June 15, 2008

No Means No

Except when it doesn't:

The long campaign to forge a new dispensation for the European Union descended into panic and uncertainty yesterday when Ireland turned its back on its 26 EU partners and voted down the Lisbon Treaty.

EU leaders in Brussels and governments across the union, particularly Germany and France, were stunned by the Irish verdict, which amounted to a huge vote of no confidence in the way the EU is run.

The referendum in Ireland was the sole popular vote in the EU on the grand plan to give Europe a sitting president and foreign minister, and reconfigure the way the EU is governed. The result left the project severely wounded, perhaps fatally.

The Irish voted by a 7% margin, 53.6 to 46.4, against the treaty, which has already been ratified by 18 EU countries and is expected to be endorsed by the other eight.

Ratified in 18 EU countries without a vote. Funny how that works. One man, one vote, one time, once they get the right answer, of course.

Everything suggested that Europe's key leaders were urgently conferring on a scheme to steamroller their blueprint through despite the Irish rejection, a course likely to trigger protest from Eurosceptics and deepen Europe's democratic legitimacy problems.

The EU is lucky they aren't attending Oberlin as they won't take no for an answer as they keep trying to screw their people.

Posted by Charles Austin at June 15, 2008 10:54 AM
Comments

My daughter and I visited and toured Oberlin and three of the other Ohio Five - The College of Wooster, Kenyon College, and Denison College. (The Ohio Five was once the Ohio Six before Antioch suspended operations, and Antioch makes Oberlin look like Hillsdale College.) Fortunately, she didn't have a good feeling about Oberlin.

Posted by: Ron at 03:55 PM