on the EU... when I wasn't even alive. That vote was for a free trade zone, nothing more, nothing less. Since then the people have had no say in what happens and that IS undemocratic... I have NEVER had a say in the matter. The EU is for business, not the people - FACT.

Graeme, Edinburgh,

Credit to the Irish Government for CORRECTLY allowing a referendum on such an important issue. Before the Irish voted we were told there would be no ratification if the Irish voted NO.
Now they seem to have done a U turn!!
The Irish voted NO so we are going to have another..the best of three?!!!

Pedro Tam, London, UK

Peter, you seem to be a bit confused yourself about what is democratic.

Ireland voted no. Therefore the treaty is by definition - dead.

So why is this even continuing? Now we are being told we have to vote again.

That's not democracy.

D Doyle, Dublin, Ireland

Labour and democracy are not words you associate with each other. Who voted Brown Primeminister?

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

Ireland is the only nation to have rejected proposed treaty, no other nations have yet made a decision - just a few politicians who are looking to expand their future prospects. It is a treaty of surrender not wanted by the nationals of Europe. Goodbye Brown.

Chris Goodman, Fareham, England

Is Ireland 1 among 27 equals, or is it just '0.7% of the population of the EU'. According to EU laws it was 1 among equals but the elite want to change that. I would rather we were part of the Eu but not at the price of being a tiny provience of an undemocratic superstate run by Germany and France.

Martin, Galway, ireland

Do an Internet search for "Bilderberg." What you'll read will answer every question you ever have about why the Euro-elites are pushing so hard for a unified Europe.

gary, Vermont, USA

After a max of five years in government MPs should pass the powers invested in them back to the electorate; Brown has no authority without a referendum to pass the powers given to him to an unelected, corrupt, greedy, inefficient and anti-democratic group of foreign bureaucrats

Julian williams, Narberth, Wales

The Constitution/Treaty arose because it was accepted that the people felt remote from Europe I would suggest that we feel even more remote now as we see the wishes of those lucky enough to vote being ignored. There is now a dangerous feeling abroad. We must be given a voice

Liz Brown, Montmartin en Graignes,

Who would have thought that the actions of the men of the Easter Rising some seventy years or so ago would lead to changes in Ireland that would protect the British people from a Scottish Priminister intent on replacing British liberties with Napoleonic Law . Northern Irish protestants helped him.

Jonathan Allcock, West Midlands,

How many NO's does it take to scupper the Lisbon Treaty.

The law says one.

Failure to recognise this fact renders the entire EU edifice foundationless

Finn, Dublin,

To Yannis in Greece.
It is fair and democratic that part of the constitution/treaty says that if all 27 states do not agree then the constitution is dead. It is unfair and undemocratic to not allow a vote or if one is allowed and does not go the 'right' way it is ignored.

rob, ashbourne, uk

What a thoroughly undemocratic body the EU is showing itself to be. Not surprisingly it denies it's citizens a vote. No wonder our unelected prime minister forces through Britain's ratification of this budding dictatorship.

Simon Marshland, Bath, UK

The behavior of our glorious leader and his sub committee has been shameful. He must have twigged that he will not be in government IF (I am beginning to think he will tinker with the constitution so he can stay in no 10) there is a general election and is putting himself up as another europarasite

Allison, Midlands, England

It is sickening to hear Brown burbling sententiosly about bringing democracy to Iraq, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe etc when he so stubbornly obstructs democracy here. It makes it worse when he backs up his 42 days posturing by saying it's what the people want. And he writes books on Courage.

Neil McF, Southampton, England

Giscard should remember that it was a country with a small proportion of Europe's population - us - who saved them all from slavery 60 years ago. Barroso grew up under a dictatorship, and so did all the Eastern EU countries. Why yield to their authoritarian history and traditions now?

john, london, england

Apart from the violence, what is the difference between the approach of the EU and Robert Mugabe towards the democratic process?

Tom, Witney, UK

I find it amusing that all the leaders who are mad at the Irish didn't have the guts to put the treaty up for a vote in there countries.

