Lisbon 2 - how will you vote?

[David Cochrane]

As Lisbon have gotten a lot of discussion in the past 24 hours, with the new guarantees, how will you vote?

[Furze]

Nothings changed - so NO again

[stewiegriffin]

No . Just for the thrill of it .

[EarlyBird]

Nil. A fortiori.

[CanadianCelt]

non, nein, όχι, Ní hea, Nei, Ne, Nej, Ei, Nem, Neen, Le, Nee, Nie, Não, Nu, Nej, [SIZE="6"][SIZE="7"][COLOR="Red"]NO[/COLOR][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[Asi-Irish]

No....

[PhoenixIreland]

No. If I was buying a TV and a guy said: "Buy now, I super swear I'll send you the warranty in 2012, in the mean time I'll scribble this note for you", I'd walk out of the shop.
Without reading a single word of the treaty, or a single debate on it heard, a major red light for me would be these words: "IBEC said today it was critical Ireland pass the Lisbon treaty", not at all unrelated to these words from the time of the last referendum "excellent opperunities in liberalization of health and education". Why would turkeys vote for Christmas? Ordinary people should vote in their own interests, you wouldn't catch members of IBEC voting for the socialist party.
For the record I've no real problem with any of the administrative changes to the treaty and like that the parliament gains more powers even though it still lacks the power to initiate legislation, it's the provisions that threaten public services and increased capacity for militarization I've a problem with.
A promise on workers rights (so "solemn" it was thrown in under the "other provisions-annex2" section) and a super swear on public services isn't the way I'll judge the EU, I'll judge by it's record.

Besides which, the absolutly despicable reaction to our first vote would be reason enough to vote no, the contempt with which our vote was received, I needn't recite all the quotes from Barroso and various MEPs, shows that the current direction and condition of the EU needs a major re-assessment, and voting on the exact same treaty which is itself a rehash of a twice rejected constitution and was developed to by-pass any more referendums, is not the way to do that, how many times are they going to reheat the same meal before they realize it's gone stale?

A US Defence Inteligence Agency report predicted that by 2025 the EU would be a "hobbled giant" because it would be "lacking democratic legitimacy and disconnected from the concerns of it's citizens". Lets not make that prediction come true. We both know issues were not the main reason for the no vote, any more than the yes portion of the vote, as the post-referendum Eurobaramoator poll showed neither were abortion or tax, the main reason was lack of trust in the political establishment, and here by running the same referendum again telling us not to be worried about issues we never claimed to care about (abortion and CT) they justify those fears.

Vote yes this time, and it will be the second time we've changed our minds on the same document after we were told we had the wrong answer and not to be worried about abortion when that wasn't our concern at all. If we vote yes this time then we may as well overturn Crotty and have parliamentary ratification, because no vote we ever take again on European issues will be taken seriously, they will know that if we vote no the Nice and Lisbon precidents will mean we will vote yes the second time, and thats the end of any clout we have in a club thats currently, as the reaction to our no vote revealed, run by the big states.

It would be really depressing for me if theres a yes vote, because when I hold the ballot for future European referendums in my hand I'll know it's worthless, because theres only one right answer.

[ctr]

Yes

[hopi watcher]

No. The committment received would copperfasten the two tier health system.

[FrankSpeaks]

Yes,

As usual, I see the place is taken over with Libertas, SF and the usual knock everything brigade.