Referendum if he gets re elected in 2015.

yes you couldn’t have put it better , I’ve been saying this all along that politicians are supposed to be servants of the people who elect them , but it turns out that we are all servants of eurocratic Brussels

Every time some country tries to leave this giant cult, we are threatened with financial Armageddon. Same when we had notions of letting our private zombie banks (to call Anglo a bank is an offence to the word “bank”, it was more like a financial septic tank), same response, “you can’t because the world will basically implode”. Anything that doesn’t fit in with this bureaucratically fuelled ideology that has taken over the EU project, gets threatened with ruination. So much so, that the UK will be lucky if they ever get to see a referendum on this subject, and if we were ever managed to get one here, we know well we’d be told to keep voting until we gave the required answer.

How people think that is healthy to remain a part of something like this, is something that I can’t get my head around these days.

That is spot on iGarage.

Amen

Amen times 2

Amen x 3….wit an aul hail mary thrown in!

Bacoxy
I think you may have that wrong. It seems Cameron is putting the Conservative Party before the British people! That’s the way the UK and European press read it today and methinks their correct.

Yer dead right! Like Cameron has even heard of the likes of Mehole Martin! And even if by some freak of nature he has,, like he gives a rats micky what Mehole thinks. Friggin laughable!

the irony of it is that the unemployment rate now is higher than most of the 80s rates , what would the country be like today if instead of signing maastricht Fianna Fail stepped aside and organised a politician x factor to recruit proper leaders who could have developed an indigenous based economy as opposed to the ‘short term’ come and go economies that the EU brings

One is a primary school teacher, the other is a secondary school teacher.

Home schooling is the way to go so.

@ VA – well said…lol

You have to laugh… In between whimpering

I agree. The EU has evolved from a common market and currency (a good thing by all accounts) to a sovereign entity dictating terms to member states whose rules and courts take precedent over no longer sovereign members’.

A lot of idiots voted and if they got it wrong they voted again the “right” way….
The sooner people realise our economy is so different to main land European countries the better channce we have of surviving this recession. Id be all on for leaving the Euro!!! And before anyone gets in their high horse… Just think about the fact our government thinks its a good idea-cos so far everything they’ve said would help us clearly has…..

Karens right. As an exporting economy being able to control the value of our own currency (a la china) would be a major boost. The UK needs the EU far more than we do. We export mainly to the UK and US so the loss to us would be less than people imagine. Plus we could abandon our debts (but obviously then balance our budget)

Spot on John!

@John, amazing how quick people forget the pressure the Irish punt was coming under before we joined the euro and our deficit was nothing lkike it is now

The nerve of that man. He who was as guilty as the rest of that FF government that brought this country to its knees. I think he would be better off keeping his mouth shut. He’s one of the criminals that voted for the blanket bank guarantee that destroyed Ireland. As if anyone in Britain would listen to that gangsters opinion.

Also Martin would want to cop himself on and realise that the fastest growing parties around europe are in fact anti eu parties , for example Dansk Folkeparti of Denmark and UKIP of Britain , True Finns of Finland etc etc

Ah cut the bull, we let our own property developers run wild, nothing to do with the EU. In fact around the turn of the millennium the EU had strong words for McCreevy who was spending like there was no tomorrow and over-inflating the economy.

Higgins…. nothing to do with the EU??? And I guess seein as ur a member of the Continuity FF party, that is FG, that ur opinion is probably fairly reflective of yer partys view too.

Yer assertion is so ridiculous… Firstly we, in Eire, had no control of interest rates courtesy of our good friends in the ECB, which absolutely fueled that crazy manic building boom. Did the euro really suit our economy, or did it suit Germanys economy?

Secondly, all we need do is look at how the EU treated us during and after the bailout….

FFS

And they won’t stop onto they get what they want and thats is a fed E.U. and what will Ireland agree

John
Your wrong actually! Most of our exports go to the EU excluding the UK. Funny how a political view can be based on incorrect information!

I think we need to do the exact opposite to what ever it is that some of the big businesses here and IBEC want us to do!!!! Seriously I like the single euro currency and most European people’s, but that’s as far as it goes. IMO we need to get out of the EU more so now than ever, default on the entire debt, hence eliminate all mortgage and personal debt, create a new bank owned and controlled by the irish people, peg ourselves against the USD or STG and start living again. With no debt overhanging then our salaries we get could be reduced drastically and we can set proper pay scales for all and start a fresh only this time with proper leaders. We could get rid of the Seanad completely, create a new electoral system that works and simply the entire public sector. Why do we have 15 different rates of PRSI??? Seriously…, simplify simplify simplify…

As for why I don’t trust IBEC the main reason is this…. they seek to make the wealthy wealthier at a huge cost to the ordinary citizen. My justification for this reasoning is simple and can be backed up by a recent report published on the journal a couple of weeks ago. The Dept. of Justice released figures showing that there were ~ 80000 successful irish visas applications in 2012… Yet we also know that approx 100000 young Irish people are leaving this country each year. Now my question is how can this be let happen??? Most Irish people would take many off the jobs on offer these days simply to get back to work, but the fact is that big businesses like the big meat/chicken processing plants, fruit processing company’s, manufacturing plants etc. all want/demand and lobby IBEC and they in turn lobby the government of the day to allow such huge numbers of non EEA to allow mass immigration of people who they (big business that is) can and do, unfortunately, easily exploit e.g. Brazilians, Russians, Indians etc….

http://www.thejournal.ie/visa-immigration-ireland-2012-737991-Jan2013/

So u see IBEC are representing the rich and successful big businesses and lobbying government to allow for mass immigration and portraying it and pawning it off as a jobs shortage in the ITC sector when in fact I reckon it’s actually mass immigration to fill jobs in many many sectors.

