The Lisbon Treaty. Three words most of us never want to hear again, at least not in that order. Now that Ireland has voted, and my pulse rate has slowed, with my blood returning to a gentle simmer from the raging boil it was on Friday the 13th, I thought I would give you, my avid reader, an insight into my feelings on the vote, why it went the way it did, and what, if anything may come of this.
Firstly, may I preface my comments by saying, yes indeed No voter, it was your prerogative to vote however you wanted. However, if your choice of vote was led by a meaningless soundbyte put forward by either campaign, then you sir or madame are an idiot. I do know one or two no voters who have gotten reasonable grounds for voting no, ones which I might not agree with, but they are reasonable none the less. But just so you know, if you listened to Libertas, and their threats that the EU was going to raise our corporate tax, you are an idiot, there is no such ability in the treaty. In fact this is a claim Libertas themselves moved away from, saying instead it was indirect tax that the EU could interfere with. Again, the EU has as a whole a much more liberal view of indirect tax than we do, that is to say, they don’t like it as much as successive Irish governments have, so probarbly the oly taxation change could have been an elimination of VRT, or a reduction of VAT. But no, don’t let the EU in the back door to do something like that. For a finish taxation was a non-issue in debates, but unfortunately by deceiving the people the punch had been landed. They got you.
Maybe you didn’t vote for tax, maybe you voted to protect our neutrality. You were probably enticed by messages from Sinn Fein, or this new fangled Coir organisation, that the EU was going to raise a standing army, ready to fight evil Iron Monger and The Abomination, when they attacked, as well the shall, to kill our babies and legalise drugs. Well apart from the constitutional protection of our own, which maintains us as a neutral country, the treaty expressly in Article I.49 b of the Treaty stated that the policy of the union in the security and defence field shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain member states. So neutrality was a none issue too. But the People Before Profit alliance told you different? They were conflating the Irish involvement in a peacekeeping task force with standing army participation, and used OH NOES private leaked French government documents, which detailed what they wanted to propose at a meeting of the EU heads of state, which showed the EU FORCING us into spending 6% of our GDP on weapons and not plough-shares. Well, like many commentators said at the time, the French can discuss what they bloody well like, we in Ireland would never support that kind of spending, and neither would many of our EU counterparts. So you bought the scaremongering there too, but to be honest, there were more people touting that line, and it requires you to read two documents, not one.
Finally, on social policy. actually lets call a spade a spade and say abortion, which we know was one of the major problems people had. Lisbon could not have forced us to allow abortion on demand, in absolutely no way have or form. We have protocol 19 to the Treaty of Maastricht which is still in force, which protects and reserves our ability to define article 40.3.3 of our constitution. But pro life organisations tried everything under the sun, from “The EU could define abortion as a service, and compel us to do so”, to “The charter of rights isn’t clear enough” to “They can tell us when life beings”. Nonsense. We have our own courts, our own protocol in relation to EU interference and our own ability to tell the EU it is none of their business.
Now, don’t misinterpret this as me saying abortion is an abomination to the one true god of my country, I cannot stand the fact that in some foreign media we are now being painted as this crazy conservative basket case of a country, some ungrateful cousin who takes everything their Eu family gives them, and then when the EU is being reformed to give equality for those other less fortunate members we say no. But we have painted ourselves this way. If there was a clear and active opposition to the Treaty on any reasoned ground, I would have supported it. I admit my threshold would be quite high, I believe in the European experiment, where it has taken us, and the direction it seemed to be going, but if there was a cause to get behind I would have. But even on a macro level, and stuff like losing a commissioner for 5 out of 15 years, well I weighed it up. The commissioner could not act in our interests, is directed by the council of ministers on which we still sit, and you know what, I would not like having to spend money on 27 portfolio for commissioners, to ensure we all have one, and end up with the Irish commissioner having special responsibility for sewage effluent run off. I just didn’t hear a credible argument for voting no.
So, what happens now?
- Re-run; perhaps, after we secure the same protocols on abortion, tax policy and militarisation. But if we go to the EU looking for these, we look like the Irish people are too stupid to understand a treaty, a consolidated treaty, or a treaty explanation document. It also makes it appear as if we don’t trust any of our government and would be better off letting Sinn Fein, Libertas and Youth Defense run our country…
- Re-Negotiation; perhaps, and in 2 years we get the same document handed to the Irish people, or 90% the same, but maybe called the Treaty of Dublin, or of Paris. The Irish, they didn’t trust them dirty Spanish with their treaties and their paella.
- The EU goes ahead without us; doubtful. I would imagine that we hold too much power in the EU for this to happen. Also it would be a disastrous message for the Union to send to other members. But this is the second time we have voted against a treaty for spurious reasons, and it might affect how further reforms are discussed or enacted. The first European lawyer to figure a work around Crotty v An Taoiseach will be able to retire a rich man or woman.
- Nothing happens, the EU goes along like it is already; the favourite of Libertas, and also the most unlikely. The EU will not simply shelve reform it has been working on for the last 7 years.
Even after listening to Sinn Fein and voting no for a better deal, can a better deal be done. Well unless we identify an issue which we can try to get a better deal on, I would have to say no. So even if you think you’re political choice was valid, you were probably misinformed, or misunderstood. Blame must lie with the pro-European parties for this, but the lions share has to be apportioned to the No campaigns, who proved themselves to be the most cunning, the most devious of them all.
So, peacemonger, you voted with military contractors. Liberal thinker, you voted with youth defence. Economic powerhouse, entrepreneur, mother of three, you voted with Sinn Fein. Farmer, worker, student, you voted against the parties which have served you well, to times of boom from bust. Brothers, Sisters, Comrades, you have abandoned your unions. People of Ireland, you have been duped, through your own fault or others. Too keen to scrutinize the government and the EU, you absorbed and accepted half truths and agendas for undemocratic alliances, and voted for people who spat at our elected officials at polling stations. You did put people before profit, but you also put politics before sense, sound bytes before reason, and a no vote before our interaction with the EU. And for what?
