Fáilte! Bualadh bos for Ireland. Now, how did that happen? Ireland has spoken for the people of Europe [‘Ireland rejects EU reform treaty’, BBC Online Europe News, June 13], and by a clear majority of 53.4% to 46.6%. It is important to stress that, legally, this means that the Lisbon Treaty is technically dead, but I fully expect the corpse to do its best to tug the Irish stone cross out of its heart and to twitch back into some form of life.

Yet, it will be an unedifying sight if the leaders of the EU and the Commission fail to show that they are listening to the people. Ireland has spoken for all Europeans precisely because every country involved should have had a referendum on the Treaty, and especially so in the UK, where Labour had promised one, but where Gordon Brown has betrayed that promise.

Why The Irish ‘No’ Vote Is To Be Welcomed

Brown should now likewise kill the treaty ratification process in the UK. He knows that the UK would vote the same way as Ireland if given the democratic opportunity. I am a strong pro-European, but, like so many others, I am heartily sick of:

1. +The EU gravy train;
   

2. +The financial unaccountability and the failure to audit properly;
   

3. +The lack of transparency and democratic accountability;
   

4. +The nonsense of two parliaments and administration in three countries;
   

5. +The constant dribble of imposed economic costs;
   

6. +The agricultural subsidies which undermine free trade;
   

7. +The constant undermining of European industry;
   

8. +The blatant hypocrisies over its ‘global warming’ rhetoric; and,
   

9. +The intrusive non-democratic legislation.
   

I could go on. But, until the elite in the EU start to heed the people of Europe, we shall remain indebted to the good folk of Ireland for holding it to democratic account on our behalf.

I think some uisce beatha is in order tonight! “Sláinte!”