Opt outs are one thing. But aren't the the guarantees we are supposedly seeking a little phoney? Specifically (and appreciating we don't yet have actual text to work off):

- Doesn't the demand to protect the family reek of hypocrisy given our home-produced abuse of generations of children in industrial schools etc.?

- Isn't our need to return continually to the issue of abortion little more than the imposition of a kind of fundamentalist national obsession on our EU partners?

- Isn't the bashing on about neutrality just exposing the absence of neutrality provisions in our own constitution and the lack of a formal doctrine. Why are we running to nurse on this issue when in reality all the Irish government ever seems to want is the expedient of being able to speak out of both sides of its mouth on international affairs.

- And the taxation issue? Again, the fundamental position here can only change if we explicitly surrender our veto in a new treaty. What possible function can a guarantee perform here?

- And finally! Probably the lamest "ring to bind them all", the guarantee on worker protection!! Labour was half-hearted about Lisbon because the government would not enact satisfactory legislation to protect workers in a rapidly changing labour market. If we are not prepared to take even the most basic, essential steps domestically, why are we insisting on a imprimatur from the EU? A guarantee is no use if we're not going to legislate ourselves. A totally pointless exercise.

To me the whole "guarantee" affair comes across like an exercise in political narcissism, and yet another fundamental evasion of domestic responsibility. As the phrase goes, why can't we just "get a room" and deal with our concerns there. I.e. in our own Oireachtas and our own constitution. Instead of foisting on others our lazy and tiresome tendency to address problems with words and not actions.

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NOTE TO MODS: I appreciate Eurosceptic has opened a thread on this topic. I'm trying to concentrate on the demerits of the idea, not on general discussion of them nor on whether they exist or not.