I understand all the indications are that the No Campaign has won the referendum vote in Ireland over the Lisbon Treaty. Now let's what the EU head honchos do to worm their way out of this one and tell us that the Irish didn't really mean it.
UPDATE 10.44: A source from inside the count confirms that both the Yes and No campaigns are saying the No campaign have won. Middle class areas are voting 50-50 and working class areas are 70% for a No vote.
Get the champagne on ice.
81 comments:
Oh thank god.
Thank Sinn Fein and the trade unions for the No Victory
and who would fund the no vote here in the UK yes the unions
If it's true, Iain, then they'll have another one.
I think it's disjointed for a Country compelled to have a referendum to hold the EU to ransom at every turn.
Democracy, yes but we have a Democracy too.
There's a difference between "All the indications are" and "The result is...", so it's not BREAKING NEWS, because we all heard that on national radio this morning.
Brave call Iain, given they haven't actually yet started counting votes yet - only sample tallies so far.
"Indications" are just that - the glances over the shoulders that campaign staffers are doing, as in election counts.
I want there to be a no vote in Ireland - if nothing else, to see what 'Plan C' looks like. But your "Breaking News" could look very silly by the end of the day.
That is what RTE web-news is implying...
"Now let's what the EU head honchose try to worm their way out of this one and tell us that the Irish didn't really mean it."
Try "Now let's see what the EU head honchos try to do to worm their way out of this one and tell us that the Irish didn't really mean it."
BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If this is true it's very bad news for Brown and his crew of big state, nannying, 'damn the electorate' weasels.
Whither the UK ratification?
Please God let Cameron be on the right side of this issue!
Oh I DO hope so !.
Will raise a glass or eight to them if this proves correct.
Is the win under or over ten thousand, if it is under they can demand a recount!!
Another damned annoyance, why did Brown bottle out of giving us our referendum?
Clearly because we would have given the same result as the Irish.
Will the Eureaucrats try their hardest to ignore the result?
Iain, if you're right: "Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice" (or Re-Joyce for those with literary bent)
How would this result help your cause? Will it make Cameron say anything concrete? Will it provide the mechanisms to deal with the enlarged EU? Will the Irish simply be sent homewards to think again?
Another victory for the people living in a representative democracy with a written constitution that is superior to their parliament.
You have to pity the poor bastards who don't live in such a state who are told that the State they're in doesn't need such frippery when their Parliament decides everything for them.
That would be you, Ian.
Never mind, when the next Conservative government is in power, you'll rely on the consciences of Tory MPs seared by the red hot poker of the whipping system to make all the right choices for the British people.
Won't you, Ian?
After all, if we actually let the people decide like they do in Ireland, then there'd be chaos in no time.
Wouldn't it, Ian?
After all, when the civil rights of the British people are determined, not by a written constitution nor a plebiscite, but by nine fundamentalist mullahs from Northern Ireland, you've only got to ask how such a system could ever be supported.
But probably not on your TV show. After all, that wouldn't be tasteful, would it?
EUSSR Says - WRONG Answer....now vote AGAIN until you give us the RIGHT Answer!(like last time).
-----------------------
European Treaty: Irish plan to get around 'no' vote
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Last Updated: 11:58PM BST 11/06/2008
Officials in Brussels are working on plans to ensure that the European Treaty is still implemented elsewhere if Ireland votes against it in the referendum.
Although measures such as creating an EU president, "foreign minister" and European diplomatic service may be delayed, they are still expected to be introduced.
One diplomat said a "bridging mechanism" was being discussed. If Ireland rejects the treaty, it may simply be removed from the list of signatories and will not be legally obliged to abide by it.
By late 2009 or early 2010, when Croatia joins the EU, an amending "Accession Treaty" will be signed by all members including Dublin.
Incorporated into it would be a series of protocol texts giving paper "opt-outs" on controversial Irish EU issues, such as taxation powers or greater military co-operation.
Such texts would be similar to Britain's existing protocol opt-outs on the Charter of Fundamental Rights and social issues in the Lisbon Treaty text being ratified in Westminster.
Ireland, like the rest of the Europe, does not hold referendums on EU enlargement treaties and with new protocol opt-outs Dublin may get a new Accession Treaty past the Irish parliament without a popular vote.
"This mechanism would be no more incomprehensible or legalistic than the Treaty itself," said one official.
