Lisbon Treaty

[eamo1]

Im so happy that the arrogant Government and completely Biased media have not been able to bully the Irish people.They just thought "sure we will stick up loads of VOTE YES posters and have VOTE yes headlines in the newspapers the days leading up to voting day and sure they will all fall into line and vote yes".I emailed the Irish Indo a letter calling for a no vote and it should have been printed either Monday or Tuesday but all they had on Monday and Tuesday were letters calling for a Yes Vote.
Also Fianna Fail members here in Galway City were yesterday morning handing out leaflets reminding people to vote,these leaflets also contained the words VOTE YES on them in big Bold letters.This was blatantly breaking the law,you cannot campaign on the day of a vote.Im even more glad they lost resorting to those tactics.

[jebus]

Also Fianna Fail members here in Galway City were yesterday morning handing out leaflets reminding people to vote,these leaflets also contained the words VOTE YES on them in big Bold letters.This was blatantly breaking the law,you cannot campaign on the day of a vote.Im even more glad they lost resorting to those tactics.

Isn't that law that you can't canvas near polling stations? Libertas were handing out flyers after work on Henry St in Dublin yesterday anyway

[dublinred]

Im so happy that the arrogant Government and completely Biased media have not been able to bully the Irish people.They just thought "sure we will stick up loads of VOTE YES posters and have VOTE yes headlines in the newspapers the days leading up to voting day and sure they will all fall into line and vote yes".I emailed the Irish Indo a letter calling for a no vote and it should have been printed either Monday or Tuesday but all they had on Monday and Tuesday were letters calling for a Yes Vote.
Also Fianna Fail members here in Galway City were yesterday morning handing out leaflets reminding people to vote,these leaflets also contained the words VOTE YES on them in big Bold letters.This was blatantly breaking the law,you cannot campaign on the day of a vote.Im even more glad they lost resorting to those tactics.

Agree totally , I voted no and am not one of the un-educated republican socialist working class people that the losing yes camp and the media are portraying as voting no.

[pineapple stu]

My point is that I was entitled to be given a copy of the Treaty at the polling station by the people working there ( I had that confirmed by the Dept of Enviro today), and they as State employess either weren't trained properly or weren't bothered. In essence for me that summed up the whole lazyness/ambiguity taken by the State in relation to this.

Thus for me it was the 'clincher' in terms of deciding, had nothing to do with being angry, but acted as the tipping point for what was for me a most difficult decision, as I know well that the Treaty isn't perfect but offers as many positives as negatives.

As an aside does anyone think that wording on the ballot paper might of been slightly confusing and some who wanted the treaty accepted might of voted 'no' thinking that would achieve a 'yes' ?

Funny to think that the Government is asking people like you to make decision on issues like these.

perhaps people will not be swayed by ridiculous claims on posters (some of the Yes ones weren't inculpable of hysteria either)

I'd be surprised if you could show me one poster, either for or against, which had any merit in the slightest. Should all be banned, I think. Nothing more than litter. "Don't vote for another turkey! ('Cos Europe didn't vote for Dustin). "Vote yes for jobs and money!" "Here's my face - I say yes! Vote for me in the next election" "Did James Connolly die for this?!" All drivel.

[anto1208]

I wonder how many people voted for some mad reason, ive heard today

1. they will have a president of europe ( we all ready do )
2. They will raise taxes/abortion/EU army with conscription/death penalty !!!
3. School summer holidays will be cut to 1 month.

and now the conspiracy theory that the goverment wanted a NO vote so didnt make the effort to convince us

[GavinZac]

Great result,if only the working class could vote for themselves in general elections by not voting in fianna fail/fianna gael.

I gather you think we'd be better off with Gerry Adams as Taoiseach then?

Would also like to say HAHA to all yes middle class people

Whats middle class?

If there is a Lisbon II vote, all the No side will have to do is broadcast all the sanctimonious, condescending crap (and in some cases purely bitter venom) that the Yes side are coming out with today, and it'll be an even wider no margin. All this guff about why it was lost, lies on the no side etc - all they have to do is listen to themselves and see why people didn't trust them or vote with them.

I don't know why people chose to believe Sinn Fein over every other organisation, but what can people do if one side are flagrantly disregarding the truth, both nationally and at local level with the rumours of EU army conscription and such?

When Nice was rejected, it was for a solid, identifiable reason; our neutrality. Sure, the No campaign then bleated the exact same other things they did in this campaign, but none of them were effective; once the treaty was changed to give us special dispensation, it solved the problem and with neutrality no longer in doubt, the Irish people passed the amended treaty. Now with Lisbon, I don't know where we go from here. For some reason this time the Irish people believed the same lies they've been fed over and over in every other campaign; rather than learning from experience that things like abortion, EU armies, gay marriage and such were just scaremongering, this time they seem to have taken them on board. How does one amend a treaty for that? The Irish MEPs who worked on this, what do they tell Brussels? Why did Ireland vote No?

I suspect the truth of the matter is that rising off-shoring, unemployment and fuel prices are what were voted against yesterday, despite it being of no help whatsoever. If ever there was a treaty in which it was pointless to vote based upon the contents of your wallet this was it.

