The lines are slowly being drawn in Ireland over the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. A new poll (of only 500 people) shows that 55 percent will vote 'yes' next time around.
This should be a stark warning to the 'no' campaign over there that this is not going to be an easy battle - there is no room for complacency when we're talking about a Treaty that EU leaders and the Irish Government are hell-bent on seeing passed.
Especially when we're dealing with people who simply refuse to accept any kind of criticism of the EU whatsoever and who want to oversimplify the debate to childish levels.
Pat Cox, a former President of the European Parliament, has today thrown his glove in and vowed "not to give an inch" to 'Eurosceptics' in the debate. Speaking at a European Movement event and referring to Declan Ganley's ambitions of fielding candidates in each member state in the EP elections, he said: “We cannot concede an inch to the nationalists and euro-sceptics who will try to surf on the financial and economic tsunami.” He said the financial meltdown will be a “perfect opportunity for nationalists and Eurosceptics.”
In an attempt to paint EU critics such as Ganley as 'anti-European', he said the upcoming elections would be a “real pan-European referendum in favour or against the EU”.
Meanwhile, one of our own British Labour MPs has told a French journalist that:
"The Irish had become extremely arrogant, believing they owed their success only to themselves and not to Europe. The crisis has reminded them to what extent they were dependent and that could work in favour of Lisbon."
We wonder who that might have been?
3 comments:
The crisis might just remind them how little freedom of action they have, as part of the eurozone.
not surprsing that a brit Labour MP would see that people expressng their right to make democratic choices are "arrogant" -
It isn't just the Brits that think the Irish have become arrogant.
The truth hurts - they made their own bed....
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