The EuroCon

BACK IN HIS OLD JOB Dick Roche, Minister of State for European Affairs.

The EuroCon gets a new overcoat

De Facto
Liamy MacNally

THIS is to be the year of the Lisbon Treaty. In good old Windscale parlance, it was once known as the European Constitution (or EuroCon for short!). Always change the name when the people do not like what you are doing. The Minister for change in charge of all things European is the great dinosaur of sceptics, Dick Roche. He was the one who opposed Nice 1, so Bertie put him in charge of Nice 2. It is always better to have your opponents ‘facing’ the same direction – if the wind came, then everyone would get equally wet! Dick was no exception. He delivered on Nice 2. We were all happy campers and succumbed to the greater wisdom that roams the corridors of power in Brussels and Strasbourg, aided and abetted by the dank cellars of Leinster House and various smoke-filled back rooms heaving with the plots of the ‘republican party.’ Some terms as applied to political parties really are funny Forget the glove! It fits them like a tea-cosy.
Sure Dev and the boys would understand. This is the next stage of freedom, being in a position to sign away our sovereignty! And we were doing so all along, albeit in stages. The great teenage question looms large on the horizon – ‘How far can we go?’ All we were doing was ensuring the future of the country, we argue. Sure there would be loads of dosh to fling at the sceptics. Win them over. Money doesn’t talk, it swears! Didn’t Albert win the European ‘lotto’? Who’s that asking, ‘Albert who?’ The Celtic Tiger cubs have short memories!

THE BEGINNING OF THE END
LATER on this year we will have the opportunity to finish with all future European referenda. We shall be afforded the chance to vote on the EuroCon, or rather the Lisbon Treaty. Sure the document has had more titles than Tony O’Reilly! This is the mother of all referenda because if we sign this one off (whether in one or two goes!), then we will have signed away our chance to vote again in a European referendum. There will not be any more, because in signing the EuroCon, we will have given the Eurocrats the right to change, alter or delete any or all of the contents of any future treaty as they see fit. And in the process we shall have signed away our sovereignty to about 60 areas of direct decision-making.
We have signed away aspects of our sovereignty before, chipping at the block of independence with every treaty we signed up to. This EuroCon is the behemoth of them all, the alpha and omega of treaties. Sign up and then be prepared to shut up. All of the political parties are in favour of it, except Sinn Féin, whose star is speckled with space dust at present. The rest are doing as expected, because in effect, all it does is give them and their unelected cohorts more power. The PDs are probably still in no man’s land, wondering if they are in battle or in vain! The Greens have discovered more shades of the colour than Johnny Cash. His surname has obviously made an impact with them now that they are in power. They are fading away so fast that they will have lost their identity before they even realise it. They are cashing in their principles, blinded by the lure of government. They are being led to oblivion. The Fianna Fáil steamroller is flattening them every day in the gulags of power and they cannot even see it. Solzhenitsyn would enjoy it! 
This EuroCon paves the way for an unelected European executive. If Paddy Power is worth his salt he will open a book (if he hasn’t done so already) on Bertie seeking the top European job within the next couple of years – or sooner.

APPROVING THE UNELECTED
LIBERTAS is a group based in Ireland set up by people who oppose the EuroCon. They are going to the trouble of sending a mail shot to every home in the country. Under the McKenna ruling, both sides must be presented when taxpayers’ money is being spent in a referendum. The latest wheeze is that the Government is not going to send out any information to householders, other than to encourage them to vote. What are they afraid of? That people might take the trouble to read the cursed EuroCon?  Ha!
The leaders of Europe got so scared at the start with negative backlash to their latest scam that they were forced to change the title. Out, out, out went the ‘European Constitution’ tag and the ‘European Reform Treaty’ tag entered. It was signed in Lisbon, hence the Lisbon Treaty tag. What is ‘reforming’ about ensuring that if we pass this EuroCon, we also sign away our right to vote in any future European treaty? This is not a reform for the better. This is a reform to enable those with power to have more power and to exercise it as they see fit. A reform that removes power from people is not democratic, it is dictatorial. We did not sign up to a European dictatorship. That is a con, hence the EuroCon. 

WINNING THE WAR WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT
IT now appears that Ireland might be the only country to vote on the acceptance of the EuroCon, thanks to our written constitution. The dollops of guilt will be spread thickly over us for the next few months. “If we do not vote in favour we could scupper Europe.” Baloney! Let’s scupper Europe, without ever firing a shot! Let the people of this little corrupt republic give the proverbial Harvey Smith sign to those who have at last weaved words that will finally kill off  our chances to say ‘no’ to them.
If the EuroCon is passed it rules out all future referenda, as stated previously. It is time to prove to desk-top brains that real people exist. It is time to prove that we think, move and have our being on this planet. We cannot be reduced to consumers or numbers for the convenience of suit-clad corridor walkers with corporate ambitions. A clear message must be sent to Europe, even clearer than Nice 1, to the Irish Government and the other political parties that Ireland says ‘No’ to a EuroCon and ‘Yes’ to retaining the power to make decisions.
It is disheartening to think that men died for this country and those who espouse that political ancestry are racing around signing away our sovereignty. On December 13, 2007, the EU leaders signed the Treaty of Lisbon, after several years of ‘negotiation’ about institutional issues. The EuroCon has to be ratified by January 1, 2009, less than one year away.             
Where oh where are the foot soldiers of destiny whose hearts beat in tune with the march of heroes of years past? On European matters the political divide does not exist, in Leinster House at least. The trenches tell a different story. If only the trenches would find their voices. So many are so mute when it comes to sovereignty and Europe. Why the silence? Have grassroots members also been muzzled?