Tories accept Lisbon treaty will have passed, threaten a referendum anyway

So now that the Lisbon treaty has passed a second referendum in Ireland, the Tories are looking for way to have a referendum anyway:

Senior Conservative sources say that Cameron will abandon a referendum on Lisbon if the measure enters EU law because he had accepted that it would be virtually impossible to unpick the main institutional EU changes in the Lisbon treaty. These are the new president of the European council, a new “high representative” for foreign affairs and greater powers for the European parliament.

One well placed Tory said: “There is virtually no hope of changing the main institutional architecture of the EU once Lisbon enters into force. If the treaty enters EU law you will find that a Conservative government will want to focus on repatriating powers that affect the UK. This is not going soft. If other EU leaders say they will not accommodate us, then we have the threat of a referendum on our reforms.”

So: the Tories want to change parts of the treaty, and that will require all 27 EU members to agree. If they don’t, they’ll hold a referendum in the UK. But so what? How will that do anything other than saying “Look, our citizens agree with us” (if they win the referendum)?

The sad (for the Tories) fact is that the UK has ratified the Lisbon treaty, and there’s no going back on it. Saying “we’ll have a referendum anyway” is childish and nonsensical, and as such is tailor-made to appeal to the Conservative base.