A new legal move in the Czech Republic to ask the Czech Constitutional Court to opine on the Lisbon Treaty is pretty damn big news.

The effect of this could be to delay final entry into force of the Treaty until after a UK general election, when a newly elected Conservative government might well feel inclined to give the British people a say on the subject via a referendum.

Here is a good Telegraph interview with Shadow Foreign Minister William Hague on the subject:

We hope we will come to a general election with the treaty unratified, of course we do. We think it is bad for Britain in the long term and we want to give the British people their say. The assumption that it’s all over now on the treaty is a rash one," he says.

"The treaty has not been ratified by all 27 nations and in that situation a Conservative government elected at the next general election will hold as an immediate priority a referendum. I have asked the Foreign Office to have a referendum bill ready immediately after the election." A referendum would be held "within a few months".

Meanwhile the good election result of Chancellor Merkel in Germany looks to be bad for Turkey’s prospects of EU membership.

Could the European Union be heading for a major redefinition of itself and its role in the world?

Nay, even a Convulsion?

With a new ‘hard core’ built around France and Germany, and the UK opting out in favour of a ‘special relationship’ of some sort?