Well, it turns out that, even though we have of course, by rejecting the Lisbon Treaty, embarrassed ourselves in front of Europe, and screwed ourselves for the future, we have made one small gain.
Apparently, the Neo-Nazis love us! Le Pen, for instance, is overjoyed.
On the other side of the pond, I doubt America's horrible, horrible Neo-Cons are too devastated, either.
Proud to be Irish, much?
The Communists seem to be happy too.
ReplyDeleteIf the Communists and the Neo-Nazis are happy with us it must be good, right? Right?
Oh please, don't exaggerate, we have neither embarrassed ourselves but merely are taking the long road round. The EU knows its laws and bills are open for discussion, that's merely what we're doing, thinking about it and we've made it clear that we're unsure about it, it'll go through eventually, it's all understandable.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I've heard the inside goss on this, the government is neither embarrassed nor under pressure. That's all hype. My dad and his boss were two of the many politicians who worked on this, the government knew at the end that the No campaign had been better organised etc. Call it a learning curve.
Lorcan's right. It hasn't even made a noticeable ripple over here as to how Ireland voted or even the final vote of the measure in total. While the common consensus about the EU from the paltry cross-section of America that actually pays attention is that it's a big kludge of prima donna nationalists whose only common features are in that they all have the glorious notion of being the boss of a bunch of other nations they've warred against for centuries, it's at least acknowledged that in voting about things like Lisbon that the EU is a) not some greed-driven pipe dream for economic/political gain, and b) this is all teething pains that any such endeavor would naturally have to work through before true consensus was reached. Give it time; no one changes the world overnight, except maybe Caesar.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to disagree. First, I take issue with the idea that it's a nationalist thing; every member state has given great concessions to the EU, and a war in Europe is now virtually impossible; the nationalists, of course, hate this.
ReplyDeleteOn Ireland's decision. First, of course, we were the only nation to vote on the issue. Europe has done great things for Ireland, both economically and socially; we were only dragged out of the Catholic nightmare which we inhabited in the 60s and 70s by pressure from Europe. It is now having a similar effect in the new states, and I would hope that in the future it can do the same for Turkey and Israel, and for other nations who wish to join.
As it stands, we're in an unpleasant possition. Europe hasn't yet made it clear what will happen next. One possibility is that they would make a new treaty, effectively the same as Lisbon but not covering Ireland. In that case, Ireland would effectively become an observer, and might (with an appropriate referendum) rejoin early next decade, in the next round of accessions. This would set a nasty precedent, especially if the Tories, now openly anti-European, are the next ruling party in the UK. Another is that we could withdraw entirely. This one seems improbable, and would be absolutely devastating. The third, and this is what I hope will happen, is that a new referendum is held on the Treaty, with it made clear that one of the above, or another (undoubtedly unpleasant) compromise, is the alternative. In that case, I think the result would be different; in this election, no-one really knew what was going on, and certainly had no idea that there could be consequences.
I mentioned the US Neo-cons largely because Libertas, the major non-partisan opposing group, is partially funded by people who've done very well out of morally dubious transport of US troops and prisoners through Ireland. Elements in the US do _not_ want to see a strong Europe; it's a threat. I'd far rather live under the domination of France or Germany or the UK than under the domination of the US as it stands, and that is the way that things seem to be going.
I forgot to mention; I don't contend that the government is embarrassed. Quite frankly, I could care less about our absurd government's embarrassments. I doubt it's registered with most of them; they're probably far more worried about where the next car or holiday or whatever is coming from. I simply meant that by rejecting this entirely reasonable treaty, favoured by the governments of all member states (like it or not, this is how representative democracy works) on the basis of smear campaigns by terrorist-lovers (SF), rather nice but mad people (Higgins et al.) and shadowy groups of uncertain allegiance (Libertas) we have embarrassed ourselves as a nation.
ReplyDeleteI'm entirely aware that the government's handling was beyond pathetic. No-one knew what the damn thing was about. The only people offering information were the No side, and their information was largely fraudulent and misleading. I particularly liked the insinuation that the EU wanted to microchip babies; if the EU were a company, it could sue for libel.