03 October 2009

The Blair nightmare may be coming true...

Ireland ratified the goddamn Lisbon treaty so it could be hello President Blair. A sad day for us, Ireland and the EU. America just got rid of the election thief and war criminal George W Bush - so why the hell do we want to install our own version (unelected!) in a position like this?

And also we have been sold out by New Labour - who promised a referendum on the EU constitution only to say we couldn't have a referendum because it was a 'treaty', not a 'constitution' - despite doing pretty much exactly the same thing - and also by the Tories, 80% of whom apparently want a referendum except that Dave Cameron doesn't, and he's not the most democratic guy around so we ain't gonna get one.

I'd rather be out of the EU than serve under President Blair. But how to articulate that without sounding like a member of the goddamn UK Independence Party?

3 comments:

Kerry said...

Oh hell. I had no idea, thank you for this (awful) news about Ireland folding on the Lisbon Treaty.

I am an American with dual EU passport, Irish citizenship (mother born in the North.) Does this mean that "President Blair" will further open up the floodgates for more cheap labor from India to Ireland?

Can you tell me if the Irish people are protesting job outsourcing by importing all of the Muslims and Indians to lower wages and take jobs from the Irish?

Thnx,

Kerry

T.N.T. said...

Not sure about outsourcing from Ireland to India... there's been some outsourcing from Britain (where I live) to India - call centres etc. - but all the empirical work that's been done on this by economists etc. shows that the impact on employment has been pretty much non-existent. It's not a major factor in UK unemployment. I'd be surprised if the same wasn't true of Ireland. Ireland's current problem is economic collapse caused by the aftermath of a huge financial bubble, compounded by misguided deflationary policies aimed at reducing their fiscal deficit. Their membership of the Euro hasn't helped either as they've been unable to devalue their currency.

Anonymous said...

I have no idea whether he (Blair)'ll get the position. He's the most high-profile candidate but his cosiness with Bush is unlikely to endear him to the denizens of the EU's senior circles. The sad thing is that only the Czechs, whose president (and he's very much out on a limb here - middle aged, could he be 'bumped off' is he remains intransigent?), was a staunch opponent of the EU's monstrous progenitor, the USSR now stand in the way of what has become a fait accompli. Strong hints are being given that Ireland will need to undergo some form of consitutional reform to prvent this 'process' being necessary next time the EU wishes to engage in a further power grab. It's a bloody good thing that the Irish constitution is currently so organised. Had referenda been permitted in the UK, France, Holland or Denmark, they'd have been facing five 'no' votes and the thing would be dead in the water.

Sadly for your distaste, the UKIP offer the only one of two coherent set of principles on offer out there. ( I don't know about some of the Ultra Left parties, they always used to be eurosceptic)The Tory position, 'In europe but not run by it' was a bit like insisting on a 'Big Mac' at the local Chinese takeaway. An interesting choice but not really on offer. The only other position that is viable is the one taken by the late Ted Heath and many of the Libdems. 'In Europe and run by Europe.' Can't see them using this on polling day, however!