Tom Doyle :: TALK

I know it’s early yet - but so far the indications are that the Lisbon Treaty looks set to be thrown out by the Irish.

Disturbingly enough, our government have come out to say that they have nothing planned on how to handle the treaty being rejected. So although I think it’s a good thing that it’s been rejected, I have little confidence that our government have the competency to organise a strategy for dealing with this situation.

Where does Ireland go from here? Our goverment have been too naive, arrogant and ignorant over the whole Lisbon Treaty. To expect the country to just sign up for something that they were told nothing about was just as I have said before… ridiculous…

I promise that this will be my last post on the Lisbon Treaty before we take to the polls. I just need to get this out of my system!

Last night, whilst enjoying my dinner, my door bell rang and I said “that better not be some campaigner looking for my vote in the referendum”. Reluctantly I answered the door with the intention of taking their flyer and saying “thanks”.

However when I opened the door it wasn’t just a normal campaigner, it was our local Fianna Fail councillor Pat Vance. This was my golden opportunity to ask someone that should know what the treaty is all about some questions that might answer my lingering doubts.

In fairness to Pat, he seemed to have his story very straight. Although, he did do the usual politician tact of avoiding answering the tough questions. He seemed like a nice guy and he had his own reasons why he was voting yes, which I respected.

But I’m sad to say, that after nearly 20 minutes of conversation, I was still non-the-wiser why I should vote yes in the upcoming treaty referendum.

So I’ve decided to vote no and I guess it would be fair to say my reasons are solely based on principle. Here’s why:

1. Democracy
   When a treaty which is more than 90% unchanged from an original treaty that was categorically turned down by countries with a combined population of over 80 million, there is something undemocratic about the way this treaty is being forced through.If it’s fair to use polls as a guide to what people are thinking, why when over 70% would have liked to have voted on the new Lisbon Treaty there was not a Europe wide vote? Is that not what democracy is?
2. Reading the Small Print
   Our own EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy (who I have a lot of respect for by the way) reckons it would be insane for someone to read the Lisbon Treaty in it’s entirity. Well I’m sorry, I just don’t agree with this. We elect these people to handle our affairs, they should be looking at the “small print”. Would you buy a house before employing a solicitor to read the “fine print” and ensure that you are protected? I know I certainly wouldn’t. I know I wouldn’t even sign up for Broadband without reading the small print. So the pure arrogance of this statement is one that annoys me a lot.So what happens in the future when something pops up that the government overlooked because we would be insane to read the treaty in its entirity???
3. Positives
   I have yet to see any positives from any side of the arguments on the treaty. Let’s face it, I do want Ireland to be part of the EU. I do believe it has been really good for our country and I do believe it would be bad not to be part of it.All I hear from the Yes voters is that it will “send out the wrong signal”, “make us look bad” etc etc. But no-one is telling me why I should vote yes. All I get is “It will streamline how the European Commission works”.So what??? Why should I vote Yes when two countries much larger than Ireland have already voted it down!!?
4. Neutrality
   Ok a lot of people just think this is an idealistic dream. A country that says it’s neutral - ah bliss. But I’m sorry I am actually proud that we don’t get involved in other peoples fights. That’s the way I have been brought up and that’s the way I’d like it to stay.If someone wants to pick a fight with a small country like us, shame on them, but at least we would still have our pride. If someone wants to help us, we will be grateful. What do countries fight for at the end of the day? Greed, that’s all, pure greed!Pat Vance and I had a good conversation over this, but his attitude was “What’s neutrality, if someone wants to nuke the UK, we are effected”. Yes we are, but then we have to protect ourselves, that’s called “defending”, it doesn’t mean that we have to become allies.
5. Ireland is a small country
   Another point Pat Vance had was that Ireland is a small country, we think we are bigger and more powerful than we actually are. Yes, maybe we do, but that doesn’t mean we should be the poor small Irish paddy’s sitting in the corner with no voice. If we are to be part of something, we need a voice not matter how small we are in the overall picture. Our voice in my opinion is being quitened with this new treaty.

The way the government are pushing this on us as a dooms day situation if we say no, in principle, is wrong. They should focus on what we are gaining. If they can also give us a balanced view of what we would be losing that would also help everyone understand what indications this will have for us. But if our own government can’t read the treaty - how can we trust them.

Libertas seem to be the only party that actually know anything about this treaty - but they are doom and gloom at the opposite side of the scale.

