A dissembling he goes

Here's something to remind you why David Miliband is eminently qualified to lead the Labour party. The debate over the EU Treaty was full of half-truths and worse, here's a fine example from the Labour party's putative leader:

"The real issue is the content of the treaty; and in its structure and consequence, as well as its content, it is different from the constitution and does not meet the bar of whether it constitutes fundamental constitutional change."

See Hansard
You may want to contrast that view with those of the following:

"Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly... All the earlier proposals will be in a new text, but will be hidden and disguised in some way...What was [already] difficult to understand will become utterly incomprehensible, but the substance has been retained."

Valéry Giscard D'Estaing, President of the Convention on the Future of Europe which drafted the EU Constitution.


"Our constitution cannot be reduced to a mere treaty for co-operation between governments. Anyone who has not yet grasped this fact deserves to wear the dunce's cap"

Valéry Giscard D'Estaing, President of the EU Convention, speech in Aachen accepting the Charlemagne Prize for European integration, 29th May 2003.


"Most people don't know what has been decided,we continue step by step until there is no turning back".

Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, The Economist, September 24, 2004


"The difference between the original Constitution and the present Lisbon Treaty is one of approach, rather than content."

Valéry Giscard D'Estaing, The Independent (London) October 30, 2007."

You may care to peruse some of my articles on the EU Treaty for more on the performance of David Miliband, this one would make a good start.