Roy, St Paul, USA

Yes. One unelected leader saves a bunch of unelected leaders. Like the old saying goes, if one hangs they all hang.
God bless the Irish

Peter, Warsaw, Poland

Why have no MPs resigned to prove a point over this issue?

Ben, Kings Lynn, United Kingdom

Irelands people have been allowed a say ,and have answered
with a no,democracy still exists in Ireland..not so in Britain, when the peoples of the land are denied the right to decide and vote on an issue Democracy ends,and Dictatorship takes over,and the eu is intent in forcing Ireland to accept.

colin johnson, glasgow, scotland

It seems to me that the EU is becoming the new Soviet Union. Perhaps they should send in the tanks to the Irish. That would help turn round the 'no vote', I'm sure. Gordon could even be the new Stalin given enough time. He certainly shows the same disregard for the proletariate in th UK.

Colin Moon, Portsmouth, England

Brown the hero ?? come on!

i don´t want this dour scot , with a terrible record , as my PM

david, edinburgh,

IF I SHOUT LOUD ENOUGH I'LL CONVINCE EVERYONE. Making great sweeping statements like Mr Goddard's below is an EU speciality, but when it comes down to it they don't hold up. On another note, hooray for the High Court Judge who has told our unelected Prime Minister off today!

Benjamin, Oxford, England

It's pretty clear that the EU has no intention of being a democratic institution, the question is what can we do to disentangle ourselves from this mess? Brown will be booted out at the next election, but will Cameron have the guts to run a backdated referendum?

John Small, Faversham, UK

Peter Goddard, the Union is not democratic for the very reasons you state. Laws are decided at Council level by governments who then hand it as a fait accompli without debate for their parliaments to ratify. That is why they like it. None of that tedious having to justify themselves. Undemocratic!

Paul Owen, Birmingham, UK

How can the EU be 'democratic' when it refuses to accept an open, free vote in one of its Member States simply because it doesn't get the result it wanted? They'd be democratic if Ireland had voted 'yes', no question... Eurocrats are so far out of touch they don't even want to pretend to listen.

Anna, Brussels, Belgium

Let’s make this clear, for those who seem "confused":
THE UNION IS DEMOCRATIC:

The council of ministers represent our elected governments

The European Parliament is directly elected by the people

The European Commission is approved by parliament

STOP PRETENDING THAT IT IS NOT DEMOCRATIC

Peter GODDARD, Le Rouret, France, EU

Listen to the usual Anti-brigade... so gleeful that the process of making Europe work better is stalled.

Given the facts England would vote YES in a referendum, but as in Ireland the truth is always distorted.

Both England and Ireland are European, and a united Europe is our future.

Peter GODDARD, Epsom, England, EU

How many times do the people these politicos claim to represent have to say "NO!" before they are believed? This EU lark is moving further from what people need into just more jobs for the boys.

Matt, Plymouth, UK

Most of these politicians seem to be infavour because of the potential jobs they want in the future - Gordon Brown must feel that this is an urgent move for him, since he will soon be out of his (democratically unelected) top job. It always seems to be 'jobs for the boys' time in the EU.

kay, leeds,

Valérie Giscard d'Estaing suggests that Ireland with 0.7% of the EU population cannot decide for the others. So how is it that Luxembourg with only 0.1% of the population has been able to decide for Europe since the creation of the EU? Plus it has more than 10,000 Eurocrats. Bizarre!!!

Nigel, Valbonne, France

If you want to enrage the Irish further, ask them to vote again and see what happens. We don't do orders.
John, Dublin, Ireland

Good on yer John!! Respect to Ireland.
Wait till Cameron gives us a referendum. Britain can't wait to say NO and the EU won't dare ask us for a 2nd vote!!

mark, Sheffield, Great Britain

Brown saves Lisbon, but to do so, he abandons Britain.

David, Helsinki, Finland

Gordon Brown's ratification is not 'political courage'. Political courage is putting your case to a referendum and trusting the electorate to hear what you say. As Brown has no case he has chose the coward's way out and ignored the promised referendum. Roll on the next General Election.

