Ireland Backs EU’s Lisbon Treaty
October 3rd, 2009Mmm hmm.
Via: BBC:
Irish voters have strongly endorsed the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty – 16 months after their first vote rejecting it plunged EU reforms into deadlock.
About 67% voted “Yes”, official results from the latest referendum showed. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen hailed a “clear and resounding” endorsement.
Political leaders across the EU have also welcomed the result.
The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said it was a great day for Europe.
He urged the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic – the only other countries yet to ratify Lisbon – to sign the treaty as soon as possible.
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Nooo! I was hoping the wonderfully recalcitrant Irish would stall the march toward Europa…but I guess the erosion of national identity has been going on for quite some time now.
Or was it e-voting?
Agreed, Dennis. I didn’t actually think this would happen. But now it has, by hook or by crook.
I suspect this will mark the end of an era in world poetry/songwriting.
So they voted no at first and now a resounding yes. Literally unbelievable.
as silly as this sounds, i think this vote reflects how much people in Ireland think their government is useless and should be replaced by the European Commission asap.
any comments from Galway?
Hey, at least they got to vote. Most of us don’t. Besides, do-overs are standard procedure in EU matters. If people vote yes, then the issue is resolved forever. If people vote no, we wait six months and then vote again.
It’s nothing new, it’s simply how it’s done. It’s a top-down political project, all the way.
@ Dennis:
There was a disastrous attempt to introduce e-voting in Ireland about 7 years ago. Everyone hated it, including the pols. They used it in 3 constituencies, but soon returned to the good old paper & pencil.
The result, in short, is legit. The Irish system can be gamed, but not by ballot stuffing.
@ Lagavulin:
It happened before with the Nice Treaty. The Irish voted NO, the govt re-ran the same Treaty (pretty much) and got the YES vote.
I said here after the first Lisbon vote that the same trick would be tried, and it has.
@ Cryingfreeman:
Unbelievable – and as previously stated, the SECOND time this has happened!
@ Tochigi:
The big difference between the last vote and this one is that the Irish are scared shitless. I think a lot of them see this as their best chance of avoiding takeover by the IMF, making it the lesser of two evils (three evils, if you consider the prospect of being governed by our current domestic crop of nitwits.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/lisbon-treaty/state-now-borrows-836471m-a-day-to-fund-public-sector-1903823.html
I’m based in the US now, but have been following events home as closely as I can. What’s been startling to me has been the breakdown (literally) in the level of discourse and civility. The phrase “You’re a LIAR” has been thrown about by many if not most people on the radio at opponents, and debates frequently descend into shouting matches. Every logical fallacy in the book is thrown around – Strawmen, Ad hominems, appeal to ridicule, appeal to fear, etc.
It’s been pretty nauseating.
Another funny by-product of the YES vote is that it creates another 18 MEPS – one of whom is a far-right fascist in the British National Party:
http://www.politics.ie/lisbon-treaty/75464-lisbon-treaty-will-give-extra-seat-bnp-2.html
It’s not the end of the world in that case, as MEPs have bugger all power – but file under “Cosmic Joker Theory”.
The Irish were alleged to have been given guarantees that their neutrality, tax rates and abortion policies will not be affected by Lisbon. Well, that is sure to be put to the test sooner or later. It was sickening to hear a government minister, Dermot Ahern, blubbering about the suffering of the women of Darfur – as if sorting out that kind of mess wasn’t already supposed to be the job of the U.N.
Well, the country continues to unravel regardless. The next year or two should be fun.
Fucking hilarious, if it wasn’t so serious.
Anyone care to reiterate the reasons given for having this second vote? I mean, other than “You feckless fenians, you got it wrong! Vote again!”
They voted “No” the first time, and “Yes” the second time. Wonder what the third vote will be. What? Oh. Wait, run that by me again – why won’t they be having another vote?
Did you hear the one about the Englishman, the Irishman and the Scotsman? When it came to election day, Paddy voted. Eighteen months later and Paddy found himself voting again. “Feck this,” he thought to himself, “I’m voting ‘Yes’ this time so it’ll put a stop to all this voting, so it will.” And it did. The Englishman and the Scotsman never got to vote.
@Dermot – Thank you for all of the context. Very informative as to the ways of the Irish.
I like what you said here:
The Irish were alleged to have been given guarantees that their neutrality, tax rates and abortion policies will not be affected by Lisbon. Well, that is sure to be put to the test sooner or later. It was sickening to hear a government minister, Dermot Ahern, blubbering about the suffering of the women of Darfur – as if sorting out that kind of mess wasn’t already supposed to be the job of the U.N.
I was brought up Catholic and woe to the women of Ireland that “don’t want, hmm, nine months after one night?
If I had a bucket of water I’d be putting my head in it now. To wake me up for some kind of clear thinking on all of this nonsense.
Yeah, guarantees from Lisbon. Right. Rude awakening ahead – should be a sign posted on every road in Ireland.
From the very interesting (for Irish readers) website Public Inquiry…….
There’s an interesting article in today’s Irish Independent which, among other things, outlines the illegalities committed by the Yes side in the referendum.
The Yes side backed up the deliberate confusion with a number of illegalities committed in the name of the Government, the State and the Referendum Commission. These were non-precedents. They brought the European Commission, its personnel and their staff directly into the campaign, which was unlawful.
It was also unlawful to involve Yes – supporting European political parties in providing funds, in our own Government using public funding in support of one side, and in representing inaccurately the issues.
This should have been regulated by the Referendum Commission. It did no such thing, nor did it fulfill its statutory purpose, which was to explain the text of the referendum amendment on which people voted. At no time did the public get a full and clear indication of this.
The public media, including notably RTE and Newstalk 106, pursued a strongly ‘Yes’ side promotion, contrary to the State’s broadcasting acts that give them their licences.
I agree with the writer’s view that the results leaves almost 600,000 No voters without any significant mainstream party to vote for and the other 1.2 million voters trusting to a hopelessly wishful interpretation of the benefits of voting Yes.
The brutal truth is slowly beginning to dawn on Irish voters – They are misruled and misrepresented by an incompetent, greedy and largely corrupt body politic.
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In short, this Yes vote was brought about by a mixture of fear, given the economic mess Ireland is in, and also a campaign of propaganda run by the government, all the main political parties, and all the mainstream media to force a Yes vote.
Hope they like having Tony Blair as their new president.
Actually, the “yes” vote may be fraudulent after all: http://www.worldreports.org/news
with the article about the Irish vote being rigged, using ballot boxes already stuffed with yes votes when they were brought in to count the votes…plus, the site lists a You Tube video URL showing how “they” did it.