The Irish people will be voting again on the Lisbon Treaty tomorrow.
I asked the Princess what she knew about it. It has been omnipresent, so I assumed that she must have some views. And she had. She had seen this poster and this one. I was fascinated that the yes campaign’s posters didn’t seem to have registered with her at all (and they were plentiful). There has been some fun had with posters on both sides, if you are so minded you might like to see the mocking posters which have been dreamt up such as these, these and this.
It’s been an interesting campaign. My personal highlight was watching Michael O’Leary and Declan Ganly debating on the television. This was fascinating as it was the reverse of what usually happens. Usually, the no side says something. And keeps saying it. And keeps saying. The yes side leaps to the Treaty and seeks to refute the no side comment by reading out chapter and verse. The net effect of this is that one retains the no side’s argument and the yes side’s counter argument is ineffectual, however, right it might be. Michael O’Leary did not know the Treaty in any detail. He kept repeating three things: 1. I live in Ireland, pay my taxes here and have created 1,000 jobs here; 2. Lisbon allows us to retain our Commissioner and 3. the ECB is bailing us out of the current banking mess. Ganley kept quoting the Nice Treaty on Commissioners and so on but it really didn’t matter as Michael just kept on making his three effective points. It was interesting to see the no side’s tactics being used against them and, much as Michael O’Leary irritates me, I have to take my hat off to him
So, just in case there was any doubt, I’ll be voting yes tomorrow (did I or did I not discover only this week that social insurance paid in another member state goes towards dental benefits here?) and keeping my fingers crossed.
