Lisbon….are you voting Yay or Nay?

Just listening to the debate on RTE Radio one and – am more confused than i was before. If you believe one pundit it’s doom, doom, we’re all doomed! and if you listen to the other pundit (AKA AN Tanaiste. so perhaps a tad biased) we must vote yes for continued peace and prosperity.

Like many of my peers I suffer from fear of rocking the boat. So far Europe has been good for Ireland, so I feat that refusing to progress with its plans for world domination will wreck the economy, leave me homeless and jobless, and let those skangers from number 44 run riot through the streets. Otoh, I fear that voting yes will bring a flood of new mad EU regulations, not the Banana straightening ones we all love to laugh at but the really scary ones, where thousands of newcomers to the EU will take over and impose mandatory 80s fashions and outlaw smiling on Sundays.

I would love to think that Lisbon will bring us all closer to the kind of Europe we want, and I believe that the EU is our best hope for a vibrant Europe, a cohesive market, with accepted and common rules of engagement. But the terms of the Lisbon treaty are so insanely obscure, I feel like I’m being asked to sign a particularly nasty hire purchase agreement that will cost me dearly in the long term. And What price an EU that can’t enforce it’s own rulings (Motorway through Tara? Here let us slap your wrists but only after you destroy it.) What use is the Eu legal system if it is so ineffective even in a civilised and euro-centric country such as Ireland; what will it do in Romania? How will it enforce itself? Questions, Questions.

Lisbon….coming soon to a voting booth near you…