Fear of voting 'No' leads to 'Yes' vote

For months we’ve been enjoying the political soap opera that accompanies the run-up to every general election. Tories chastise Labour about the state of the nation, Labour retaliate, the Lib Dems make some sort of threat in the faint hope that anyone will listen—the same old political spats that do anything but serve the needs of the voting public. Across the water a far greater political drama has been acted out: Ireland's (second) referendum on The Lisbon Treaty.

The Treaty, described by pro-Europeans as a simple and mandatory updating of European institutions and by sceptics as a dangerous step towards the creation of a European superpower, divided the Irish nation again this month and put it at the centre of an EU storm.

In 2008 the Irish rejected Lisbon on the grounds that it didn’t go far enough to protect workers' rights (a 1987 amendment to the Irish Constitution stipulated that all significant changes to EU treaties needed the permission of the Irish people by referendum). Ireland in 2008 had jobs. There’s not much point in protecting the rights of the worker if he or she is unemployed.

Up until recently, Ireland was the pride of Europe; the Celtic Tiger roared and suddenly, far from being just a nation on the physical edge of Europe, Ireland found itself amongst the elite of continental economies. The standard of living grew tenfold and such was the unprecedented level of prosperity in the country that house prices rose to exorbitant levels without opposition. Developers could, it seemed, build estate after estate with easy capital the banks were only too willing to lend. Then it crashed.

Economists as far back as 2004 warned that the bubble was never going to last. They were ignored by a foolhardy Fianna Fail government, who viewed them as begrudgers, unwilling to buy into what we now know was a false economy. Ireland is now on the verge of bankruptcy, borrowing over £300m a week just to keep the nation afloat.

This is the context in which we need to view Ireland’s two-third majority ratification of Lisbon. With the nation on its knees the 'Yes' campaign found their "Yes to Jobs and Recovery" slogan an easy sell, even for a government that currently holds just a 20 per cent share in popularity stakes. Brian Cowen's government should take no comfort in the result – it was based on a nation’s fear of isolation from Europe at a time of national crisis. No voter ticked yes out of loyalty to the current regime.

While the initial referendum raised concerns over the issues of neutrality and abortion, those fears became redundant thanks to new guarantees that they would remain under the control of the Dublin government. The 'No' campaign thus lost two vital weapons for round two and was reduced to pulling the old question of national identity out of the hat to try and salvage a result that really would have had alarm bells ringing in Brussels and Strasbourg. On the Dublin to Cork motorway, election placards paraded photos of Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, martyrs of the 1916 Rising, which was a watershed in the history of independent Ireland. "They won your freedom" read the slogan: such a resort to archaic nationalist sentiment is really grasping at straws.

But while Ireland is on its knees, let's not forget that this is the second time its people have had to go to the polls. The heads of Europe have had their way in the end but only after rejecting the very thing they claim to uphold—the freedom of democracy. Last time I checked one referendum was sufficient on an issue in an apparent democratic state. After picking on a vulnerable nation let us hope Europe has not set a dangerous precedent.