Sunday 4 October 2009

Irish Vote sadness

What a rubbish weekend this has been. I am surprised at how much the Irish voting 'Yes' to Lisbon has affected me.

It means so much, the difficulties now created for the Conservative party, the prospect of Blair as leader, the defeat of democracy in Europe.

Taking each at a time. The Conservatives, who have had a wholly fixed policy in reality for a while, now have to face a difficult time. In effect, I doubt there is much they can do. The Lisbon treaty is so strong that re-negotiation can simply be denied by the new Government. For a party which the UK desperately need to take over from the utterly failed Labour party, this distracting and bad news.

For Tony Blair, the man who led a Government that invented the idea of an ethical foreign policy and then proceeded to take the country to war with a document of lies, there is joy. Unelected he can be happy to lead the new Europe to his destination (of nowhere in particular, judging by his record). What it is for the UK is a very unpopular Prime Minister lauded to high office for no good reason. This follows in the recent footsteps of Mandelson and the Kinnock's.

Finally and most jarringly, there is now a non-Democratic Government running Europe with no intention of ever allowing direct democracy have a real say. Britain shed so many lives in two World Wars to fight for freedom, yet our elected politicians see fit to vote it away, against what they know is the will of the people (hence no referenda here). Across Europe, the self-satisfied elites who care little for Joe Average, will have their nepotistic way for generations to come. I am 34 and have never been consulted on whether I want the UK to dismantle itself in favour of a European Super state. For the 'cradle of democracy' that is simply a disgrace on our political system.

It is a sad state of affairs indeed.

15 comments:

Michael Fowke said...

You mention the two World Wars, well, if the British people are forced into a European superstate against their wishes, there will be fighting again. I can imagine an IRA-style organization one day springing up to fight for British independence. Maybe even a French OAS-style group comprised of former soldiers.

Sounds melodramatic, I know, but we are heading towards an absolutely hellish situation - ruled by unelected communists! Democracy totally done away with! Such a future will not be tolerated by the millions of patriots that still exist in this country.

CityUnslicker said...

Oddly MIchale, I can eventually see a conflict. I guess there will be many in Europe who want the Brits to get their comeuppance in a war finally.

I see it more like the Amercian Civil War - After Lisbon after all there is no means of secession, so the scenario is the same.

Anonymous said...

I see it more optimistically, as it will mean corporate influence will grow stronger, hence more regulations to strangle competition. This should mean it is more difficult to start small businesses, which is where new jobs will come from to lead us out of recession. However, a stronger EU will block this, which should lead to an unemployment and welfare funding crisis. Thus leading to a backlash against the EU.
Painful though it may be in the short term, in the end it should be a strong enough force to destroy the EU.
If you look at other states which have collapsed economically, like Argentina and the Soviet Union, the police couldn't even afford to buy petrol for their cars. The nanny state should also be killed off.

Houdini said...

I'll try to cheer you up with what my take on the EU deal now is...though I may be way off mark. Copied from my own blog...

President Blair?
I don't think so.

Blair will not be the EU President.

Brown and Labour, his major backers, are out of power in a few months so have nothing left to offer, and the French have milked the dodgy deal already. They will renege on the deals they did; rebate given away along with vetoes, and make new dodgy deals with Cameron and the Tories.

The Tories are now in a win-win situation. If Bliar is made President they have a rod with which to bash Labour over dodgy deals and also to make their stand on the EU firmer and more justified, and if Blair is denied the EU Presidency they will take the credit for this dodgy, dishonest shyster being kept out of the job and left to wallow in ignominy.


That's my take, and maybe just a wee bit of hope and clinging on to to threads.....

philip walling said...

The money will run out and it will break up. But I agree there will be great deal of pain in the breaking.

Old BE said...

I am more angry than sad. What right did Brown have to force through the British ratification when he knew that the electorate expected a referendum and the chance to vote against the treaty? The face that Labour were forced to promise a referendum is all we need to know about the choice which the voters would have made. It's a stitch-up, pure and simply. Shame on the Irish for selling out for some vague promises and the hope of a quicker economic recovery.

Either the British voters will be sufficiently incensed that complete withdrawal from the EU will become electorally feasible or we will be dragged closer and closer in until either the economy collapses or we get some sort of SNP or Basque-style separatist movement going.

That we have to pin our hopes on the Czechs says a lot about the depths which our political system has plumbed. Never have so many people been betrayed so thoroughly by such a small number of politicians.

Barking Spider said...

As I said on my own blog:

"Rest easy your beds, Ireland, you will have occasion to remember the day when you sold all of us out for thirty pieces of silver with great regret but it's already too late for any regrets, so don't say you weren't forewarned of the consequences"!

I can easily see Michael's view of the situation becoming a reality.

Electro-Kevin said...

I'm devastated by the news too.

All those years of 'struggles' against us and the Irish do this. Is it acceptable to them because the EU is largely Catholic ?

Blair is the Anti-Christ I'm sure of it. Only the Devil has his kind of luck.

hatfield girl said...

'That we have to pin our hopes on the Czechs says a lot about the depths which our political system has plumbed.'

Blue says it all. The UK ratified using crown prerogative, which is in the hands of the prime minister. Either we give ourselves the same constitutions as most of Europe's member states have, and their means of redress at every level, not just notional 'rights' to appeal to the European Court, or we watch ourselves handed lock stock etc., as we are, to the EU.

It's for us to give ourselves decent defences, not the Cechs or the Irish or the Poles. Like the Germans, we need to be able to tell the EU government: 'No, that's against our basic laws. You cannot do that in the UK.'

With respect, Mr Fowke, there's no need for fighting.

ken from glos said...

Please accept my apologies, for i am old enough to have been conned by Heath and voted for a Common Market.

I too am devastated and ashamed.

roym said...

i agree with HG,

no need to reach for the armalite just yet. we need to petition for a proper UK constitution. its not too late in the day for cameron to set his stall up on this.

Elby The Beserk said...

Quite simply, the EU is tyranny.

Bill Quango MP said...

Sounds like a tough crowd at some of the fringe meetings. Very pro referendum - anti Lisbon.

Why we can't have a referendum on types of EU membership. I understand that we have been told in or out. But if we did vote OUT then surely the EU powers would bend over backwards to keep us at the in some form. After all we are paying for a large chunk of it.

Electro-Kevin said...

Was my last comment about Blair a bit too whacky ?

Why is it alright for world leaders to invoke God without ridicule ? If this is the premise for policy making, then we must acknowledge that the Bible is true and that the Devil also exists.

(For the record I don't believe any of it, though events are dovetailing so exquisitely for Blair that I can think of no other explanation.)

Pogo said...

@ken from glos: "Please accept my apologies, for i am old enough to have been conned by Heath and voted for a Common Market.

I too am devastated and ashamed."


As am I. I voted "Yes" to becoming a member of what was, we now know dishonestly, represented to us as a free-trade area. I did NOT vote for a European superstate presided over by an undemocratic, self-appointed and largely corrupt socialist "aristocracy".