The Washington Post reports:
Irish voters resoundingly rejected a treaty designed to modernize the European Union, the second time in three years that European voters have shot down a complex proposal to create more authority and world influence at the bloc's Brussels headquarters.
By defeating the Lisbon Treaty 53.4 percent to 46.6 percent in a national referendum Thursday, fewer than a million Irish voters scuttled a document that would have deeply affected the lives of nearly 500 million Europeans in the 27 member nations.
Justice Minister Brian Lenihan said the results announced Friday marked "a very sad day for the country and for Europe." Prime Minister Brian Cowen said the vote "does bring about considerable uncertainty and a difficult situation," adding: "There is no quick fix."
But jubilant opponents of the treaty called it a David-and-Goliath victory for common people, skeptical of the E.U.'s increasing influence on their lives, over an enthusiastically pro-Brussels European political establishment.
"It is a great day for Irish democracy," said Declan Ganley, a businessman who led the anti-treaty campaign. "This is democracy in action . . . and Europe needs to listen to the voice of the people."
Hibernia Girl has more on the election results.
Mary Crody wrote in The Independent of Ireland:
THE actions of a Kilkenny man secured the right for three million Irish citizens to vote on behalf of 500 million Europeans in today's Lisbon Treaty referendum.
Ireland is the only country in the EU where citizens are being allowed to vote on the adoption, or not, of the Lisbon Treaty European Constitution.
Raymond Crotty's daughter Mary, and her sister Ann, who has returned from South Africa where she works as a journalist to campaign for a 'No' Vote, explained the pivotal action which their father took and which could now impact on the shape and direction Europe takes in the future.
"The French and Dutch, who were given an opportunity to vote on the European Constitution, voted against it. They are not being given an opportunity to vote on the Lisbon Treaty," she said.
"We are being afforded this right, not because our government has secured it for us, but because our father, Raymond Crotty, took the Irish government to court back in 1986.
"The Supreme Court ruled in that case that in the event of any major change within the EU that impacted upon Ireland's constitution, the government would be obliged to get approval for that change from the Irish people.
"The implications of the current treaty are so wide-ranging that lawyers who worked on our dad's case believe that, if it is implemented, it will be our last EU-related referendum."
Crotty, a farmer turned economist who died in 1994, is the creator of the lactose tolerance-centric theory of the history of everything that I mentioned back in May. Here are comments on it from an anthropologist and from Razib of GNXP, who read Crotty's little-known posthumously-published book, When Histories Collide. (About 50 pages can be read via Google Books here.)
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
Bless the Irish: right every 1500 years or so.
ReplyDeleteOn another front, Switzerland, the mainland European country that has been the smartest in its connections with its neighbors and only recently joined the UN, still remains outside the EU. So far, the only penalty the Swiss have paid for this exclusion is the bankruptcy of Swissair, which is not, like Ryanair, allowed to fly freely among EU countries. The Swiss are apparently comfortable with that limited penalty.
ReplyDeleteMoral: clever, sober, hardworking peoples have a lot more discretion in how they deal with their neighbors than slothful and dependent ones. Maybe that is finally dawning on the Irish too.
It's not about a million Irish voters turning down the Lisbon Treaty.It's about a handful of unaccountable politicians and bureaucrats imposing their will by diktat on 500 million Europeans.
ReplyDeletedearieme:How many civilizations have YOU saved?? Not too many,I reckon. :* I hope this leads to more Euros demanding the right to vote on these "treaties". BTW thats an odd name for multi-national legislation,treaties. Who's won the war...and who is losing?? PS:Re shocking death of Tim Russert,note to self:Get that checkup...
ReplyDeleteI raised one too many pints to Crotty last night. Bit hung over today. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWell, at least we made it so that the EUrocrats will have to pause and think for a bit now (i.e. regroup). Not that the vote will stop their plans for a EUnited Europe -- but we did cast a small spanner in their works.
Dearime: Bless the Irish: right every 1500 years or so.
*Chuckle!* Is it really as often as that? ;-)
It would have been most peculiar for the Irish - who have won independent from Britain 80 years ago - to now hand that independence over to the EU.
ReplyDeleteI might even force myself to down a Guinness in homage to the Emerald Isle. Then again, if I can locate a Murphy's, I can pay tribute and enjoy it, too.
ReplyDeleteCheers
That's twice the rate of Les Anglais.
ReplyDeleteGood on the Irish.
ReplyDeleteThe Eurocrats constantly defend themselves against claims they are trying to subvert democracy, but this latest attempt to pass a de facto EU Constitution by circumventing the popular vote just proves what the critics have always charged.
"william1066 said...
ReplyDeleteIt would have been most peculiar for the Irish - who have won independent from Britain 80 years ago - to now hand that independence over to the EU."
Likewise it is odd that the Poles, who only just won their independence from Russia less than 20 years ago, want to hand over their nation to the Eurodespots. But they seem to want to do it. It's a pity. They may find that even Soviet Communism was not as destructive of polish culture than is the EU regime.
In the UK you will find that many pro-independence Welsh and Scottish nationalists are also pro-EU.
ReplyDeleteYou will also hear an echo of this attitude from the liberal/left in Britain as a whole.
Ive been told to my face how the UK is an artificial construction and therefore must be dismantled. Then, with what I can all call breathtaking panache, be told that England, Scotland etc must fully engage with the EU. The EU of course being a purely organic entity which has evolved naturally with consent of its constituent peoples. Not!
One might almost be tempted to believe that that it was in the interests of the EU to encourage the right kind of nationalism to further its own ends. eg Montenegro breaking from Serbia, Catalonia etc in Spain. Lots of 'little' countries all dominated by the EU.
Ireland was supposed to be like that too, massive bribes, oops I mean subsidies were meant to buy them off. After all where each state gets a vote, Ireland (pop. @ 6 million) is worth the same as France (pop. @ 60 million). You can see the way EU minds work.
But it hasnt worked this time. Ha!
I salute the Irish people!
Gives a whole new meaning to "How the Irish Saved Civilization", the popular book of some years back by Thomas Cahill. Granted civilization isn't saved yet by a long shot but its almost certain destruction might have been slowed down at least a bit.
ReplyDeleteDeena Flinchum
Unfortunately the EU elite have known this in advance. Basically any EU constitution or treaty would have been shot down in ALL the member states if put out for the popular vote. So the EU grandees obviously miscalculated with Ireland. Probably a little mistake on their part since they probably thought they had the thing sown up now that Holland and France did not have elections/referenda. But Ireland slipped through.
ReplyDeleteNever mind. The elites will just rewrite and eventually stuff this thing down the throats of the electorate. Their basic attitude is that the electorate are idiots and they should decide for them.
Damn the folk! Who do they think they are, standing in the way of their masters' designs!
ReplyDeletePoor Thomas Friedman. He'll have to wait a bit longer for the world to be entirely flattened.
" David said...
ReplyDeleteDamn the folk! Who do they think they are, standing in the way of their masters' designs!
Poor Thomas Friedman. He'll have to wait a bit longer for the world to be entirely flattened."
When the world is eventually flattened, I hope that flat-earthers like Friedman are the first to fall to the steam-roller.