Wednesday, May 28, 2008
DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
Just a reminder, since you won't be seeing much of it in our media, that the Irish get a vote on the EU's Lisbon Treaty on 12th June.
"It is voting on what is known as the Lisbon Treaty, painfully renegotiated after voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005 rejected an earlier, more complicated version, which had the trappings of a Constitution.
Referendums are always dangerous, and almost all countries decided to skip having one on the Lisbon Treaty, which requires the approval of all 27 member nations of the European Union to come into force. But not the Irish.....
And with opinion polls showing much of the Irish electorate undecided, the possibility that the Lisbon Treaty may be rejected has sent unfamiliar tremors of fear through the ranks of Europe's top bureaucrats, who rarely have to trouble with voters.
That has meant a kind of unacknowledged but collective halt on anything controversial, particularly if it might upset Irish sensibilities.
"Every time there is a referendum this happens," ...."
Currently the polls show the Yes vote a bit ahead though the gap is closing. On that basis the EU should just get it but there is a possibility, with the Irish politicians & media so heavily supporting a Yes that people answering are tending to shy away from admitting a No preference (rather as people did with the Tories in John Major's first election.
What will happen if there is a No vote. Last time the politicians told the Irish they had got the wrong result & go away & try again. Perhaps they will do the same now. In theory the entire constitreaty should fall but somehow I don't see that happening. However it would certainly be embarrassing if the only country to be allowed a referendum (because it is part of their constitution) voted No. It would make it look like the EU wasn't a democracy.
The BBC regularly assure us that Russia isn't a democracy, even though its government got in because people voted for it (unlike here where only 20%) be3cause their media supports generally supports their government line whereas our media doesn't support their government line. Look to the BBC denouncing any Yes vote on the grounds the media were biased - or not as the case may be.
Best result from Ireland's point of view would be a No vote followed by Ireland deciding/being forced into EFTA with the associate status Norway & Iceland have. This would get them out from under some of the £405 billions that EU regulation costs every year according to the organisation's own "enterprise" Commissioner.
"It is voting on what is known as the Lisbon Treaty, painfully renegotiated after voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005 rejected an earlier, more complicated version, which had the trappings of a Constitution.
Referendums are always dangerous, and almost all countries decided to skip having one on the Lisbon Treaty, which requires the approval of all 27 member nations of the European Union to come into force. But not the Irish.....
And with opinion polls showing much of the Irish electorate undecided, the possibility that the Lisbon Treaty may be rejected has sent unfamiliar tremors of fear through the ranks of Europe's top bureaucrats, who rarely have to trouble with voters.
That has meant a kind of unacknowledged but collective halt on anything controversial, particularly if it might upset Irish sensibilities.
"Every time there is a referendum this happens," ...."
Currently the polls show the Yes vote a bit ahead though the gap is closing. On that basis the EU should just get it but there is a possibility, with the Irish politicians & media so heavily supporting a Yes that people answering are tending to shy away from admitting a No preference (rather as people did with the Tories in John Major's first election.
What will happen if there is a No vote. Last time the politicians told the Irish they had got the wrong result & go away & try again. Perhaps they will do the same now. In theory the entire constitreaty should fall but somehow I don't see that happening. However it would certainly be embarrassing if the only country to be allowed a referendum (because it is part of their constitution) voted No. It would make it look like the EU wasn't a democracy.
The BBC regularly assure us that Russia isn't a democracy, even though its government got in because people voted for it (unlike here where only 20%) be3cause their media supports generally supports their government line whereas our media doesn't support their government line. Look to the BBC denouncing any Yes vote on the grounds the media were biased - or not as the case may be.
Best result from Ireland's point of view would be a No vote followed by Ireland deciding/being forced into EFTA with the associate status Norway & Iceland have. This would get them out from under some of the £405 billions that EU regulation costs every year according to the organisation's own "enterprise" Commissioner.
