Monday, June 16, 2008

An Acorn Hoping to Be an Oak Tree

A reader sends information on a blog devoted to voting on the Lisbon Treaty. He says (and this may be a quote from one of the pages at the website; I’m not sure. I looked without finding it so perhaps these are his own words:

Do you think Free Europe Constitution should continue its referendline?

The Irish referendum was a victory for the No votes. No to the Lisbon Treaty.

What will now happen? Will the EU Commission continue as if nothing has happened? Will the politicians in the EU member states take NO for an answer - or just a failure of communication?

Welcome to give advice to Free Europe under “DISCUSSION” at the front page of [the website]. The responses will determine the future of this vote-online site.

Free Europe is a private, positive initiative. It is a contribution to a widening public agenda in Europe. It is independent from parties and organizations. It is the first possibility for all Europeans and their friends worldwide to have a common say about the future path of European affairs.

Astonishing, fascinating, and promising.

There are several interesting things about this site…
- - - - - - - - -
For one thing, the Yes vote significantly outdraws the No category. I don’t know if they have set up procedures to prevent people from voting more than once. I say this not because I am in favor of a No majority (though I am), but because those Europeans who tend to read blogs would be more likely to vote No. The vote is so overwhelmingly skewed to a positive outcome that it makes me wonder if the administrators of the blog have any security measures in place to prevent multiple votes.

The second thing is that the blog is not new. There are comments dating back to last year, so it’s been around for a while.

Third, I think the idea deserves to go viral, just to give a relief valve for high feelings, and, in addition, to measure the pulse of this movement. If the €U had any testicular fortitude or integrity, they’d have put up something like this for its citizens a long time ago.

But you don’t rise to the top of bureaucracies by displaying either of those virtues, so it remains to the average Tommy, François, or Guglielmo to make his voice heard in one form or another.

It may be that the €U is favored by a majority of people who live on that continent. But there isn’t any way to determine this because their governments are so cravenly greedy and want desperately to snatch their part of the booty.

The €U upper echelon are definitely pirates. Just more organized.


Hat tip: KGS @ Tundra Tabloids

3 comments:

CarnackiUK said...

Referendline???

Another page at the site puts the question in a more understandable form:
Should Free Europe Constitution continue this vote online site?

'Free Europe Constitution' refers to the website, not to the Lisbon Treaty or its antecedent.

It now becomes clearer why there are many more votes for 'Yes' than for 'No' - people are voting in support of the site and not the EU.

I agree with Dymphna that a straightforward question on support or rejection of the Treaty would be much more relevent (and comprehensible!)

Henrik R Clausen said...

As we'd say on Slashdot:

SlowNewsDay

If nothing more important is up, it's a pretty damn fine day. And the view over the lake from here seems to confirm it :)))

IgnorantInfidel said...

Some additional context to the Lisbon Treaty can be found at
Essay:The Great Deception Part1 and Irish Voters Reject Lisbon Treaty

Both post expose the secrecy surrounding the Lisbon Treaty and many of its predecessors. As with all strictly political solutions to social issues the cure is more often than not worse than the disease.