Give us an opt-out right to EU citizenship and all it entails, sure, why not ?

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Times are Hard at Berlin's Pussy Club

The biggest lies concerning the lisbon treaty are the following

1) if we vote NO, will will be 'outside Europe'
2) a YES vote will help our economy.

If you'll pardon the pun, its two sides of the same coin. You can only control the interest rates you've set if you have sufficient cash to buck whatever view the market holds on the currency's value, and we simply don't have that. And the only tool by which to control the currency's value is via the interest rate.

Why we were trying to control our currency is irrelevant. The point is that when we tried to do so, we discovered that we couldn't. The motiovation is neither here nor there.

No, I said nothing of the sort. Of course a country the size of Ireland can have its own currency - but its utterly powerless to control the value of that currency, because such a country is too small, and lacks the financial reserves, to back up its intentions.

They take policy decisions that heavily influence the value - plus their Central Banks have to reserves to back up their decisions. We simply don't.

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"The elites are mostly wrong" says FutureTaoiseach. But FutureTaoiseach is also mostly wrong. Does that mean the elites are mostly right?

That was a FAIL on your part, Albert.

I'm quite satisfied with the EU as it is, though it could be improved, said improvements don't even need a Treaty, just agreement between the EU parliamentarians/member State Gov'ts.

It's the TREATY I don't agree with, not the referendum.

Sinn Fein? Who they? Oh, them. Hohum. I prefer capitalism.

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The enemy of my enemy is the enemy of my enemy.

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.

There are lies, damn lies and debatable points. "I'm not shouting, I'm making an assertive point." M. Martin

Have they offered anything other than the 300,000,000 pledge ?
Barely enough to keep the Anglo bonfire burning for a week.
But I'm sure we can expect a surprise aid announcement close to the vote.

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Times are Hard at Berlin's Pussy Club

Albert Aherne, it's not comparable to the other poll because non-members were allowed to vote on that. The elite are about to learn there's a big difference between winning an election and a referendum.

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Not lies, simple common sense, considerng we are a very small, open economy, dependent on exports.

Europe needs and will move forward, personally I want Ireland to be at the front, not at the rear.

As long as Brian Cowen is Taoiseach and Fianna Fail in government, like many poeple, I will vote No in protest.

Our problems lie mainly in Ireland due to a certain corrupt political party being in power the last 12 years. The sooner Cowen and co. are out of office the sooner we can get the economy back on track again, as he has been useless at running the country.

I think just as many people used the last vote as a protest against FF, many will also use the next one as a protest against FF.

I would urge many people to threathen to vote No unless Cowen resigns, unless there is a stop put to the mistakes that are (a) bailling out Anglo and (b) setting up NAMA and until people like Sean Fitzpatrick are occupying a 10 x 6 cell in Mountjoy.

Until those issues are resolved I will be voting No and I call on others to do the same.

The people voting Yes to Lisbon is what corrupt FF want because it gives them an air of legitimacy in Europe.

So, vote No to corrupt elites, in Ireland and elsewhere.

So when are you gonna learn that there's a difference between a self-selecting internet poll and an actual opinion poll, carried out with a representative sample of the electorate?

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"The elites are mostly wrong" says FutureTaoiseach. But FutureTaoiseach is also mostly wrong. Does that mean the elites are mostly right?

Just to summarise;

I will vote Yes if Cowen quits before the vote, I will vote No if he stays on.

He was given a strong message from the people on June 5th to resign, a very strong message and 90% of the people no longer believe his government are doing a good job.

Yet he persists in going against the will of the people and staying in office.

Hence I feel, the next Lisbon Vote will represent another chance for the people to make their feelings known on Cowen.

When they voted against the government on June 5th, they weren't voting because of 'tough' FF decisions, they voted that way because of disastrous FF mismanagement, corruption and decisions.

The people clearly have had enough of FF and I think the next Lisbon vote should be used as a referendum on Cowen. I know that is probably the wrong thing to do, but unforunately as a people we have to send another message to Cowen that he must for the good of the country resign, that he has made a b*lls of the country and for the sake of future generations he needs to go no later than this year.

On principle I will vote No to any campaign lead by Brian Cowen, that's just the way it has to be. The man has always in his career put the interests of the rich and elite before the interests of the people. It's no different with Lisbon, it was no different with Anglo, and it's no different on other issues.

Even though we have very little power as a country at the moment over our immigration policies, our interest rate policies, our money printing and devaluation policies, we will have even less powers if Lisbon goes through and more power will be centralised in Europe. More power centralised in Europe is not good for Ireland because it means our influence over decisions that affect Ireland is even less. I don't want Fritz the communist from Bavaria, or Pierre the mad Green from Province telling us what we should do in Ireland or how we should run our country.

There has to be more to getting the country back on it's feet than voting Yes to Lisbon since by the time October comes around there will be 500,000 unemployed and by the time Lisbon takes effect there may be 600,000 unemployed. Will voting Yes to Lisbon cure that problem? Absolutely not. Will voting No in protest and forcing Cowen out cure the problem? There is a far greater chance it will.