Posts Tagged Government

Why I’m voting No to Lisbon… Again…

Well here it is, we are all set to take to the polls again and tell the government that we are silly people and that we were wrong to reject the Lisbon Treaty on the last time of asking… That’s what they want us to say anyway… But I will yet again be standing firm on my no vote. The complete arrogance of this government makes me sick every time I turn on the radio, TV or read a newspaper it’s there to be seen in full view.

My reasons are quite similar to my last post for the election last time round – you can read them here >>

The nation spoke and the government didn’t listen – they seem to think that getting a few “legal guarantees” on the hot topics from the last vote is enough to change our minds. Maybe it is, but they obviously don’t think it is or else they wouldn’t be using scaremongering tactics to frighten people into voting yes this time round.

I’m absolutely appalled by their campaign this time round. “Vote Yes for Jobs”, “We’re Safer in Europe“, “Yes for the economy”, “Yes to Protect Jobs” or “Yes for my future”. I’m sorry but that just doesn’t cut it.

First and foremost for me is democracy. So far I have seen little guarentee’s of our democratic rights. We say No, the government thinks we really meant yes and here, we’ll get you to vote again and scaremonger you into a yes vote. What ample timing the recession was huh? Let’s harp on about how good Europe will be for jobs and security. Yet again the government fail to respect the Irish republic and just think we’re a bunch of eejits.

I am a fan of Ireland being part of Europe, but not at the sake of democracy. Fianna Fail are putting a lot of effort into letting people know about the guarantee of an Irish commissioner that will have a veto on any decision being made in the European parliament. We’ve already seen first hand how Europe treats a veto – yep, they get us to vote again on the exact same treaty and expect us to make it a yes this time.

If our government had made any attempt to get the guarantees put into the treaty instead of some silly “legal guarantee” then maybe I may have voted yes.

I’m sick of hearing that if we vote NO, we will look terrible to other countries in the European commission. How bad will it look to other member states if Ireland are thrown out of Europe? Will this be something other countries will want to be a part of?

Mr. Cowen, you are treating us like the stoopid Irish again – hopefully we’ll all give you a resounding NO again this time around. Let’s see what you can actually deliver for this country then, since you don’t seem to be doing anything to save our economy.

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Our Hypocritical Government Shops Abroad

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As the recession deepens and our government continues to peddle the “don’t shop up North, it’s unpatriotic” message, it seems are government is doing the exact opposite.

I just happened to take a look at the eTender notices I receive by email this morning and there was one web project that I completely overlooked (but that’s neither here nor there). It had been awarded and no, not to an Irish company.

The job was awarded to a UK company based in London. http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/show/Search_View.aspx?id=JAN112980&ln=EN

I’m sure this isn’t the only public tender contract that has been awarded to companies outside Ireland. You’d think the Government in times like this would give the job to Irish companies even if we are slightly overpriced. The money then is being pumped into our economy and not someone else’s.

The hypocrisy of it all!

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Lisbon Treaty, here we go again…

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So it looks like we’re off again, the Government looks set to ask us to go to the polls again and vote on ratifying the Lisbon Treaty.

What’s different you may ask? Well it hasn’t been officially announced yet, but so far it looks like it’s just going to containt a set of declarations but not actually change a single paragraph of the Treaty.

Surely no-one is going to be fooled by this move, are they???

According to recent polls, it looks like they will. It will be a sad day for democracy if this goes through. Obviously “no” means nothing to the Government this country elected…

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Lisbon Treaty debate hots up

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??

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The Lisbon Treaty – what way will you vote?

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! :)

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