Nothing Leads To Trouble Like a Strong Central Government
Jun 24th, 2008 | By Bill Bonner | Category: Politics & Economics“Leave it to the Irish,” says Bill Bonner.
Bill is not a big fan of central governments. He thinks the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty was one in the eye for central governments everywhere.
We tend to agree. The Irish ‘No’ was also one in the eye for preening French prime minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
Sarko, as the Europeans like to call him, liked to call the Lisbon Treaty “his” treaty.
According to The Guardian newspaper, “For Sarkozy, the Irish vote is nothing short of a personal disaster as France will be chairing the EU from 1st July onwards. Sarkozy had already written the script of what was set to be a triumphant presidency. Setting up the new institutions set out in the Lisbon treaty should have been one of Sarkozy’s top priorities. This would have included appointing a new EU foreign minister and a permanent EU president in place of the rotating presidencies. Alas, the Irish seem to have spoiled the Sarko show before it even got started.”
When they voted “No” on the Lisbon Treaty, they threw a monkey wrench into the whole European Union project. Now, they are being asked to vote again. And if they don’t approve it this time, they may be expelled from the EU. For the Irish, the Lisbon Treaty vote was a little like James Joyce’s Ulysses. Almost no one had read it. Those that had read it didn’t understand it. But they were proud of it anyway.
This is what we like about Europe. It is a collection of member states that speak different languages, have different cultures, drive on different sides of the road, and can’t even get together on their fundamental documents. It is as if the American states now had to ratify the Constitution…and Rhode Island voted it down. America would be a better place for it, in our opinion. Because nothing leads to trouble like a strong central government.
Erin go bragh… whatever that means.
Source: Zimbabwe’s Opposition Party Decided that Voting Wasn’t Worth Dying for
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Best-selling investment author Bill Bonner is the founder and president of Agora Publishing. Owner of both Fleet Street Publications and MoneyWeek magazine in the UK, he is also author of the free daily e-mail The Daily Reckoning and three best-selling books, Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving The Soft Depression of the 21st Century, Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis and Mobs, Messiahs and Markets..
