Sovereignty Act

Lisbon is self-amending. But nothing precludes our own Parliament from enacting an amendment or a one-clause Bill restoring the supremacy of British over EU law wherever the two conflict, and, to get the ball rolling, declaring that this shall be the case with regard to the United Kingdom's historic, and internationally lawful, fishing rights: 200 miles or to the median line. That would be the true Sovereignty Act.

With staggeringly little publicity even allowing for the Afghan situation, the Lib Dems have just given up their commitment to an In/Out referendum. Fine. Good, in fact. The Sovereignty Act as here set out requires neither referendum (a foreign and deeply flawed device) nor renegotiation. And it might go down quite well in the Lib Dem strongholds from every seat in Cornwall, round North Norfolk, Berwick-upon-Tweed and North East Fife, to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

But the Lib Dems won't enact it, any more than New Labour or the New Tories will. One more reason not to vote for any of them, but instead to make alternative arrangements.