A Wilted Clover
Whatever the result of the Irish Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty tomorrow, its final statistical outcome will matter very little.
While supporters of both the YES and NO camps would celebrate a victory for their respective side, the final reckoning is predestined – the Lisbon Treaty will become law in the twenty seven EU member states and there is nothing we or the Irish people can do to prevent it.
As we all well know, if the result tomorrow in Ireland is not the one that the European Union and its supporters want then they will simply ask the Irish people again, and again and again until they do receive the desired response. However, this is of course assuming that the EU would willingly tolerate the formality of another public referendum, which it may not.
A more likely scenario would seem to be that Irish and EU leaders will simply collude behind the backs of the Irish electorate at the next European Council and ratify the Lisbon Treaty (most of which has already been stealthily implemented) despite a NO vote.
This may well involve the Irish Government claiming that a few token concessions from the EU that will be offered up during ‘negotiation’ this time around (naturally only to be done away with in the next EU Treaty the Irish will sign) is enough to make another democratic consultation of the people unnecessary.
Either that, or all EU member states will agree to continue with the process of ratification without Ireland who would be allowed to join at a later stage if they so wish – which of course they will.
Therefore, the result of the Irish decision tomorrow is entirely irrelevant to the European Union. Its continuous drive towards ever closer union will rumble on undeterred and more and more of our powers, rights and freedoms will be willingly signed over to unelected Commissioners and Bureaucrats in Brussels by our own selfish, pampered and increasingly irrelevant representatives in Parliaments across the European continent.
Within a week our House of Lords will vote on whether there should be a Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in Britain. It is highly likely that the Lords and thus Parliament will agree with the Government and decide that there is no need for the people to be consulted. In so doing they will consign to the past this country’s long and celebrated history of being an independent, democratic and free nation. How did it come to this?
