Sharpe's Opinion

The Irish Referendum.

Friday 13th June, 2008 at 4:03 pm

Everyone is throwing in their own tuppence (or 2 Euro Cents, I think not!) on the Irish referendum concerning the Lisbon Treaty. They’ve voted it down. Oh yes, it’s true. The only time the treaty has been put to a popular vote, it’s failed to pass through. Today is a day for celebration and jubilation.

In other words, the Lisbon Treaty is not going to happen. The EU is now in uncharted waters – previously, they’ve been able to beg, lie to and cajole the citizens of the European countries into a constant level of ‘progress’. Will they manage it this time? We may see the EU having to at least scale back his plans – at most, scale back its power.

Progress, incidentally, being the motion towards something greater. It’s in inverted commas because nobody has quite satisfactorily explained what each of these measures is eventually leading towards, and why that’s better than what we have now. To paraphrase John Cleese, what has the European Union ever done for us?!

Anyway, I digress. The point I really wanted to make was this:

Ireland have just prevented Tony Blair from becoming President of Europe. Gordon Brown will be dancing around his office.

There Was No Precedent For What Happened Today. ⇒

Comments

I’m not convinced that the Lisbon Treaty was such a bad thing. Rather, I’m convinced that it has been proved the media has greater power than an elected assembly, to publish rubbish and pass it off as ‘the truth’ and, as such, will not be celebrating.

All that Ireland has shown is that it prefers to pass the buck rather than govern.

The EU desperately needs a makeover, no doubt, and the member states have to decide whether it is a trade or legislative federation, sooner rather than later.

Tizzy

June 13, 2008 at 8:57 pm

To be honest, the Lisbon Treaty was an exceedingly long document and very few people arguing on either side can possibly have read it in its entirety. One of the main reasons for voting no in the Irish referendum was given as “I dont know what Im voting for” and this clearly shows that Brussels has literally got some explaining to do. As I said in the post, “nobody has quite satisfactorily explained what each of these measures is eventually leading towards, and why thats better than what we have now”. The EU need to spread their message better and explain why we the peoples of Europe need these measures.

Until now, they’ve largely survived by telling us that we can’t afford to be left behind in Europe. While this probably carries some good amount of truth, explanations need to be much better before we make irreversible changes to our democracy.

I’m not ‘Eurosceptic’, whatever that means. I like Europe and there are good things about the EU – trade agreements, freedom to travel through Europe, probably many other things I can’t pull off the top of my head. First and foremost, though, we’re British, and we take great pride in the way we can reject our rulers and their policies without coercion at the ballot boxes. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a genuine sense of being able to democratically change the rulers of Europe, so if we cede further power to them (which is undisputedly an effect of the Lisbon Treaty) it should be on a proper democratic basis. It should be because the people want it.

That’s my argument in black and white. It’s a funny old thing how on some issues everybody irreconcilably feels they are correct. The EU is one of those issues.

Stu

June 13, 2008 at 10:04 pm

The links below are examinations on a) Lisbon Treaty, b) Euro

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldeucom/62/6202.htm
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldeucom/90/9002.htm

Knock yourself out. They are as good as it gets in giving reasonable reviews without overt bias. I’ve browsed rather than digested them so am not claiming any more expertise than the next person, though they do provide perspective.

I’m not bothered whether I’m British, European, or Jedi though I accept the concept of nationality as been drilled into us to the point of obsession with some people. Overt displays of nationalism are abhorrent yet subtle under/overtones are acceptable – why?

Insofar as being able to reject our rulers at the ballot box I have strong misgivings about what we regard as democracy. Look at where we are now; can’t get rid of our PM until he says so or the clock ticks down to zero hour. His policies change according to what MPs want in exchange for their votes – from knee injuries, Cuba, and whatever the NI have been promised. None of us voted for this dog’s breakfast of a gvt.

Tizzy

June 14, 2008 at 3:57 am

It is beautifully turned out .. I liked ..) would be continuously zahazhivat to you.

Henrietta

November 6, 2008 at 4:03 am

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Sharpe's Opinion

The Irish Referendum.

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