The collective vote by the Irish people that said NO to the Lisbon Treaty – against all the odds – is seismic in itself. The ramifications in European institutions and in the politics of individual nations will now be played out over the next few years.

I shall comment about those later in the week.

What it reveals about Scottish politics is, however, also of interest and deserves to be commented upon.

Never slow to ensure the Tory voice is heard, Struan Stevenson, had his statement out quickly accompanied by a well-argued piece in The Scotsman, posted on this site also.

Struan was not slow to notice that all the usual suspects were trying to marginalize the Irish vote and talk up ways of getting round it, preferably ways that did not involve having a second vote in Ireland. But Stevenson is not negative about the outcome, instead seeing it as an opportunity:

“THE rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish provides us with a great opportunity to re-invent Europe. We need to build a Europe for the people, rather than a Europe for the Euro-elite in their ivory towers in Brussels.”

The Scottish Liberal Democrats said practically nothing. Not one sentence on their web site, leaving their MEP to express regret in a short, terse statement.

More telling was Scottish political editor of The Herald, Douglas Fraser, one of the few Scottish journalists to consider what has happened. He hit the nail on the head when he argued in his paper that:

“The referendum result is another example of popular disenchantment with politics, fuelled by economic uncertainty but going deeper. The Irish showed an appetite for using the electoral system to give the powerful a severe kicking, just as English and Welsh voters did at the Crewe and Nantwich elections.

Yes, Douglas, just like the voters in the Netherlands and France did when previously given the chance to vote on the original draft Constitution. The point is that the EU is the ultimate example of an elite arrogantly lording it over us.

The realisation that the British would use a referendum to kick, not only the EU commission and its fellow travelers - but Blair, Brown and all the rest of the bloated parasites - is why a British referendum has been denied.

It’s not because people don’t value Europe (whatever that is) or politics itself – it’s because the political elites have become so detached from reality, regularly lie to us and take us for granted.

The SNP played the matter down with its spokesman Angus Robertson issuing a carefully worded statement that attempted to draw questions such as fisheries into the discussion. His mention of the power of small countries was rather hollow, given that other small countries have backed the Lisbon treaty and that France rejected the previous constitution. The truth is if it weren’t for the Irish constitution the Irish political elite would have refused a referendum just like all the other countries elites.

The perennial SNP candidate Alex Orr, writing to The Scotsman – gave voice to the sane and more rational Europhile camp, describing the constitution as the ”incomprehensible treaty drawn up by Europe’s Elites” and arguing that the “whole process demonstrates a disturbing democratic deficit within the EU, between its citizens and Brussels, with concerns over further European integration. There is a perceived lack of transparency and accountability and deep misgivings over a more powerfully centralised Europe.”

See, even Europhiles – admittedly those not yet in office – can see the problem with the EU!

So as not to let us all down and dash our expectations Jim Murphy, the Government Minister for Europe (who’s seat voted against the Lisbon Treaty in it’s own mini-referendum – covered in this site) came out with the usual meaningless guff that showed he considered the Irish vote practically irrelevant and that it was business as usual.

Whether or not he represents the Scottish Labour MPs or the Scottish Labour Party is a moot point. Being a careerist hack par excellence Murphy is looking out for number one - and for him that is defending his government’s position, no matter how daft that may be.

If, however Gordon Brown decides to learn from the Irish result and actually decides to play hardball, even dropping the Lisbon treaty altogether (highly unlikely, I know) then watch Murphy contort himself to do his master’s bidding- and sounding like he always meant it.

I suppose every party needs patsies like these, especially when in Government, but is still a thoroughly unedifying sight.

Thank goodness I heard his comments on the wireless and didn’t have to watch him on the television.

By contradiction the Labour MEP, Catherine Stihler, seemed to accept that the Lisbon treaty is no more, also writing in The Scotsman’s letters page of “the loss of the Lisbon Treaty” being a disappointment, not a disaster. Maybe she could tell Jim Murphy its time to come out of denial and recognise the people have spoken.

“The bastards.”