Would you like an EU Referendum?

[grafikhaus74]

to be fair, the tories havent actually reneged on that promise, it's probably the only one they haven't.

 

there was a promise to hold a referendum on the lisbon treaty providing that it hadn't been ratified by the other member states. they were quite clear about this, its just that many people chose not to listen.

 

once the treaty was ratified by all the member states then we were legally bound by it. a referendum at that point would have been a pointless and expensive excercise which would have achieved nothing no matter what the result.

 

 

All technically true, but a convenient let-out for the politicians.

 

'Ratified by all the member states' sounds pleasingly democratic. The truth is that Brown sneaked in the back door and signed the Lisbon treaty at the last minute, hoping nobody would notice.

 

The idea that a sociophobic, incompetent rat like Brown having our future in his hands is frightening at any level.

[JFKvsNixon]

Ireland said no to a European treaty not too long ago but due to some sort of tecnicality() the referendum was held again and the yes campaign won.

 

Had the yes campaign won the first time round would the referendum have been held again? like **** it would have!!!

 

The EU really showed its true colours with that Irish referendum.

 

Where would Ireland be now if the EU hadn't bailed them out?

[Stoatwobbler]

What an idiotic statement.

 

Seeing as we did have a referendum on this subject (my own parents campaigned for a no vote in it) it's an extremely pertinant point to make.

 

I'm not in favour of re-running referendums over and over until you get the "right" result.

[andyofborg]

Ireland said no to a European treaty not too long ago but due to some sort of tecnicality() the referendum was held again and the yes campaign won.

 

Had the yes campaign won the first time round would the referendum have been held again? like **** it would have!!!

 

The EU really showed its true colours with that Irish referendum.

 

there wasn't a technicality, following the failure of the first vote the irish governement negotiated some changes and clarifications to parts of the treaty which had been raised as significant issues during the campaign.

 

it was a revised treaty which was put to the second vote and it passed.

[andyofborg]

All technically true, but a convenient let-out for the politicians.

 

it's not just technically true, its really true and it's not really a let out either.

 

'Ratified by all the member states' sounds pleasingly democratic. The truth is that Brown sneaked in the back door and signed the Lisbon treaty at the last minute, hoping nobody would notice.

 

perhaps, but the member states ratified the treaty using whatever protocols their respective constitutions required which is how democracy works.

 

The idea that a sociophobic, incompetent rat like Brown having our future in his hands is frightening at any level.

 

he saved the world from financial collapse in 2008, without him the collapse which is going to happen soon would have happened then.

[green]

Where would Ireland be now if the EU hadn't bailed them out?

 

Who did Ireland bail? The banks & bond holders (predominately us!).

 

Ireland should have done an Iceland......they are coming out of a recession now, and the bankers & politicians are in court. Thats democracy!

[Hots on]

And thats one of the reasons Labour lost the election. Personally I regard Tony Blair as a war criminal.........that guy was never a socialist, he even re-named the party New Labour. We disagreed with New Labour and the country got rid.........democracy in action..

 

He won two post-Iraq invasion elections.

[JFKvsNixon]

Who did Ireland bail? The banks & bond holders (predominately us!).

 

Ireland should have done an Iceland......they are coming out of a recession now, and the bankers & politicians are in court. Thats democracy!

 

Didn't Ireland also bailout the anybody who uses a bank account? The collapse of the banking system would have be a financial armageddon.

[Hots on]

Seeing as we did have a referendum on this subject (my own parents campaigned for a no vote in it) it's an extremely pertinant point to make.

 

I'm not in favour of re-running referendums over and over until you get the "right" result.

 

I'm staggered at your attitude on this, I almost dont know where to start.

 

Firstly, what was voted for in the referendum that was held in the seventies(by that generation) isn't what we have now, the Europe we have now is a totally different animal, so we should have a vote on weather we want to be a part of this animal.

 

Secondly, even if Europe had not changed since the last referendum and was as it was back in the seventies, we should still let THIS generation have a say on it.

[Hots on]

there wasn't a technicality, following the failure of the first vote the irish governement negotiated some changes and clarifications to parts of the treaty which had been raised as significant issues during the campaign.

 

it was a revised treaty which was put to the second vote and it passed.

 

The point I'm making is that if the yes campaign had won the initial referendum you can bet your ass that they wouldnt have bothered about a second referendum!