(no subject)
Quick recap for those of you outside Ireland/the EU: Ireland's constitution insists that before it signs up to any binding treaties, a referendum must be held allowing the population to veto it. The Nice treaty and the Lisbon treaty were both designed to form a sort of EU constitution, and all of the other member states' governments agreed to them, no problem. Ireland, on the other hand, spent a fortune and told a bunch of ridiculous lies (BOTH sides, mind you - the amount of nonsense being stuck on lampposts in Dublin was sickening) and both were rejected.
On 2nd October, there will be a second referendum on the Lisbon treaty, just in case we've changed our minds. Let's face it, with the whole credit crunch thing and the way the economy is very slowly falling down around our ears, some of us probably have. (If you're wondering, I voted Yes, in part because I like Europe and don't object to the idea that, for example, we might be *gasp* forced to allow women to have abortions in Ireland. As far as I'm concerned, abortion may or may not be right, but it should be a moral issue, not a legal one. Making it illegal doesn't help anything - it still happens, it's just more dangerous, or in Ireland, it involves having to get a ferry to the UK first. Which they also tried to make illegal once. Nutjobs.)
Last time around, the main voice of opposition were a gang called Libertas; this time, it's Cóir, which means "right" or "fair" or something along those lines. It's a surprisingly difficult word to translate in terms of nuance. "Just", perhaps. The point is, they are all lying nutjobs. Whereas the Yes side seems to have learned from its mistakes and are being slightly less wanker-ish than usual.
I'm not going to bother linking to the Cóir posters that were plastered all over the place when I was home at the weekend (although I will mention that one of them quotes Charlie McCreevy, a questionable former Minister for Finance, as saying "95% of Europeans would vote against the Lisbon Treaty", because otherwise this won't make sense). However, I will link to this delightful satire which I came across on Facebook yesterday. I especially like the face of the indignant Irish baby.
On 2nd October, there will be a second referendum on the Lisbon treaty, just in case we've changed our minds. Let's face it, with the whole credit crunch thing and the way the economy is very slowly falling down around our ears, some of us probably have. (If you're wondering, I voted Yes, in part because I like Europe and don't object to the idea that, for example, we might be *gasp* forced to allow women to have abortions in Ireland. As far as I'm concerned, abortion may or may not be right, but it should be a moral issue, not a legal one. Making it illegal doesn't help anything - it still happens, it's just more dangerous, or in Ireland, it involves having to get a ferry to the UK first. Which they also tried to make illegal once. Nutjobs.)
Last time around, the main voice of opposition were a gang called Libertas; this time, it's Cóir, which means "right" or "fair" or something along those lines. It's a surprisingly difficult word to translate in terms of nuance. "Just", perhaps. The point is, they are all lying nutjobs. Whereas the Yes side seems to have learned from its mistakes and are being slightly less wanker-ish than usual.
I'm not going to bother linking to the Cóir posters that were plastered all over the place when I was home at the weekend (although I will mention that one of them quotes Charlie McCreevy, a questionable former Minister for Finance, as saying "95% of Europeans would vote against the Lisbon Treaty", because otherwise this won't make sense). However, I will link to this delightful satire which I came across on Facebook yesterday. I especially like the face of the indignant Irish baby.