The lies and deceit were supposed to be the last desperate roll of the dice from an ever increasingly pointless Sinn Fein and the now marginalised Socialist Party. Unfortunately the vote came at a time when the economy and unemployment havent looked as bad for nearly a decade; the winners in all of this are nobody but Sinn Fein's council who will bleat about a victory validating the party, until the next election when they are resoundingly put back in their boxes.

[passinginterest]

This was posted on our message board in work and I think it sums up very well why the no campaign was so successful, they played the tactics to perfection and caught the government on the hop:

You have to credit the tactics of the No campaign, in how swiftly they switch their main point of attack against the Treaty, from topic to topic.

If you notice it has moved from abortion, to tax, to the ag veto, to commissioners etc, and while the Yes campaign try to put out one fire, the NOs light another in a different direction. This means that the YES have to literally spend all their time on defence, putting out fires, rather than being able to take to the offence, and sell the benefits of a yes vote.

The YES rail against this, but what counter measures have they deployed? Where are televised party political broadcasts, selling (uninterrupted) the benefits?

For example, on the issue of not understanding the treaty, as has been mentioned by others, we don't insist on understanding all aspects of the working of the internal combustion engine, for us to get in our car and trust it to take us to our destination, and yet it is now said to be the biggest reason for the majority of voters to vote NO.

The NO tactics being used, were first espoused as a military tactic in "the Art of War". If you light fires all over the place or do as a Guerilla movement would do which is to strike and move, the other side cannot pin you down. The population will then think the enemy is more numerous than it is, and the fear will grow as they "see" more and more fires.

Ranged on one side you have all the major political parties, all the major employers groups, the Unions, the Unis, overseas company's with plants here, farmers, and even the Church. What one would think should ostensibly be a walkover for the YES, and yet it is not. I would suggest the reason for this is superior tactics.

[mypost]

When Nice was rejected, it was for a solid, identifiable reason; our neutrality. Sure, the No campaign then bleated the exact same other things they did in this campaign, but none of them were effective; once the treaty was changed to give us special dispensation, it solved the problem and with neutrality no longer in doubt, the Irish people passed the amended treaty.

The Nice Treaty wasn't changed, the Seville Declaration was made to state our guaranteed neutrality on the Treaty, which eased concerns and allowed it to pass, 2nd time around.

[Roadend]

I wonder how many people voted for some mad reason, ive heard today

1. they will have a president of europe ( we all ready do )
2. They will raise taxes/abortion/EU army with conscription/death penalty !!!
3. School summer holidays will be cut to 1 month.

and now the conspiracy theory that the goverment wanted a NO vote so didnt make the effort to convince us

They had a bit on the BBC website where some fella said he was voting no as the Treaty would limit couples to only having two children

[mypost]

There are no benefits to citizens with this treaty, just politicians. The politicians in the other states have spoken, as have the citizens here.

[GavinZac]

This was posted on our message board in work and I think it sums up very well why the no campaign was so successful, they played the tactics to perfection and caught the government on the hop:

Thats completely true. For feck sake, for 2 weeks I had to look out my window and see Eamon Gilmore looking pensive with no actual reason to vote Yes. Labour treated this as an election run, Fine Gael seemed quietly ready to place the blame on Fianna Fail for not doing enough, and Fianna Fail obligingly gave them every reason to.

Perhaps they thought the referendum handbook would be enough. It wasn't. People needed hand holding and to be told, no, this doesn't make us the USA. No, this doesn't give the queerhawks next door the right to marry, no this doesn't make it any easier for Miroslaw to take your job. It never came. I like the Sun Tzu reference, because this is exactly what it was like; a ephemeral enemy following no rules of engagement, impossible to pin down; of no substance but ready and willing to do what ever it took to get their way. The correlation between this and some of Sinn Fein's other previous expertise is too much not to mention...

[GavinZac]

There are no benefits to citizens with this treaty, just politicians. The politicians in the other states have spoken, as have the citizens here.

The very same politicians who would have lost their power, according to your arguments. Right.

[SMorgan]

I really think it's a bit rich for Yes supporters to be crying about scaremongering, lies and deceit. Do I really need to explain why such comments are hypocritical by pointing out the very obvious?

Ireland has decided. All democrats must accept that decision and move on from here.

[jebus]

Ireland has decided. All democrats must accept that decision and move on from here.

See you next year for Lison Treaty 2: The Reckoning

[GavinZac]

I really think it's a bit rich for Yes supporters to be crying about scaremongering, lies and deceit. Do I really need to explain why such comments are hypocritical by pointing out the very obvious?

...Yes?

[Cymro]

At least you guys got a vote. Be glad of that, even if you don't like the result.

[mypost]

The result has been declared, and the objectives of the No side have been achieved. I congratulate the members of foot.ie who rejected it. The No side have been written off for months on end, however he who laughs last, laughs loudest.

[pete]

I have no problem accepting the result but I am still curious why people voted No. It was obvious why Nice I failed which is why it passed the second time.

[GavinZac]

The result has been declared, and the objectives of the No side have been achieved. I congratulate the members of foot.ie who rejected it. The No side have been written off for months on end, however he who laughs last, laughs loudest.

What have you achieved?

[superfrank]

Ah conservatism! Preservation of the status quo. Everybody wins with a No vote.

No side get the win, nothing changes for the Yes side.