"It is probably no more difficult than the legal footwork necessary to turn the Constitutional Treaty into [the] Lisbon [Treaty] after the French and Dutch rejected it. The issue will be timing."
In recent weeks, Irish officials have held secret talks to implement the Lisbon Treaty regardless of any referendum on the text.
During talks to create an EU diplomatic corps on May 7 and May 13, Irish diplomats presented a position on the composition of the European External Action Service and role of the EU's new "foreign minister".
Secret minutes seen by The Daily Telegraph show that Ireland's EU ambassador, Bobby McDonagh, pleaded with his colleagues to keep the talks and Dublin's position confidential. "[We] have to remain cautious in presenting these issues [referendum]!," the minutes record.
The House of Lords rejected a Conservative bid to force a British referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, with Liberal Democrat peers siding with the Government to defeat the move by 280 votes to 218.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/2113401/European-Treaty-Irish-plan-to-get-around-%27no%27-vote.html
PS Don't care i.e. consent to treaty IMO on 60% probably won the day. Adding this in it'll be 75-25 or better FOR the european union.
and DD free of any europhile cameron influence, in the spotlight, and able to shout about how the EU strips us of our freedoms ...... for weeks.... lovely stuff !
It's almost as if he planned it !
That puts the skids under the "we want a referendum" campaign. How is that good for the Tories?
More pressure off Brown.
Two days in a row, a breath of wind in Brown's sails. Just thank goodness the Thatcher drama was only seen by 13 people!
This is fantastic news ....if you weren`t gay with poor dress sense and pudgy cheeks ,I might well have to give you a big kiss.
I hope David Davies ties this in with the Freedom referendum as well as the issue of trust.Where is the dossier demonstrating we need to give up our freedom , where is the sexy little WMD dossier eh ?
I may have to knock off early for a beer( Like I don't every Friday)
Tra la Iain ...Tra La la la
Love Newmania
XXXXX
This is what happens when you let the working class have a vote.
Let's hope it is No by a reasonable margin to make life awkward for the EU.
Dass is gut. C'est fantastique.
Ode to joy will be on my hi fi later while I am drinking said champage if this is true.
You are probably right but it is a little early to be quite so definite. Tempting providence. I trust we shall see Tory MPs resigning over the question of there not being a referendum in this country.
EU - Heads we win, tails you lose.
YES!!!!
A huge thank you Ireland.
xxxxxx
And guess where Gordon Brown is going on Monday ? No, to Ireland itself, but Northern Ireland, or as we like to think of it 'DUP-land'...
Won't that be jolly, trying to keep that rictus grin on his face for the photo-ops with George Bush, as his political world starts to unravel around him...
Ahaha! Marvellous. But, I dare say the Eurocrats will wiggle out of it somehow.
Iain
They'll ignore it
Max
http://theerrorlog.blogspot.com
Hello Iain,
It looks as if the No side have won here, although it is still early days. One thing to be aware of, is that the reasons for voting No are varied, from a distrust of more European integration, to resentment for being asked to vote on something that even the proponents do not understand, to the wish to give our rotten Govt a bloody nose.
Working class Irish people have destroyed Europe. I hate the Republic of Ireland now. As much as tories harte Ulster. They have wrecked Europe we will continue to be slave nation of the USA and then NAZI China.
It seems sinn fein have not had enough if blowing up little babies and now want to destroy all of Europe I am sure the tories and sinn fein will be happy together. Evil NAZI thugs.
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!
Baby killers Sinn fein and the tory nazi nationaslits must be delighted by this vote by the dumb Irish.Chuck the ungrateful wankers out of the EU.
Sinn Fein kill british innocent people. Now they want to kill the EU. Sinnfull Fein the most evil party in Britian Equal with the BNP.
I wil hate the republic of Ireland, with a strong fervour now, and will always support Ulster staying British. Ulster backs good morals values, and stands up to terror, the republic is a nationalistic greedy country that kicks those that helped it.
HA HA HA HA HA Irish people we have got your part of Ireland HA HA HA HA HA NAZIs. Ulster is Briths and allways will be HA HA HA HA AHA YOU NATIONASLITIC THUGS. Wow you are so great at nationalsim you cannot even keep all of your island. And you will never get it back. HA HA HA HA HA.
What are going to kill more innocent brits now sinnful fein evil bigotted thugs. I am sure your buddies in the American neocons will bne happy.
Gerry Adams "Brit killer" ans the tories two happy bed fellows.
