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Did Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole know, when he wrote today's column (subs. req'd) using Tony Blair's negotiated opt-out from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as an example of an awful thing that a Blairite Irish Labour party might do, that the Republic had already done exactly that in the treaty negotiations? Because in another Irish Times story, we read that --

But the draft mandate for the talks to finalise the legal text of the new treaty notes: "Two delegations reserved their right to join in the [ British] protocol."

It does not specifically name either state, but EU officials have said they are Ireland and Poland.

The protocols negotiated by British prime minister Tony Blair on the charter state: "The charter does not extend the field of application of Union law beyond the powers of the Union or establish any new power or task for the Union, or modify powers and tasks as defined by the treaties." It continues: "For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in the charter creates justifiable rights applicable to the UK except in so far as the UK has provided for such rights in its national law."

In a sense it makes his argument easier, in that a revived Irish Labour party could define itself by opposition to Blairism as Bertieism -- but that's a recipe that didn't work especially well in the last election. It does raise the interesting question of whether Labour -- and Fintan -- should therefore oppose the EU treaty when it comes to a referendum.