HOW FREE IS FREE?
1st October 2009
OPINION: We (allegedly) have freedom of speech in a democracy and are free to vote as we see fit - so it seems a bit odd that the ‘people have already spoken’ once on the Lisbon Treaty yet we are being asked to vote again, writes JOSEPH MORGAN
Acres of rainforest have been destroyed in print articles on the Lisbon Treaty vote re-run (and let’s call a spade a spade, we are being forced to vote again) so this opinion article will only go out on the ‘interweb’.
Here’s a prediction for you: 60% of the Irish electorate will vote in this referendum. The Yes side, having done a great job of ‘scaring the horses’, will win by 60% (or so) to 40%. This means that the Yes vote will have been pushed through by 36% of the country voting for it. This is called ‘democracy’.
Consider a few questions:
Had the Yes vote carried the day last time, would the No campaign have been given another chance?
What is Ireland’s greatest priority at the moment? Is it getting rid of the current government – an administration that has recklessly managed the economy – and replacing them with a new group that have a clear mandate to do what needs to be done to restore this country to semblance of health…….. or handing over more power to unelected ‘politicians’ in Europe?
Do you really think that Ireland would be thrown out of Europe if we voted No again?
How would people like to have Tony Blair (a man who took his country to war on the basis of weapons of mass destruction that never existed) as the first president of Europe?
Have you read the Lisbon Treaty and do you understand it? Would you sign any other kind of contract if you didn’t understand it?
Do you think all the other (governments of) EU states were right not to give their electorates the opportunity to express their opinions in a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty?
Did you know that this is a self-amending treaty and that it is unlikely that Ireland will get to vote in a referendum again on any future changes to these ‘rules of the game’?
Do you think that voting Yes will get you your job back if you are unemployed?
Do you believe that Ireland is really considered by the larger countries to be ‘at the heart of Europe’? Or is the true heart of Europe run by those leaders you always see jostling for a position in the middle of the front row for the group photograph when those EU leaders meet?
What decision do you think the larger countries would take next year if it suited them to raise interest rates but that very move would be damaging to Ireland? Would they hold back for a few months to help Ireland?
Do you believe that the so-called ‘guarantees’ given to Ireland will be upheld 100% over, say, the next ten years?
Do you trust Brian Cowen to be telling you the absolute truth vis-à-vis everything about the Lisbon Treaty?
What did you think of the blatant display of military power at the opening of the European parliament earlier this year?
Do you think the EU will rush to get this treaty finalised if the Yes vote wins on 2nd October in case the Conservatives (who have promised to give the UK electorate a referendum on this) get in to power in the UK after their general election next year?
Do you believe in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus?
Do you believe this treaty promotes higher levels of democracy in Europe?
How free is ‘free’?Joseph Morgan
(is not ashamed to admit he will be voting No)
Doing a research is a mind-numbing work & I feel it strongly that my research is complete with this place.
Comment by buy thesis — April 9, 2011 @ 8:30 am
As an Irishman of the diaspora (all four of my grnenparadts were of Irish descent) I am vitally interested in the present and, especially, the future of my home land. This issue of the Lisbon Treaty frightens me to death! I’m afraid that too many of my brothers and sisters do not realize that the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is in effect a decision equal to new elections in Ireland. The decision on ratifying the Lisbon Treaty is - upon transferring the current powers of the nation state of Ireland to the federal state in Brussels it is a decision on accepting or rejecting the permanent construction of A NEW FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT OVER IRELAND. To do so will be to utterly discard on the rubbish heap of history all the sacrifices of our ancestors, both the suffering against British oppression and the fighting for freedom in which so many lives were lost.This is a crucial time in Irish history - a time when you/we will decide whether to march on under your/our own strength and character and leadership or to surrender your/our rights, lives, and fate to others who have, upon every past opportunity, either turned their backs on Ireland in her need or swooped in to take advantage of her riches. Which is exactly what is happening now. Ireland (God bless her forever!) has risen, by her own strength of character and moral fortitude and by God’s kind grace, far above her past of subjection and base poverty to a point where she is a jewel in the crown of Europe and the world. Ireland has earned all her scars and medals of valour and has come into her own - at last. (One might quote of Ireland as well, “Free at last, free at last! Thank God almighty, we’re free at last!”)And now, in the time of finally enjoying the fruits of our hard-won, blood-bought freedoms and successes, Ireland considers handing over her self-mastery to yet another foreign dictator! God forbid it! Let Ireland be Ireland, not some small dot on the EU map. Let Ireland be Ireland, not another chattel within another kingdom - for such is the becoming EU/EC. Never forget the sacrifices made by our (OUR) grnenparadts for the possibility of self-rule for Ireland. We are Ireland! We are not Europeans - we never have been. We were at best pets, at worst slaves of Europeans. Ireland has suffered too long to throw away her freedom and self-sufficiency on yet another European master race. We are Ireland!Look long and hard at America and learn from her mistakes. Under her own power, the United States stood together by choice. Today, we have given up the idea of mutually beneficial partnership among the member states and have become subjects to a dictatorial Federal Government who seeks to rip our choice from us - from freedom of religion to freedom of choice to freedom of speech. American is becoming what the EU would march straight into, from the beginning.Ireland, my Ireland, whom I learned to pray for and to love from my mother’s knee and my father’s stories, remember the source of your strength in your tortured past - return to your faith and your moral sense of self. God lead you through 700 years of tribulation and abject slavery. Your/our sense of Irish identity apart from that of the rest of the world kept us unified and alive during years of deprivation and attempted genocide. Please, please, please don’t give all that up now for a new, stronger master.We, the children of your diaspora, are counting on you to safeguard our heritage and our home. Guard and keep them from another outsider who seeks to steal and destroy our culture. We are counting on you. Please don’t let us down. Remain independent and free and self-governing. Please.We are Ireland!
Comment by Ali — July 6, 2012 @ 4:49 pm
Took me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article.
Comment by hermes bags — October 12, 2012 @ 1:38 am