Funny that the left are very quick to quote public opinion when it suits them, but try to slag people off (they don't understand the issues blah blah balh...) when public opinion is against them.
For example 42 days detention. Broon spouts on about how he has the backing (yet most people will not have read the legislation) of the public, yet on an EU referendum he ignores public opinion (we're too thick to understand it)
Sod off Brown. Go back to Scotland.
Who was on the noe side.
"Brit Killer" Gerry Adams
American neocon NAZIS who want to keep Europe weak
British tories.
Well donee brit killer Gerry Adams will sleep easy today.
That does I love Ulster, and I hate the republic.
I will go on Irish forums gloating that they will never get Ulster back. I hate the republic now. Thye are nationalistic bigots. I hope the EU chucks them outm, and they can back to being tyhe ungreateful dump they allways werein the past under Briths tory rule.
Well done tories Brit killer Gerry Adams will be pleased.
I am filled with hatred to the Irish for this. The EU turned them from the poorest country in Westernm Europe to the wealthiest and this how they repay them. Backing evil NAZI neocons who want to destory us. Well I am going to spend my free time gloating to the Irish that they have lost Ulster. I hate Sinnfull fein. I hope Gerry Adams has nightmares at all the innnocent brits he killed. So much for the macho nationalists. HA HA HA HA HA LOL. ULSTER IS STAYING BRITISH.
Patrick said...
"If this is true it's very bad news for Brown and his crew ..."
It will suit Brown and Co very nicely.
Please invite Gerry Adams "Brit child killer" round as he is very happy that evil nationalism has won too. Ireland is an ungrateful nation of NAZI bigots. I will gloat to them Ulster is still British. Unpleasant Sinnfull fein bigots and neocon scum will be delighted at this result. Ireland has an average IQ below 90. I am not surprised after loooking at this animalistic result.
I will spend the rest of my life gloatibng to the Irish NAZIs that Ulster is still Brit LOL LOL LOL. Never turst the Irish they will kick anyone who helps them when they are down.
Come off the fence, Dirty European Socialist, tell us what you really think!
dirty european socialist - calm down dear, it is time for your medication..
if this IS true,then THANK YOU IRELAND,for giveing us something that we were promised but denined
Mr Dale and his assistants deserve credit for allowing everybody, including even the mentally handicapped (Dirty EUropean Socialist Dictatorship lover) to express their views.
Anonymous @ 11:58,
You said: 'It will suit Brown & Co very nicely'.
Think longer term mate. Today or tomorrow Brown may feel that he doesn't have to worry about UK ratification issues - fair dinkum.
BUT...an Irish rejection puts the whole issue of how the EU can be made to work right back on the table. The last thing any of the socialist nannies want is to have to re-engage on an issue they hoped was put to bed. Brown knows he is completely on the wrong side of this one and that most people are rightly strongly anti an EU superstate. What mandate does he have to negotiate anything now? This will run and run and it's going to hurt him at every turn.
Every moron in europe will can rejoice.
Gary Elsby @June 13, 2008 10:47 AM
Fuck off retard. Al-Beeb back the BNP over "your" Labour Party in Stoke. The BNP would support a referendum; your Scottish Dom-Meisters deny England her her voice.
Sir, you are a twat. Please piss of to between Effies legs, cunt!
And how dare you talk down to the sovereign Irish!
Some of that stuff from dirty european socialist is libellous, certainly defamatory?
For dirty E socialist, perhaps a little restraint on someone else's blog.....?
As far as I know SF as a political party haven't blown up anyone?? Please back up what you say.
In private I may agree with some of your comments - but publishing it is something else.
Up to you Iain.
As usual' the working class comes to the rescue by bailing out the parasitic middle class
Party outside Irish Embassy 4:30pm? Then I suggest we 'march' on Downing Street to demand the result is respected and the treaty's ratification is stopped.
Tell the media to be there!
What wonderful news. Now EU treaty, oi, y'can fack orf and stick it up yerarse while yer doin' it.
dirty european socialist.
Oh dear, democracy in action is such a drag isn't it?
June 13, 2008 12:28 PM You and Gerry Adamd "Brit child killer" must have a big grin today evil has won the neocons wrecked the USA, Now they want to wreck the EU as revenge Fuck off NAZIs. You have won and defeated good as usual Bogtry has won as usual I hate your dump country now.
Fluffy: Bit harsh don't you think for in here?
