Today the Irish may have saved civilization yet again.
The only country in the European Union to allow their people to vote on the Treaty of Lisbon, Ireland has said "no". Seems the EU fears democracy.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Fear of democracy isn't restricted to the EU. It's common to many bureaucrats, who like order and process and resent the idea that they are accountable to anyone other than their immediate supervisor.
At least politicians, in the US anyway, have to pay lip service to the concept, or they risk losing their job.
Heh,
Go Ireland! Tell the "leaders" to p'og ma hoen !!!
The Irish remember what it is like to be under foreign rule and what it costs to regain home rule.
Personally, I suspect that the existence of the IRA and IRA vets may have been part of the reason that the Irish were allowed to vote on this. There is still a strong undercurrent of republican leanings in the Republic. Heck, they haven't had full independence for 60 years yet.
The moment that came up on the evening news, I stood up and exclaimed "thank you Ireland!" No joke.
I'm pro-Europe, I really am!
But I loathe the idea that politicians, who compromise their own ideas to be part of a party, which compromises its ideas to be part of a coalition, which compromises its idea to fullfill the European demands decide for me wether or not I should be represented by a President I don't get to vote for!
The results cheered me up ever so slightly.
the treaty of Lisbon would have considerably increased the democratic power of EU citizens, as well as creating a method for a country to secede from the EU (which currently doesn't exist). given those facts alone, it's hard for me to see how this wasn't the Irish shooting their collective feet off with heavy artillery.
It's not so much the treaty itself, it's the idea of matters of serious gravity being decided over, over and above our heads.
The result might be a slight setback for Europe, but the message is clear: "We the people do not necessairely agree with what you think is best for us!"
well, either that or "we're willing to cut our noses off to spite your faces".
let's see what the next iteration of this treaty looks like, and whether it'll be submitted for any referenda anywhere at all given that it's already been turned down twice. that it'll resurface is a given; the EU can't long continue to function, much less grow, without some serious restructuring down the lines the EU constitution and the Lisbon treaty attempted to introduce. if something similar doesn't get passed eventually, then turning these attempts down will be the equivalent of dismantling the European Union the messy way, without ever actually saying that that's what's going to happen.
maybe the EU does need dismantling, or maybe it does not; but if it does, then doing it the messy, back-door way strikes me as a bad way to go about it. the more likely outcome of this is that "EU constitution, take three" will be passed by administrative fiat and no country gets to vote on it, which also seems to me like a counterproductive result of this vote.
Post a Comment