It is clear that when you have almost all the political parties and major interests group telling you to vote yes then the only sensible thing to do is to vote NO!

And for the smart alek that misses the point here – it is this;

A Whole class of people [the establishment = politicians and those with direct vested interests] the ruling classes if you like, have tried to hoodwink Irish people and bully them into voting yes by all manner of silly scaremongering.

Having witnessed not merely a CHANGE but rather a complete TRANSFORMATION in their country Irish people have at last awakened to the down sides of such rapid and uncontrolled transformation.

One only has to look at last Fridays Irish times to see how screwed up Ireland has become. The a headline in the business section reported that 90 percent of jobs created last year went to non Irish people.

The Euro vision song contest also provides a good indicator for Ireland, namely that Ireland has been lost and swamped by the new EU states,who should not have been allowed to be part of the EU for a good few years more. That they have, has opened up Ireland to hordes of foreigners and this in addition to the vast numbers of non EU citizens coming here, which all points to a society built on exploitation and in equality.

Before we get so close with other states we should have go know them and assimilate them into the EU gradually and from the ground up not top down.

I am not gay but I can understand why women can find him attractive. He has a lot of charisma and can be funny and he is not afraid of attacking FF. He also has a lovely head of white hair which is attractive on a man. White (not grey) hair is cool as far as I am concerned. Again I am not gay.

However, there is the public Joe and there is the private Joe. Anyone who knows Higgins knows that he is actually an extremely nilihistic person most of the time. He seems the opposite as he gets burst of energy that would make one think that he is an all-round interesting person.

There is a HUGE cultural dichotomy between Higgins and virtually all of his party (in Dublin anyway). Higgins is educated , can be funny, charismatic and educated.

The average member of the party is the pits.

I know from experience that what Joan Burton said about them in an article in Village in 2005 is true.

“Joan Burton is less amenable to Joe Higgins’ persuasion. “I don’t like that whole Militant strain : I think it’s more of a sect than a political party. I find his brand of Trotskyism very unattractive, very sterile and incompatible with a developing society. It’s a very exclusive organisation, a small group rather than a big party : it has tight control exercises, little room for differing opinion.”

The more you find out about what the Trots are like the more you loathe them. I don’t expect anyone here to want a crash course on what they are like but if anyone does I will post up some links that are worth reading for anyone interested in Irish (albeit fringe and largely Dublin) politics.

Didn’t Brian Cowen say that it was the “looney left” who were against the treaty?

This is the standard way people are silenced nowadays, while then there is the assertion that democracy is working fine because all sorts of groups and politicians who all have vested interests and agendas dictate to the people what way they should vote and the amount of scaremongering from the yes side is incredible. There is simply no getting away from the fact that all the other countries are not giving their PEOPLE a direct say AND THAT IS WHAT a democratic deficit is all about!

Play it safe – just say no!

Thereafter we can gradually build towards more and more intergartion

Threats from Biffo, Inda or Labour won’t work on me. They will just harden me from NO to NO F**king way!

Democracy is messy and inconvenient and getting rid of it now would be a kick in the face for those who fought for it and paid for it with their lives.

I am pro Europe and pro Democracy. How can we lecture China and Burma when we got rid of it in Europe?

And yes voters please tell me EXACTLY what you are voting yes to? And I mean specifics. Line by line specifics.