Dublin Opinion

Cheers to Gavin’s Blog for this one.

I’m just about to go to bed, but before I do, a quote from John Waters’ article in the Irish Times this morning.

There has been much said this past week about democracy and the will of the people. The people have spoken and the people cannot be wrong. But, in my father’s time, when the people spoke, they did so after informing themselves of the issues and reflecting at length. Tom Waters despised de Valera with every fibre of his being, but voted for his Constitution because he admired it immensely. He was as proud of that document as if he had written it himself. He resisted many subsequent attempts to amend it, but always on the basis of the arguments - never because he did not understand them.

And the basis of Waters’ argument about the No voters? Yep. The European Commission report as covered in the Irish Independent and Irish Times.

A survey of 2,000 voters conducted by the European Commission immediately after the vote revealed that more than 70 per cent of those who voted No believed the treaty could easily be renegotiated.

This poll also found that many people who did not understand the treaty voted No; that the overwhelming majority of women voted No; that young people voted No by a margin of two to one; and that immigration (ie, xenophobic sentiment) was a significant factor in the No vote.

A report that, according to the two national newspapers, has 15-17 yr olds voting, has a totality of 105%, and has not as of yet been published, even though the Irish Independent told us all that it had last Tuesday!

not only that, the European Commission has distanced itself from Irish media reports, stating for the record that

the report has not yet been published, what’s in the press did not come from us.

- We are still in the process of compiling and collating the data

- We will publish the results when we are satisfied that they are reliable and accurate

What’s absolutely hilarious is the fact that Waters bases his entire article on what he sees as the inability of the Irish people to do the necessary legwork and find out the facts.

What an idiot.