I'll bet anyone that Ireland will do a Mugabe and have another vote.
You may not like this opinion but it is the Irish themselves who prolong the process, not I.
I'm sorry if you believe that I have talked down to the Irish, as that was not my intention, I just think that a referendum for referendum's sake, is a little pointless.
Ireland keeps on playing the game beyond 90 minutes until one side wins.
This will go to penalties.
Now wasn't I nice then.
Gary
Dirty European Socialist - what an apt name for you.
Well done to the Irish, it's brilliant news. But, since Brown has already phoned Sarkozy to tell him Britain will press ahead and ratify the LT next week, which way now for us? Is there any word yet on Stuart Wheeler's court case?
God Bless Ireland!
Thanks from Slovakia!
Bloody funny, Brown saved by the paddies, twice in one week !!
The Irish have voted:
Pro-life - against the EU's enforcement of abortion, euthanasia, human-animal hybrids, and so much else besides;
Pro-family - against the EU's enforcement of same-sex "marriage" (civil partnerships are not the same thing), adoption by same-sex couples, "the parental State", and so much else besides;
Pro-worker - against the EU's driving down of wages and working conditions, and its engineering of mass unemployment;
Anti-war - against an EU standing army (under overall America command);
From the wallet - for the £150 billion that their fisheries have lost as a direct consequence of EU membership, three times the £50 billion that they have received in EU largesse; and
From the heart - for a recognisably Irish culture and society, rather than homogenisation to within an inch of being totally indistinguishable from anywhere else on earth.
memo to jose manual barroso...submit the accounts to an INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTENT .
then grant ALL the member states a referendum.
then you will learn that we,the people of europe (OR I ,A PERSON OF EUROPE) DO NOT WANT TO BE A PART OF THIS corrupt and (in part non elected) group
Good! (and hopefully good riddance EU treaty). Any chance of Dave giving us a truthful response?
I firmly believe that the people of Europe are are generally against the EU as it currently stands. Everyone has a story to tell about unjustified interference with laws and directions picked out of a hat. Let us get back to sanity and kick this outlandish experiment with our lives into touch. Let's renegotiate EFTA and follow our own way in the world and stop taking orders from tin-pot little states such as Luxumburg and the others that contribute nothing and suck Europe dry. Let's stop the crazy right to live anyware which would plug the biggest unwanted immigration hole and finally, try to teach complete idiots like Barroso that "NO" is a very easy word to understand. So live with it Mr Barroso and bugger off home to give your own people a headache with your lunatic dreams!
What a surprise unlucky friday the 13th and Ireland vote for the devil.
another memo to jose manual barroso... yes 27 states will/MAY ratify the lisbon treaty... because the PEOPLE of these states were NOT GIVEN THE CHANCE TO VOTE IN A REFERENDUM had they been given this chance,and had they voted FOR the lisbon treaty then you may have a case...but untill ALL THE PEOPLE IN THESE STATES tell you what they want you are assuming that they agree with you WE NEED TO HEAR FROM THE PEOPLE...NOT THE GOVERNMENTS of these states
Congratulations to our fellow Irishmen and friends south of the border!
Mr Brown, what are your frightened of?
Democracy?
As someone who's proud to be an Irishman, British citizen and European I demand my right to a referendum.
The vote was fixexd,
1. Ther was no exit poll.
2. The opinion polls suggested a yes
3. Paddy power paid out on yes and betfair sugesyted yes was massive favourties right up until shortly after the counting.
4. So who counted the votes, on friday the 13th the devil.
The shrieking lunacy of hysterical socialists is aptly displayed on this thread.
And Mr Paul - there is a simple 'mechanism' for dealing with an enlarged EU. Its called democracy, and if as 'they' say 'they' want to leave more decisions to us locally then it ought to work quite nicely, without a Stalinist constitution.
"I will go on Irish forums gloating that they will never get Ulster back"
Go for it Mr. D.E.Socialist, that will really have them quaking in their boots.
Congratulations Eire and thank you ( much good it will do us though ) .
Where is our referendum Brown ?
trevorsden A stalinist constitution. Well why do you fart so much then LOL.
The vote was fixed I am sure of this. Paddy power paid out on yes. Thye must have known. The Betfair had odds of 1.1 after the voting and right up to shortly after the counting.
Who did the counting the devil. Friday the 13th.
