So much has been going on in the UK and Europe over the past week that few noticed the passage of the EU Bill through the British Parliament last Wednesday. The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, published an article in The Daily Telegraph on 16 July in which he summarised the Bill’s provisions and set out his own views. ‘After its entry into force this summer,’ he declared,  ‘no British government will be able to sign up to a treaty change or a so-called “ratchet clause” – the self-amending provisions brought in by the Lisbon Treaty – that shifts further powers from the UK to the EU unless the British people consent in a referendum. That will be the law.’ Moreover, he continued, ‘Now no British government will be able to agree a new Lisbon Treaty, or join the euro, or give up our border controls, or set up a European army, to give just a few examples, without first gaining the explicit agreement of the British people. I am confident the British people, if asked, would say a resounding “no”, but whatever the people say, they should be asked for their view and not denied a say.’ It is, to say the least, a significant development.