William Hague, paying careful attention to transcripts, yesterday in the House of Commons --
Mr. Hague: No one believes the Foreign Secretary any more when he argues that this is not the EU constitution. When the Prime Minister met the Irish Prime Minister on 17 July, even he referred to it as the European constitution.
It was actually on the 16th, but yes indeed:
Prime Minister:
Can I say first of all what a pleasure it is to be here in Belfast with the Taoiseach for this meeting of the British-Irish Council ... The Taoiseach and I have had a meeting this morning. We have discussed the European constitution and how that can move forward over the next few months.
The problem for Brown is that his counterpart had less problem calling it an EU Constitution, since the Republic of Ireland will have a referendum. Even so, Bertie was more careful --
We have had a chance of discussing some of the issues between us, obviously dealing with the reform treaty of the European Union.
Maybe Gordon should borrow one of Bertie's staffers. Incidentally, when one searches the Number 10 website for "Bertie Ahern", it asks whether you meant to search for "berate her".
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