Forget the multipage threads - here's the Lisbon "no" and its fallout, in short.

Steerpike

So, after billions of Euro funding and cohesion money - which is soon to dry up as the Irish become net contributors in the next few years - it seems that the Irish have become eurosceptics (a term first coined by the Little Englanders of perfidious Albion).

The Lisbon Treaty was drafted over seven years by member states - much of it during Ireland's presidency - and was designed to make the expanding EU easier to run on an organizational level, given its expansion to 27 member states. That's all it was. Qualified majority voting would take the place of unanimity, so as to prevent one state of 27 preventing the others moving forward. Every country would have a commissioner two terms out of three, instead of every country having a permanent one as had been the case when the EU comprised fewer countries. We have the laughable Charlie McCreevy at the moment, for instance. That's all it was. So what the the problem?

And while there were some honest, earnest people campaigning on issues of workers' rights - this incompetent Government refused to back the EU charter on this issue - Gombeen Man suspects much of the "no" vote were on unrelated, issues. For instance, one group with a Gaelic name, exhorted people to vote no to "keep Ireland Irish". No problem taking all that "foreign" money though. Others voted to supposedly prevent women's right to chose being introduced, others voted to prevent immigration, others voted to prevent their sons being drafted into an imaginary European army. The farmers' leaders belatedly backed it after trying to use it as a bargaining chip to get more money. But too late. Rural constituencies overwhelmingly voted it down as did working-class areas with high levels of simmering racism. People voted against "tax harmonisation". So, they want to keep paying nearly twice as much for their cars, for instance, as they do in some other EU states? They want the "right" to continue to be screwed.

The Celtic Cubs were out in force too. Spoiled on their parents' easy property equity money (thanks to cheap EU money) they gloated. Their crabby, spoiled, overfed faces puffed up with triumph as they sang songs in Irish celebrating Ireland's step back into the past.

It will be interesting to see what happens next. Maybe the coming economic slowdown will rid Ireland of much of its new found arrogance. Maybe the EU will forge ahead with tax harmonisation, with Ireland's voice weakened. Maybe they won't, and the multinationals will go to the accession states offering even lower corporate tax and cheaper labour costs? Maybe, in a two-tier scenario, Ireland will not be allowed unfettered access to European markets, and this will sway the multinationals' hand.

Whatever happens, the "no" vote could prove to be a watershed.

http://gombeennation.blogspot.com

Ardent

Yawn. Could you not have stuck this in one of the many other post-mortem threads on the Lisbon Treaty??

RedPlanet

Big Yawn.
What, another whingey yes-voter whom can't handle his defeat.
Throwing mud at the other side.
Boo hoo.

You lost, get over it.

Gambler

RedPlanet wrote: »

You lost, get over it.

Yes we lost, what you don't seem to realise is that you lost too..

HitlersHorsebox

I hope we lose everything and we go back to horse and cart and primitive communism.

mike65

Another verbose blow-in from politics.ie?

Mike.

MeatProduct

HitlersHorsebox wrote: »

I hope we lose everything and we go back to horse and cart and primitive communism.

Me too, TV is getting really repetitive these days.

Nick

turgon

Firstly the arrogant tone in which you wrote that very biased piece does you no favours.

Steerpike wrote: »

It seems that the Irish have become eurosceptics.

It has been stated over and over and over again that this wasn't an anti-EU vote. Just because some of us didn't like the Lisbon Treaty - that automatically makes us dislike the EU? Quite a poor argument, and it reeks of bitterness.

Steerpike wrote: »

(The Lisbon Treaty) was designed to make the expanding EU easier to run on an organizational level, given its expansion to 27 member states. That's all it was.

Very uninformed. Extremely in fact. I suppose the strengthening of common defence measures (under Article 42) was only an "organizational" issue? Your failure to comprehend what was in the treaty makes you argument even weaker.

Steerpike wrote: »

It will be interesting to see what happens next. Maybe the coming economic slowdown will rid Ireland of much of its new found arrogance

So let me get this straight. The EU asks us our opinion on a document, and just because we don't like it that makes us arrogant?

Steerpike, you didn't get what you want, stop writing like a baby in a pram. Your argument, imo, is just a whinge. Get a few hankys, and maybe contribute something productive to the debate.