Comments on: Ireland Rejects the Lisbon Treaty

By: athanasius

athanasius — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:21:38 +0000

I find it interesting that of all the 27 member nations of the EU only Ireland was allowed by its masters to hold a referendum on the treaty (something to do with some document called a constitution).

This is because in 2005 the French voted the constitution down as soon as they had the chance to vote and forced them back to the drawing board. Most parliaments are not going to make that same mistake. Why the Irish want anything to do with this to begin with is beyond me.

By: rjrafferty

rjrafferty — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:35:23 +0000

I find it interesting that of all the 27 member nations of the EU only Ireland was allowed by its masters to hold a referendum on the treaty (something to do with some document called a constitution). Amidst calls from the tories and a few others for a UK referendum Gordon Brown huffily replied that it was not necessary and forced the ratification through parliament. Ireland will face intense pressure now, to have another vote or to ratify the treaty anyway. Sarkosy has already called the vote "unacceptable" and has pledged to visit Ireland in July where he, no doubt, hopes that his Gallic charm (via Hungary) will win them over just as it did the US congress when he told them what splendid chaps we Americans were, how we had saved Europe and stamped out the Hun. Congress said "aw, shucks, we think you're pretty wonderfull too." And he went back to France, having neutralised us, and didn't change his policies one jot.

By: Henrik Ræder Clausen

Henrik Ræder Clausen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:27:53 +0000

I am slowly discovering that understanding the EU and its fallacies just might be key to understanding why our political leades are failing so systematically in dealing with the Islamic challenge.

The best book I've found so far is The Great Deception by Booker & North, which basically is the history of the EU seen from a British perspective. I've written an essay summing up highlights of the first part at Gates of Vienna.

It's time to take back power from the bloated system. That's democracy, and it's Good

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:59:42 +0000

Dr Trifkovic is right to point to the fatal flaw in the way in which the EU leaders approached the people. The peoples of Europe want the EU and want to be part of it. That goes for Ireland, that goes for Serbia and that goes just about everywhere else. I’m sure it even goes for Russia, although that’s a bit down the road! But they want THEIR union, not an American imposition in which Europe is reduced to a client state of one of its own former colonies. The Irish electorate rejected US-imposed globalisation, as the French did before them, and they rejected US-imposed militarisation of the EU. As in the French referendum, the big loser in all this is the US. It’s just that the peoples of Europe have got ahead of their leaders, who still have difficulty in grasping that the world is no longer dominated by the US.

It’s also worth pointing out that the EU institutions are not really in need of any reform. They’re functioning perfectly well as it is! Equally, 90% of what was in the treaty is already law and 90% of the rest can be enacted into law without need for a treaty, so the effect on the functioning of the EU will be zero. The principal of the primacy of Community law over national law, for example, to which Dr Trifkovic refers, has been in force for more than 50 years!

Just to rub it in: gallant little Ireland, inside the EU, stops the whole machine in its tracks by a simple exercise in democracy. Gallant little Serbia, outside the EU, gets crushed under the American jackboot! Q.E.D.!

By: Iliya Pavlovich

Iliya Pavlovich — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:13:23 +0000

Who would have thunk? Only 50 years ago the entire world was looking forward to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Not so today. The Soviet prodigy (Russia) might actually be the only system of "checks and balances" in Europe precisely because it is not in the EU. 180 degree turn common only in hindsight vision. We are blessed to live in such a time as to witness all the acrobatics, semantics and other forms of juggling, but "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle, than........_________...." (you fill in the blanks). Christianity lives on.

By: Grumpy Old Man

Grumpy Old Man — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:23:24 +0000

Viva Ireland, Serbia, and Flanders.

I hope the backlash comes, and when it does, it is sober and controlled, rather than vicious and ugly. The longer the delay, the greater the chances of the latter.

By: robert m. peters

robert m. peters — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:09:59 +0000

"Gleichschaltung"! A "nice" term coming out of the Nazi era in Germany, but hardly new in essence. The Jacobins of the French Revolution used it to subsume in a nationalist fervor and in a reign of terror the regional dialects and languages, customs and traditions of France and then to project consolidation in an internationalist fever on all of Europe. State nationalism did the same in Germany, Italy and other European societies, making "society" synonymous with "polity." Lincoln and his oligarchy of Republics began the process here in earnest, and it has moved at an almost exponential rate through Wilson, the grand nationalist, FDR, the internationalists and finally to Clinton/Bush, who are for my understanding merely the opposite sides of the same counterfeit coin. The internationalists appear to have won with the ever more strident EU in Europe and the movement to a North American Union. Yet, and yet, there is a faint and weak counter voice: Ireland, Serbia and Oklahoma where the House passed a resolution to reaffirm the 10th amendment and to challenge the general government in its usurpations. "Chronicles" is a part of that counter voice. We have a duty to speak. Who may hearken to our words and whether or not they might return void remains to be seen; however, speak we must.