I havwe to apolgisde to Ireland I relaise the vote was fixzed ans stolen from you. I dount the media will ever tell the truth. Paddy power paid out on yes. Betfair offered insane odds in favuour of yes. This was well after voting had finnished Yet somehow the no side won and be large margin. With higher turn outs in so called working class areas,. People who are normally more unliekly to vote. Odd eh!. I know the yes side won buyt the neocons fixed another vote. I am sorry to Ireland. I know you voted yes, you love Europe, the neocons stole your vote and will lie, lie, and lie, again. Thye have no shame. The devil stole your vote on the 13th of friday.
Whatever you may feel about the pro's and con's of the EU there can be no doubt that it is an affront to European democracy that its so-called "leaders" have lied and cheated EU voters by pretending that the Lisbon Treaty is not a constitution and therefore does not require a referendum consent from EU voters before it can be adopted.
It would be an even greater affront to democracy if they now still try to bulldoze it through for the rest of us by ignoring the wishes of the voters of the only country that had the honesty and the guts to hold a referedum.
Dear dirty shitty euro
you are clearly deranged and mentally ill so i will not quite treat you with the contempt you deserve.
Paddy power etc paid out because they could see the results being published constituency by constituency - everyone knew the way the result was going even Barroso who made his speech before the formal declaration.
So try plugging your tiny pea sized brain in before engaging mouth mr shitty.
Interesting to see hoe socialists hate democracy, but nothing new there.sq
As one of the few here who have actually participated in the bloodbath that is Irish politics (junior ward-heeler, Dublin South Central, 1965), I am not surprised, and somewhat delighted.
As they say: ask a silly question ...
This had very little to do with the antics of SF: with rare exceptions, the good citizens of the Republic recognise that shower's total bathetic irrelevance. This as a glorious moment to kick all them shysters in Kildare Street and Leinster House where it hurt, with no come-back. What is amazing is how few availed of a golden opportunity.
It also shows that Ahern, the cute wee hoor, dropped even more excrement on Biffo Cowan than had previously been calculated.
I might also do something to check the largesse the Brussels money-machine has lavished on the FF government.
For anyone on the radical side(s) 0f irish politics, this puts a spring in the step and a lift in the elbow.
An brath dearg abu!
DES, I probably shouldn't bother, but the EU is a key neocon project. See the Statement of Principles of the Henry Jackson Society, signed by several Tory MPs and a couple of Labour ones (and with several of the leading American neocons as its Patrons), which calls of a single EU defence "capability" under overall American command.
Not only does the EU subject us to the legislative will of Stalinists, Trotskyists, neo-Fascists, neo-Nazis, and various other undesirables, all of whose schools of thought feed into neoconservatism (whereas it has no roots in the authentically democratic, republican or conservative tradition of any country on earth).
But the President of the Commission is a classic neocon: a rabidly "free"-marketeering and pro-Bush product of the Maoist insurrection that brought down Lusotropicalism (so very similar in ethos to Commonwealth patriotism) and the Encyclicist 'Estado Novo', a hugely successful, if sometimes (though necessarily) heavy-handed, Catholic bulwark against Communism, Fascism, and civil war between the two.
Yes to the Commonwealth. No to Chiantishire and Cape Cod elitism.
Yes to Christendom. No to the EU.
trevorsden said...
"Paddy power etc paid out because they could see the results being published constituency by constituency - everyone knew the way the result was going even Barroso who made his speech before the formal declaration."
No. Paddy Power made the decision to pay out on YES votes even before the counting had started. They had heard reports that EXIT POLLS had indicated a YES win.
I noticed the Irish PM's first reaction was to say the no vote was a result of people "not understanding the treaty."
I think the people understand the treaty far better than he and the other Eurorats would like.
The last thing we need is a sitting president of the EU, a unified foreign policy and a European army.
And does anyone really think letting in more Balan nations along with many former soviet republics will do anything but turn voting on important issues into a pastich of the Eurovision song contest?
The decision of the electorate in Ireland not to endorse the EU Treaty is a cataclysmic failure of persuasion by European politicians in general and Irish politicians in particular. In my lifetime (I'm a Baby Boomer) the creation of co-operation and peace and stability in Europe is perhaps the most significant of political achievements.
