Posted by : Tom Doyle in (Politics) 20th May, 2008
The Lisbon Treaty - what way will you vote?
Tagged Under : Bertie Ahern, EU, European Union, European Union member state, Government, Lisbon Treaty, Politics, United States
It won’t be long now before we go to the polls to vote on the latest “re-jig” of the treaty that was rejected some years ago and I’m still none the wiser as to what way to vote.
So far all the government and the treaty supporters seem to be saying is that it will make us “look” bad if we don’t give it the green light. But not one of them has talked about the benefits of ratifying the Lisbon Treaty. I’ve seen them say that we could lose jobs, lose out on the funding for farmers and the best one, lose FACE!
On the other side of the coin we have the No campaigners. Although some of their claims can be failry debatable, they are at least talking in lay mans terms and telling us what the cons of signing the treaty will bring.
For example, take the issue surrounding our neutral status. The yes voters continue to say it won’t affect our neutrality at all, however, the No voters rightly say (IMO) that it will. The solidarity clause of the treaty states that “Member States are obliged to assist each other if one is the victim of a terrorist attack or a natural or man made disaster. The precise details of this co-operation would have to be agreed unanimously by the Council.”
Another key issue for me is Tax, especially corporate tax. From what I have read and from the information I get from the No campaigners is that they EU will have the ability to control our tax rates. The yes campaigners say they won’t but don’t back it up with anything.
There are many other issues not to mention the fact that after 800 years of oppression we can so easily hand over the rule of our country to someone else - I don’t get that one, but Bertie Ahern thinks that is just a “nostalgic dream” which is quite offensive… anyway, would love to hear from other people what they think.
Maybe the debate can start here and you can all try to make me a yes or no’er! 
Neutral status? You can only be neutral if you can defend yourself and as even the smallest aggressor could invade and conquer ireland if it wanted to I don’t see how you can call yourself neutral as a country - you exist only a disgusto (on sufferance).
Well anonymous, you’re obviously not Irish. Since the state was born, we have always been proud of our declared neutral status. So I’m not sure what you are getting at here.
u are not neutral does not matter what you declare. u can only be neutral if you can defend that neutrality. If germany attack u 1939 u would go under and they kill u all. If england attack u tomorrow u go under and all u can do is have rebels in the hills (unless they kill u all).
if China decide they want a base in Europe and attack ireland what are u going to do?
the ONLY THING u can do is ask Europe or America for help.
so u are not neutral u are just fooling yourselves. This self declared neutrality is just meaningles vanity.
also why do u say i am not irish? there are no irish now we are all Europeans or did u forget this. u took the money.
I’d take a wild guess that Mr. Anonymous is from across the pond, he’s certainly not Irish as he seems to have no understanding of neutrality actually means.
Ireland are neutral because we don’t want to become involved in other peoples wars.
How is it relevant to say that if we got attacked we wouldn’t defend that ourselves. Obviously we would, and just because we would accept help from others doesn’t mean we would get involved in their wars. Why? Because you are neutral.
You might find this website helpful
http://www.dictionary.com
Of course if we were being attacked we would fight back. That has nothing to do with Ireland being a neutral state.
Our neutral status relates to fighting between other countries. We simply don’t get involved.
Now if we sign the Lisbon Treaty, we will be obliged to get involved. So if China attacks France, we will have to go to war.
I’m definitely Irish, we haven’t signed the treaty yet and even at that, I’m always going to be Irish. Even when the UK ruled Ireland, there were still Irish.
Oh and here….
De Valera’s response to Churchill on why we are a neutral state. He says it better than I certainly could ever do.
http://digital.library.villanova.edu/Pennsylvaniana/Lloyd/deValera/deValera-00006.xml
De Valera