Paul Wesson, Carterton, UK

The Queen gave her consent. When Her Subjects needed her,
she let us down.

Beverley, Bilston, England

The Irish are one of the most informed electorate in the world. I am a proud European but voted No to Lisbon primarily due to the arrogance of an unelected rabble of self interest in Brussels. If you want to enrage the Irish further, ask them to vote again and see what happens. We don't do orders.

John, Dublin, Ireland

All my hopes are now pinned on the Czechs - it sounds like they're having second thoughts so let's hope they see sense and reject this thing too. But oh, no, I forgot - it won't matter what they do as anything other than a 'yes' is ignored in an EU dictatorship. Time to pull out methinks.

Anna, Brussels, Belgium

Brown will pay for this at the next election, as will the LibDems

DavidL, East Preston, UK

What we need is reforendum on europe its self where the people of England can vote NO as we all well know. The EU is dead its is corrupt and bloattted, its so out of touch with the people that when the poeple speake we are ignored, Have they been having lesseson of robert mugabe?

Mr W Jones, Liverpool, England

This morning a poll suggests 75% of young voters do not want this treaty, maybe parliament should start to listen to young people as it's those who have to live with these decisions and take this whole treaty forward in the future. 75% of EU leaders will die of old age within 20 years. Selfish!

Richard, Bristol, UK

Yannis Gikas asks for fair and democratic. OK. So when Turkey applies for membership will the No votes of Cyprus and Greece be ignored in the name of Democracy. The heads of state know that ,given a referendum , most of their "subjects" would vote NO.

Swisschris, New Malden, UK

If those who don't like the result of the 1st vote get to have a 2nd go and then get an answer they like will the people who don't like the result of the 2nd vote get to have a 3rd go?

Icky thump they will! Which is why the Irish (God bless 'em)said "no". Don't the Eurocrats understand this?

Mike Wilkes, Brisbane, Australia

Yes Ireland should have a say but if it doesn't like the Lisbon treaty it should drop out of the whole thing altogether rather than putting the brakes on everyone else.

That would be fair and democratic

Yannis Gikas, Athens, Greece

We need this delayed for as long as possible and in the meantime all self elected leaders and their appointees removed from EU power. We cannot and will not be led by those who work against democracy and this is eveident in current EU parliament.

Richard, Bristol, UK

The attitudes shown by the EU leaders are reprehensible and their bullying is shameless. If only the Irish government would show some backbone and defend their people's decision at the ballot box.

Andrew Richmond, Enniskillen, Northern Ireland

I would like to write something here about our leaders in the EU, but I expect that to many readers it would be considered rude and offensive.

J P Roderickstein, Tokyo, Japan

“The Irish have a right to say no. But a country that represents 0.7 per cent of the European population cannot decide for the others.”

Absolutely!

So let the others vote, and decide the fate of the Constitution/Treaty democratically.

Bill, Suzhou, China

Well brown should be the hero of the UNDEMOCRATIC EU he is an unelected prime minister who denied the british a vote on this treaty

Dave winchester , London, England

Oh so there's nothing wrong with the treaty. It's an "Irish problem" When the French and Dutch voted 'No' the constition process was halted and it was accepted as an EU problem. Is an Irish 'No' inferior to a French or Dutch 'No'?

I wish Gordon Brown would for once show some backbone.

John Goode, Welwyn Garden City, UK

The reaction of the EU to the irish vote is sickening. This never happened to France when they voted no to the constitution. The EU is a union of seperate states and if 1 state should say no, that's it! It's irrelevant if it's 1% or 25% of the population.
The Irish won't be pushed into saying yes.

Paul, Ireland,

If this is democracy, it is not in my name. When we the people are given the opportunity we should use our votes wisely to send this terrible unelected Prime Minister of ours homeward to think again. This is the first time I have seen a photo of him looking unsmug, almost a genuine smile. Well done

G Morgan, Worcester,

Rearranging
"...0.7 per cent of the European population cannot decide for the others.”
produces
"...100% of the European population given the opportunity to vote cannot decide for the others."
Doesn't sound the same, does it?

Mike, London, UK