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The Irish For No

The Irish have voted against the Lisbon Treaty for EU enhancement. Pity. They benefited from it for so long, it might have been considerate to continue to support it now.
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Mark Granier said…
For a change, I completely agree with you. It was a sour, mean-spirited response. But the government ran a pitiable campaign, allowing the No-voters to gather momentum and go practically unchallenged (and there was much to challenge). So the field was wide open for that nice man Ganley, with his mysterious funders and invisible past (NeoCon, I suspect, or deeply Euro-sceptic and conservative anyway). People's cosy, old-fashioned, suspicions and fears were prodded out of the dark holes where they'd been hibernating. It was like the bloody divorce referendum all over again. Two steps back. MacNeice would have spat venom, as would John McGahern (anyone who wants to grow up, in fact).
Sat Jun 14, 05:03:00 pm 2008
Unknown said…
Yep. Dead right Mark. I could get annoyed and vent spleen at the miserable arrogance of the government and other parties for their lacklustre defence of the Yes campaign. I could, but to what avail. The No campaign was all about taking the negative and airbrushing their grievances onto their campaign. Analysis of the vote showed that it was in the West that the Nos really got going. I wonder will there be a re-run.
Mon Jun 16, 10:08:00 am 2008
Mark Granier said…
In a way, I am hoping for a re-run, provided the government gets its shit properly together; i.e. takes the initiative to publish AND broadcast a properly step-by-step refutation (in SIMPLE clear English) and gets intelligent, personable, devastatingly articulate people to put the No-sayers on the spot, rub their noses in their own pukey mess then shove where they belong, in the historical-rejects bin. Christ, have you SEEN the posters? 'DON'T BE BULLIED, then, only yards away, 'THOUSANDS DIED FOR YOUR FREEDOM'. Only a moron would miss the contradiction.
Mon Jun 16, 09:59:00 pm 2008
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