Irish Yes to Lisbon worrying for British Conservatives

The Irish Yes to the Lisbon Treaty has thrown the British Conservatives off course, the left-liberal daily La Repubblica writes, saying this was already evident at their party conference in Manchester: "It all seemed to be going so well for the British Conservatives and their leader David Cameron: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stumbled from one blunder to the next, the Labour Party Conference lacked lustre, the Murdoch-owned tabloid The Sun decided to support the Tories in next spring's elections. … If only Europe hadn't got in the way. The Irish Yes to the treaty that will reform and strengthen the European Union has given the Tories stomach cramps, or rather brought them back again. All of them - or virtually all of them - are Eurosceptics. But among their ranks are pragmatists and radicals, and these two forces are wrenching the party apart. … It's not yet clear how this will end. One possibility is that a future conservative government claims full powers in the areas of justice, security and labour without deferring to Brussels and without holding a referendum. But there is also the … possibility that the European question will divide the Tories and reveal to voters how little they have really changed despite all the slogans about 'change' vis-à-vis the Thatcher era."

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