We don't want to live in lisbonia -

merci mais non merci,
Dank aber kein Dank,
tak men nej tak,
grazie, ma no grazie,
dankzij maar niet dankzij,


Dzięki ale nie dzięki ! agradecimento mas não agradece ! gracias pero no gracias ! tack men nej tack.

Which is what Ireland said to it’s European neighbors today in relation to the Lisbon treaty, basically ‘thanks but no thanks ’.

Maybe not in so many words and not in so many languages but the Irish people most certainly did say "NO".

We’ve already heard Dermot Ahern Minister for Justice on the telly saying there were 'myriad' reasons for this. Some annoyed European Official (unofficially) sourly blamed the Irish media's focus on internal national issues like Bertie Ahearn's cash case, resignation and the consequent election of a new leader. I mean the cheek of us Irish to actually be concerned about our own welfare when there was a much bigger European picture to consider. I wonder what others thought were Dermot's myrid reasons, I have a few conjectures.

As any ad man will tell you, unless you are selling to rocket scientists, you must keep your message short and crisp, easy to understand and above all clear. When someone like Charlie McCreevy a Brussels based veteran politician who earns his not inconsiderable living from European affairs tells us that he hasn't read the treaty but puts the the thing smack into the center of public consciousness - things ceased being simple. When he then said he doubted if anyone else has been able to wade through it and understand any, let alone all, of it, when he's conceded that there's a whole lota complexity there beyond him, a big raft of technicality that's just too dense, then how in all conscience can he expect lay people like us to understand any of this stuff. But don't worry about that.. just vote yes.

We had all three major parties supporting this referendum. We had each of them instructing their supporters to actively support a yes vote. We had all the people who are normally interested in and involved with politics now playing politics with the rest of us. The people very unsubtley telling us exactly what it was we should be doing i.e. voting YES. They were even trying to score points from each other at the beginning, claiming the other side(s) (i.e. everyone except them) weren't doing enough to promote Lisbon. And 'make no mistake' we were told, Lisbon needed to be promoted because 'Europe was relying on us' - so while we had a choice, we really didn't have a choice at all, we simply had to vote yes, according to the majority of the Irish political system.

That was only the initial main problem, people like me who basically believe in the ideals of democracy, freedom, liberty, respect for your fellow human being, the right to rights. Your average Joe Soap basically, who loves and embraces almost all of those sorts of ideas that offer the opportunity of a collective warm and fuzzy feeling, the assumption of collective progress through trust, a real Tim Buton and Jack Nicholson's Mars Attacks style "Why can't we all just get along" sentiment. We love the idea of Lisbon. We have just had enough of politics - if it wasn't the general election, it was then Bertie, it was then a leadership issue, a cabinet selection issue, a watch out Brian Cowen, look what's happening to Gorden Brown issue, a Lisbon treaty clash of egos, you had people like BIFFO and Enda Kanty elbowing for photo ops, run the country ? I wouldn't let either of them run..... down the shop for milk.

I used to believe that anyone who wanted to be a politician, deserved to be, basically if they were attracted to the duplicity, the intermittent spotlight, the disingenuous and fickle nature of political appeasement, lobbying, courting - fascinated by prospects of suffering ridicule or being derided by sections of society to only then become of all things - a public servant - then fair play to them, off you go, stand around shoutin' each other down and out maneuvering each other to your hearts content, but do try and do a decent job of keeping the place tickin' over while you're at it.

Of course we had a big Celtic tiger wave of affluence in which the poor got poorer, the health service imploded, living standards inflated rather than rose, the education system threaded water, the country flooded with economic migrants and the the top tiers of our society snuggled up with the politicians to form a political and financial hegemonic strata that directed operations below and around about the time it all started turning sour - they decide to ask the voting population to endorse this complex idea in a secret ballot - did they really believe that people would vote yes. I don't think they did, so in a last gasp of reverse psychology:




Somebody in their wisdom decided to let Jim Corr, well known cultural philosopher, globally renowned political intellectual, to air his own views, just to prove that anyone who was considering voting 'No' would be regarded with the same respect as Jim.

Even that didn't work.