Is xenophobia and ignoring the people the way to win the Second Lisbon Vote?

Stephen Collins writes for the Irish Times so you would expect some sort of intelligent thinking. I mean it is his job after all. He is not a Kevin Myres columnist who is there to provoke, he does not need to be deeply incisive it is about filling the letters page. Stephen Collins is there to analysis. But reading todays column I really have to wonder if he just wants to be Kevin Myres just button pushing fuckwittagy.

The Taoiseach will have to summon up the nerve and vision displayed by Seán Lemass when he dragged the country into the modern world in the early 1960s, against some of the most basic instincts of his own party and a large chunk of the electorate. History has vindicated Lemass’s decision to abandon protectionism and embrace free trade and the wider world of Europe.

Brian Cowen is now facing a challenge of similar proportions. The referendum defeat has launched Ireland down the slippery slope of a retreat from involvement in Europe and a return to the status of a being a client state of Britain.

So button number one the British. Oh we will be a client state of Britain. No explanation of that. No justification of that just the old British xenophobia brought out to scare people. People think the Daily Mail is bad for being xenophobic over immigrants but this is the exact same thing. Fear of Foreigners. Fear that Britain will take back control of Ireland. And it is utter twaddle. If you want to know why people were confused by the Treaty it is stuff like this. People made believe the treaty is more then it is.

The Government itself has made the winning of a second referendum almost impossible by compounding its botched referendum campaign with a poor tactical response to the Lisbon defeat. Instead of forcing the electorate to face up to the consequences of a No vote,

So people disagreed with the Government therefore the government should go out of their way to punish them? That instead of serving the people to the best of their abilities the government should go out of their way to make people suffer? So instead of getting people to vote Yes because they like the treaty they should do out of fear? That is just barking, they tried that before the referendum, with threats of problems if we voted no. Did it work? No. So therefore we should do it even more?

So how can the Government find a way out of holding a second referendum while not ignoring the will of the people as expressed in June? The only way is for the Dáil to ratify the Lisbon Treaty while simultaneously opting out of areas such as the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which probably does require referendum approval, and the new defense arrangements whose misrepresentation prompted so many women to vote No.

Basically what he is saying here is how can the government ignore the will of the people while not ignoring the will of the people. Seriously people barking mad. None of this bull about ignoring the Charter of Fundamental Rights (which on its own would pass mainly as people can understand it is easy to understand)

Of course the Government would also have political hell to pay for going the legislative route but it might not be nearly as bad as some Ministers think. After all the main reason given for voting No was that people didn’t understand the treaty.

In that case a good proportion of the electorate might be relieved if the Dáil took on the responsibility of dealing with it, rather than opting for another long drawn out and confused public debate about issues people cannot, or will not, understand.

So people will be thankful the government is ignoring them? Seriously can you be any more condescending to people.

Fuck it how about the government just not have elections ever again. Rather than opting for another long drawn out and confused public debate about issues people cannot, or will not, understand.

People did not understand the treaty that does not mean they don’t want to understand it. It means they didn’t. The government messed up badly not having a good information campaign, Europe messed up badly not having a readable treaty. While it might be to late for Europe to correct its mistake the government can start explaining the treaty. That is the key to winning the second referendum not draconian measures.

Also if Stephen Collins thinks that pushing Lisbon through the Dail, will have no political consequences, with the local elections next year and 3-way coalition governments. He truly is barking.

Well done Mr Collins maybe you are Kevin Myres you got a reaction.