Brought up under the East German dictatorship, Angela Merkel obviously learned a few tricks from the the old boys behind the Wall. Germany’s Chancellor has already shown an unpleasantly authoritarian streak, now it turns out that deceiving the voters is all in a day’s work.Daniel Hannan explains:

“I am clutching in my hot, trembling hands the most extraordinary document I have come across in eight years of Euro-politics. It is a letter from the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to her fellow EU heads of government. In it, she proposes a scheme to bring back the European Constitution under a new name – or, as she artlessly puts it, “to use different terminology without changing the legal substance”. Now this, in itself, is not surprising. Many of us have suspected all along that the Eurocrats would try to bring back their constitution surreptitiously: I have written as much in these pages. What is shocking is the brazenness. Mrs Merkel flagrantly admits that she wants to preserve intact the content of the constitution, making only “the necessary presentational changes”.

Tony Blair appears to be going along with this.

Mr. Hannan explains what it will mean:

“Let us be clear: the European constitution amounts to a revolution in how our country is governed, perhaps the most far-reaching since the civil and religious upheavals of the 17th century. This revolution is taking place not as the result of popular insurrection or foreign occupation, but because the governing party is abusing its majority.”

And what this, for all practical purposes, will also mean is that the UK would no longer be able to stand alongside the US if its EU ‘partners’ objected. And yes, that’s just fine with Tony Blair, neocon idol.