I don’t know enough to vote Yes to this treaty, I do want to be part of the EU. Government - if you fail on this one, you need to take a serious look at the reasons why!

EDIT: I just needed to add this to the debate as it’s quite ridiculous.
The recent results posted by the Irish Times/MRBI polls show that 36% of the people who have decided to vote yes, have so for the following reason and I quote from todays Irish Times (page 9) - “To keep Ireland fully involved in the EU/not to embarrass Ireland”.

What a ridiculous reason - “not to embarrass Ireland”…. OMG!

I don’t know what way to take Jim Corrs take on the Lisbon Treaty. Jim appeared on TodayFM in an interview that sounded at times like a hysterical dooms day prophet. None-the-less, I do think he has some points that people should be made aware of… so here you go… draw your own conclusions:

Well here’s another bit of information I was sent regarding the Lisbon Treaty. Take a close look at the results of the voting and how the majority shot down Amendment 32 which read “The European Parliament undertakes to respect the outcome of the referendum in Ireland“.

So even if we don’t ratify the treaty, does that mean it’s happening anyway??

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!

Just heard Bertie Ahern has resigned… Don’t know much else right now. His announcement is quite surprising, but that’s typical Bertie!

That’s one off my new years list … http://www.tomdoyletalk.com/2008/01/02/happy-new-year-to-all

Every time I visit another country, I’m always proud to be known for being Irish. If someone dares ask “are you from England?” I get highly offended!!!

However, on holidays this year, there were occassions where I felt ashamed to be Irish. The main case in point was the typical Irish holiday goer, in a bar, having a sing a long with other nationalities including english.

They proceed to sing “The Fields of Athenry”…..

In the chorus it goes….. “Low lie the fields of Athenry, Where once they watched the small free birds fly”. At this point there is an ad-lib chant from the Irish, “Hey baby let the freebirds fly!”. Nothing wrong with that, you think….

But they go on to the next line “Our love was on the wing” and the chant gets slightly more republican with the chant … “Sinn Fein!”. All well and good if you are not up with Irish politics….

It’s the final part that makes me cringe everytime I hear it on holidays…. and it’s usually from young people that obviously don’t know the full history and probably don’t even know the Irish national anthem…. Anyway, the song continues with…”we had dreams and songs to sing” and these ignorant fools chant ….. “IRA”.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m as republican as the next and I love my country, but why do they insist on doing this? Do they care about anyone else aroung them? How they may have been affected by the troubles???? Rant over….  

For months now I’ve been receiving spam mails from John McCain - a US senator running for Republican Presidential nomination in 2008.

Now as much as I’d love to see George W. Bush booted out of Government, that’s as far as my interest in US politics goes. I don’t care what Senator John McCain is doing, has done or what part of the US he is visiting today.

I do however care about the emails I get on a near daily basis telling me just that. So “as you do”, I kindly requested to be removed from their mailing list. However, 7 email requests later, I am still receiving this spam.

I got one reply to say I would be removed, but I have yet to be removed…

It has annoyed me now so much that I am blogging about it….. sad……

Ok, 3 days to go and I’ve finally have enough. I listened to the radio on the way into work today and I just decided that not one of the politicians from the top 2 parties are worth voting for. In fact, not one of the most likely parties to be in government are worth voting for.

This morning we had Richard Bruton from Fine Gael and Brian Cowen from Fianna Fail,  went head to head on Newstalk 106.

It’s no wonder students don’t vote! They are only coming out of school where this thing goes on all the time and they feel they have now matured into men and women…. only to find this type of childish bickering actually still happens in the world of politics.

My god, the word “immature” does not even fit the description of Mr. Cowen’s display. He was like a teenager in a school debate, looking for any opportunity to make it out that he was not the one being confrontational and that Mr. Bruton should calm down, when in fact, it was his immaturity and constant lying that simply royaled Mr. Bruton into a lashing out.

Mr. Cowen I have to say annoyed me, yet I would agree that Mr. Bruton did himself no favours either. Mr. Cowen refused to admit that only 5 months ago he was refusing to touch stamp duty and only weeks before the election he announced new plans for stamp duty.

I am no fan of any party right now, at this stage I’m sick and tired of the lot of them. Why in a nation that is intelligent enough to be at the forefront of software development etc, are we still so naive to vote for such out of touch, self obsessed wasters that are our government and potential government today????

The only reason I will vote on Thursday now is to uphold my democratic right…. as far as choice goes….. I don’t think we have any.