So our unctuous half-minister Mr Roche is in action again. He tells the German Council on Foreign Relations that we have learned our lesson and will be good little children in future and that Lisbon will be passed this time. His assurances are such that "senior MEPs" are going ahead with a series of votes on the implementation of Lisbon even before we have been forced to vote again.

Such respect for democracy. And such is the view of us from within the trough where the mandarins feed.

Could you ask one of your reporters to ascertain our semi-minister's response to an interview in the London Times of 29 April in which William Hague, the British shadow foreign secretary stated clearly that "the next Tory government would kill the Lisbon treaty and halt the latest process of European integration".

As the Tories look certain to win the next British election and carry out this plan, could the oh so sincere mini-minister for European Affairs (not Irish affairs!) explain why we should have to vote again on this issue? Won't it be a waste of time and scarce money? Why not, for once, accept the free democratic decision, already given, of the Irish people?

Richard Murphy,

Coralstown,

Mullingar, Co Westmeath.