As anyone realises who has read the long succession of European treaties (which I would bet doesn't include more than two or three MPs), they have been a constitution in the making for 50 years. The original Treaty of Rome set up institutions for a supranational "government of Europe", which was always intended to take over more and more of the powers of member states until the process was complete. The new treaty merely marks another significant step in that process, enabling the EU to take its place on the world stage as a government in its own right.

For 35 years, as our MPs have given away ever more of their powers to decide the laws that govern Britain, the only reason that more people have not realised how far the process has gone is that our politicians have been so anxious to hide the extent of the power they have already surrendered.

Our loss of the right to govern ourselves has been shrouded in such layers of obfuscation and deceit that most of our politicians no longer even realise how dishonest this has made them.

There was a vivid little example last week from David Miliband. Explaining on the Today programme why it was right not to keep that promise of a referendum, he said that it was the job of Parliament "to scrutinise legislation and then decide whether or not to pass it". "This," he said, "is what we pay MPs for."

In fact, for years there has been no better illustration of the humiliating impotence to which Parliament has been reduced than this "scrutiny" charade, whereby MPs perfunctorily consider the endless flood of EU laws that they cannot influence.

On Thursday, for instance, there was much excitement over the discovery that the manufacturers of an anti-depressant drug, Seroxat, could not be taken to court for concealing evidence that it might drive people to suicide, thanks to a glaring loophole in the law. But the reason this law was so ill-drafted was that it emanated from the EU bureaucracy, as health minister Dawn Primarolo tacitly admitted. Thus the British Parliament no longer has the power to amend it. The only way it can be changed is for Ms Primarolo to plead her case with our real government in Brussels.

This was only one of thousands of new laws each year which have supposedly been "scrutinised" by MPs. Why should they notice the loopholes when they no longer have any power to change the laws? If Mr Miliband argues that this is what MPs are paid for, his own logic suggests that they should no longer be paid for a job they cannot do.

MPs conceded as much themselves on Thursday, March 6, when Bill Cash moved an amendment to reverse the provision of the treaty which gives EU law primacy in every respect over the will of Parliament. Only 50 MPs supported it, including 41 Tories - against the wishes of their party's leadership. The rest were happy to accept that the Parliament to which they belong should no longer rule this country.