Vice-Regal Saint: June 2008: The Irish Vote - A Commentary
by Marquis Black
Originally Posted at The Soaring Eagle
So, I heard that the Irish have the European Union bureaucrats quaking in their boots.
Unsurprising, to say the least, since the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty needs to be unanimous amongst its member states to come into force, and the infamous defeaters of the 2001 Treaty of Nice seem to be going the same way as last time, what with opinion polls being eerily similar to that fateful year's polls prior to the referendum.
My own opinion on the matter, however, stems more from the seeming irony of things were Ireland to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon in June. After all, here is a budding country, ranked 4th in self-sustainability out of 177 different countries, having one of the greatest population and economic increments in history since its recognized independence in 1922 (declared in 1919), finally free of British control, and yet if the "Yes" vote wins in June, it would have been all for naught.
If "Yes" wins in June, then Ireland, as the separate, political entity we know it to be now, would cease to exist. Not legally, I will admit, but in all but name. After all, as opposed to rendering obedience to a British monarch, they would then be rendering obeisance to their new master, the President of Europe and his vastly empowered Minister of Foreign Policy.
So I can't help but wonder, what was all that fighting about with the United Kingdom? Where has all that bluster about independence gone to now? Do the Irish really think that Europe, of all things, has more in common with them than their Anglo-Gaelic brethren to the east? Other than religion (which cannot even be held as a significant factor for deciding policy anymore), what could the European states possibly have in common with the Irish that would get them to so willingly bow their heads to a man (or woman) who will be elected, probably with the vast majority of the continental vote, whatever the Irish populace's reservations may be.
Heck, I wonder how they'll feel if Tony Blair is elected President of Europe? Undoubtedly, they would have flashbacks to the British times of rule, no doubt.
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4 comments:
BORING. We get this half-baked tin foil hattery every single time there's a new European treaty. Every time, we get told it's the last chance to save Europe or an individual country from absorption into a superstate and every time life goes on. I didn't believe it then, and I won't believe it now.
Stick to your posts on monarchy, the quality of those is far superior to those of this nature.
Even if the Irish reject it, it will mean nothing. The EU will just ignore the result and try a different tack in the future.
To Anonymous:
This piece was hardly meant to be an anti-EU piece, actually. I support the creation of the European superstate, but not in its current incarnation. The EU should have never tried to incorporate together such diametrically opposite cultures as the Continental and Anglo-Gaelic cultures.
The optimal state for a European Superstate would undoubtedly be one that either starts in Portugal and goes until Poland, or from France to Poland. No more.
Absorption into the superstate will not be a sudden thing: it'll be slow and gradual, but I think it is inevitable.
Just look at the United States: when it was first formed, there were significant cultural, economic, and political differences between the North and South, and even within individual states in these broad regions. Over a period of centuries, these differences have been greatly eroded.
When you force a people to be welded with another for political reasons, this fusion will usually become cultural as well. Not always, but usually.
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