IT WAS wholly predictable that the snake-oil salesman who has been running Britain for the past decade would seek to inflict one final humiliation upon his country before he departed into the ignominy of
history. Tony Blair's instinct has always been for the low blow: by leaving Britain trussed up in the toils of a European constitution, he intends to have the last snigger.

Blair hates Britain; he always has done. The pageant of its history, the order and dignity of its long-evolved constitution, its civilised sense of hierarchy - all provoke deep resentment in this inadequate personality, obsessed with greatness and achievement despite being hopelessly ill-equipped to attain them. The man who has shredded our ancient constitution is the boy who, at Fettes, constantly rebelled against the status quo, demanding change for its own sake, always predicated upon his own back-of-an-envelope schemes of incoherent innovation.

The Great Charlatan is now preparing his exit in the same spirit. Having achieved nothing and wrecked much (including Iraq) during his sleaze-ridden 10 years in power, he intends to write one last message
in the sand by subjecting Britain to the domination of a European super-state, as his supposed legacy. The embarrassment this will cause Gordon Brown is a bonus; but the real agenda is finally to liquidate the British society and culture into which he was born. It is like thedoomed Führer ordering the razing of Paris.

This week's European summit in Brussels threatens to be the most shameful moment in modern British history since the fall of Singapore. The ruling clique is set to sell the pass, by embracing the European
constitution in the guise of an "amending treaty". The whole loathsome, totalitarian scheme to create a supranational state, which has already been rejected by French and Dutch voters and would have been repudiated by the British electorate if it had been given an opportunity, is being imposed under another name.

This is not a conspiracy theory, but a conspiracy. The fortuitously leaked letter from German chancellor Angela Merkel to her fellow heads of government revealed that the plan is "to use different terminology without changing the legal substance". In other words, since the populations of Europe cannot be persuaded to vote for a European constitution, it will be forced on them without any further referenda, in the guise of an "amending treaty". What is being amended is the vestigial national sovereignty still residing with member states.

Even without sight of the German chancellor's correspondence, we would have known the truth from the terms of the so-called 'treaty'. It removes the references to the EU flag and anthem that betrayed the superstate ambitions of the constitution but, in Merkel's words, will " preserve the substance of the innovations". The European foreign minister may be renamed "spokesman", but the reality remains the same.

There would be a permanent EU president and the Union will have a " single legal personality". A new voting system would deprive Britain of one third of the blocking powers it presently has against damaging
new EU legislation. The scale of this surrender can best be measured by ecalling that, even at present, 25,000 European directives a year are imposed on British subjects without so much as being rubber-stamped at Westminster. To pretend that Britain, after the further erosion of autonomy imposed by this treaty, remained a sovereign nation would be a fantasy. So, what is the British government going to do about it?

"We welcome the fact that there is now a consensus around the UK view that this should be an amending treaty," a government spokesman said. Which translates as: "Gee, thanks, Angela, for changing the names - it's really cool that you haven't called it the Fourth Reich, or something like that, which would have been difficult to sell to the mug punters at home here."

Turning on the green light more strongly, the spokesman helpfully added: "No previous amending treaties have required a referendum." Does it strike you that there is just one small element that is conspicuously absent from this whole scenario? You know, the 'D' word - democracy? The ruling elite of Europe is planning to absorb Britain into a European super-state (so, no change there) and the British ruling elite is assisting the project, cynically overriding the ironically named electorate - an electorate whose powers will soon be restricted to choosing the local dog-catcher.

This is a defining moment for Gordon Brown. Will he accept the fait accompli that Blair leaves on his desk or will he tear up this infamous instrument of surrender and assert British sovereignty? How can he do the latter when, for all his sulking, Blair has dragged him into complicity with President Sarkozy and compromised any stance he might make?

The demand for a referendum will be irresistible, unless Brown is prepared to show himself in favour of backstairs deals and inimical to participatory democracy. Yet the presumption will be of the government canvassing for a Yes vote on a treaty recently signed by a Labour prime minister. In those circumstances, the inevitable rejection of the treaty would be a slap in the face for Brown, a resigning issue and the worst imaginable prelude for Labour to a general election. Gordon is thirsting for authority and popularity, but Tony has poisoned the wells. Brown already lacks a personal mandate: a lost referendum would destroy him.

The clever money is on there never being a referendum; but that too would put Europe at the top of the agenda at the next general election, with the anti-European majority of voters in revanchist mood. The Tory leadership, as unpatriotic and cynical as Labour, would nevertheless have no alternative but to pick up the banner of Euroscepticism, or see UKIP roll over its electoral heartlands in a blitzkrieg. The backlash against the grammar schools gaffe has rattled the Blue Labour cuckoos in the Tory nest: they would have to head off mass defections with strong anti-European rhetoric.