The Treaty of Lisbon

Abstract

This chapter sets out to examine the discourses surrounding the 2009 ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and the consequent processes of Othering and the construction of British national identities. As in the previous chapters, the primary sources utilised in constructing the various discourses and the subsequent contending identities are listed in Appendix 3. As shown in the descriptive account as well as Tables 4.1 and 4.2, the numbers next to each quotation represent the source in the appendix. As also in the previous chapters, quotations marks have either been given in the original source or are quotes of quotations. Unlike the previous empirical chapters, memoirs and biographies have not been used. This is because the event is too contemporary to have been included in many political biographies. The sources that have been utilised, however, can be categorised as follows. Firstly, as before, I make use of the general election manifestoes of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties in the May 2005 general elections. Despite being published three years before the Lisbon Treaty, the manifestoes highlight the political elite attitudes towards Europe and are subsequently important as a vehicle within which identity issues are thrashed out. In addition, I have also included the manifesto of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) as this party was particularly vocal in the run-up to the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty and had won 12 MEPs in the 2004 European Elections.KeywordsMember StateNational IdentityBovine Spongiform EncephalopathyPrevious ChapterFree Trade AreaThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.