In the 1960s and 1970s it became apparent that peace and prosperity for Europe lay in the ever-closer integration of all of the European nations. We stuttered a bit in Blighty but eventually Ted Heath, in by far his most notable achievement as a politician, got us into the Common Market. Over the years and despite the antipathy of Little Englanders and the xenophobic British Eurosceptics Europe has prospered and so have we as part of the wider European community. It was always obvious (and in my view desirable) that we would move gradually towards a de facto United States of Europe - and I had no problem with this. I can be English and British and European un-self-consciously. Being one of the three does not reduce the significance of the others.
Closer European integration obviously required some degree of codification. Call it a constitution or a treaty (I don't mind) but an agreed framework for the European pseudo-State was fine by me as well. Jaw jaw is always better than War war. Would you rather be fighting the Germans, or working with them and the rest to continue to build a new peaceful, prosperous Europe. No brainer Ha?
So if I believe what I believe why don't all of my fellow citizens? Am I perhaps wrong? I don't think so. So it's a failure of communications and persuasion here in Britain and now, sadly for all to see in God's other island. Oh dear!
Paddy Briggs said...
"I can be English and British and European un-self-consciously."
Certainly without the intervention of any brain function. Self-important boring twat.
Well actually, Paddy Briggs, I think you're wrong.
You paint what I consider to be a rosy but naive view of what the EU now means. I suspect that most people are not anti-European (and want, as you do, peace, harmony and so on (bit of a no-brainer, that one)but that they don't believe that a machine that is angling for sovereignty over member states is going to achieve that or is going to work in the best interests of the people in those member states. On the contrary the EU is seen as corrupt and unaccountable, serving only the interests of a political elite.
Joyce
What is very clear is that Socialist Democrats/Labour, call it how you like, are in trouble across Europe.
Disenchantment by the voting public is nothing to do with policies as such, but of incompetence and an agenda that is so out of touch with the electorate that it is sending shock waves into the very heart of socialist thinking and they have generally grasp of why this is. Merkel's party in Germany are looking almost as sick as New Labour and here in little Austria the knives are out for our Prime Minister and we should learn tomorrow if he will be replaced.
NONE of these Socialists listen to anyone other than their own kind. They are disconnected from the people and ignore public opinion, choosing to parrot-phrase answers from prepared lines that say nothing and answer nothing. The statements by Euro Ministers about carrying on to ratify the European Treaty has caused a great deal of anger here and across Europe. Why don't they listen?
When I hear Gordon Brown's oft repeated statement "We're listening", I cringe, because he clearly is not listening, or if he is, has no intention of doing anything that will embarrass him personally with his political friends in the EU. He even appears to believe his own rhetoric that he is doing what is right for the country. In other words, he doesn't give a damn what the population want and will slowly, but surely drive Lemming Enterprises Plc over the cliff into oblivion.
The politics surrounding the European in Britain is different in kind from every other aspect of UK politics. Instead of a bored, disengaged electorate, somewhat suspicious of politicians, but broadly willing to trust them to get on with the business of politics we have a rabid media clamouring on behalf of the people for a referendum and screaming ‘Betrayal!’. Politicians can’t be trusted on this issue; elites are corrupt and power-hungry and they don’t see the world the same way as decent, ordinary people. Or so says The Sun and the Daily Mail. Politicians can’t be trusted and they aren’t up to the job; instead ordinary people on the basis of a simple majority vote should be the ones to decide whether this fiendishly complicated, legalese-soaked document should be approved. When it comes to one of the most complicated, technical decisions that needs to be made in politics they want to have the professional law-makers stand aside and surrender themselves to the amateurs.
Europe is the only issue in British politics where this sort of direct democracy, anti-elite populism has any real influence. And it’s because we’re suspicious of people we don’t know, people who aren’t like us. British politicians can be trusted with authority because shared experiences, values and traditions mean that we can rely on them to see things our way. Politicians from other countries and particularly EU officials in “Brussels” (a sort of hellmouth to the Eurosceptics) can’t be trusted with power because we don’t have that same guarantee that they will share our perspective. The great heat that one sees displayed on this issue and the nauseatingly insistent appeals for a referendum are an outgrowth of a very understandable, but lamentable, chauvinism. We like what and who we are familiar with; everything else we are suspicious of.
To read more on the European constitution link to my blog, just who the hell are we?, at:
http://adammcnestrie.wordpress.com/
Adam McNestrie said...
"To read more on the European constitution link to my blog, just who the hell are we?, at:
http://adammcnestrie.wordpress.com/"
No thanks. Stop abusing Iain's blog to advertise your boring ramblings.
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