So its full steam
ahead and the irish government are facilitating the emigration of the well educated jobless young irish and the ‘sure to be soon uprising trouble making’ people whom will seek change with the cheap and easily exploited sheepish (no disrespect intended but they know if they don’t tow the line there out) non EEA people’s…. And IMO this is what both IBEC and the government want…. It helps both stay in power for longer…

If I’m wrong don’t red thumb me i rather if u disagreed and stated a reason/reasons.

I want an island of Ireland for all of its people’s to benefit equally (not some more equally than others) and use all of her resources for the sole benefit of the people’s living on this island. My vision my dream…

Barry
What an intellectual contribution. Real top drawer stuff with outstanding language. Please take yourself to the top of the class.
By the way ……that’s a very special class !

Really mark you thinks you can believe mainstream press / media . Well me thinks it’s pr , spin ,propaganda .

@mark , you chastise someone for their use of language , and you say in one of your own comments ” methinks their correct ” . Not the brightest .

Republican ideals that,s a good one Robin i cracked a rib there.

What about Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland?

England/UK same thing. England makes all the decisions. It’s England’s way or England’s way.

“England/UK same thing.”

Tell that to the Sweaties and the Taffs.

Quite the economic visionary you are too, Eileen

As it turns out, Eileen may in fact be right by her terminology. The Scots are typically very pro-EU. With a referendum on Scottish independence likely to have a result heavily influenced by the likelihood of a UK withdrawal from the EU, it could well be a case of Scotland remaining in the EU as an independent successor state to the rump UK while England and Wales go their own way. As for Northern Ireland – who knows…

It thinks it’s hosting the Nobel Prize Awards?

We’ve seen here on several occasions, what flavour of “democracy” that the EU affords to people: “no matter what you tell us, we’ll just keep asking you to hold referendums until we get the correct answer out of you and your wishes comply with our ideology”. At least if the UK gets a vote on membership, they wouldn’t tolerate being asked again in 12 months time on the same deal. There is something seriously shítty at the very centre of the EU and it’s about time the whole thing was exposed for what it is, a giant bureaucratic cult that doesn’t serve anyone except those engaged in the infinite offices and quango’s that run this monstrosity.

Good man, Kevin. You might want to take a wee look at the history books and do a “before & after the EU” comparison in Irish economics.

The Celtic Tiger was between 1995-2008, while Ireland has been in the EU since the 70s. Was the Celtic Tiger economy really that great in the end? How long has Ireland been an independent country? You can also credit Eamon de Valera/the Roman Catholic Church for keeping Ireland poor and uneducated after independence. Oh wait and what party did he belong to? Fianna Fail have been in control the last 14 years (1997-2011). The same party that oversaw and didn’t (ignored all warnings/signs for short term profit at the expense of the whole country) even try to prevent the collapse of the Irish economy or care to.

Hey Vincenzo it all comes down to what did we owe then and what do owe now .Did we have electoral control of the country do we have it now.

@jack- actually it comes down to standard of living, employment, infrastructure, prospects.

Jasus Vincent, which side are you taking! Cause yer deffo makin the euro-skeptics case there ole son! lol

Vincezo do you not thin that we would not have came with modernization anyway surely we would have moved on from the reign of De Velera and Haughy naturally i think we could have managed that .Then again when you have FF FG successive Governments for 50 years maybe it might have been a struggle .

@jack- economic power houses in Europe & across the world are terrified that the emergence of the highly populated BRIC nations will render them irrelevant and you want little old Ireland to follow an economic path predicated in the potential of the peat cutting and roof thatching industries. Please.

There is a thing called Free Makes another thing called Exports another thing called oil another thing called gas another thing called wind another ting called fish another thing called wrong guys in power wrecking all the god given moneybags we would have in this country but we dont because of Imperialist snobfoolerys like set government and old english gentleman.

Markets.

I’d be very careful about quoting YouGov polls , on their website you can actually look at the questionaires and the numbers of people who completed them , sometimes the numbers can be very low – around 50 people or less , if this is the case it is hardly representative of the overall picture , if you can go now and get us the actual number of people who were polled .

the sample for this survey was 1912 and not “50 people or less”

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/1ix1a52xzw/YG-Archive-Pol-Sunday-Times-results-18-200113.pdf

1,912 out of a population of over sixty million people, hmmm……..

That’s never going to be a popular idea, with the British.

You know, ask the Brits, most of them are of part Irish descent… Could be like Scotland! And should have been like Scotland!

Even if it’s a cynical tactic on Cameron’s part to get re-elected, I for 1 am glad he had the ‘cojones’ to give that speech. Rather than continuing to sheepishly follow the dictates of the EU without questioning, without any real voices of dissent or opposition from European leaders, I believe he has exposed the ‘elephant’ in the room by addressing issues and concerns EU citizens have. He’s the first European leader to speak out, all others seem to be afraid of Germany getting upset. I hope the reform he is looking for is carefully considered as I believe it’s badly needed. The way it is at the moment, the very life is being sucked out of us. Something does need to change!

Many feel that we live in a dictatorship…why would we want to continue living in that system when its a disaster for us and the planet…theres 100000000s of ways to make things simpler for everyone…Iceland and the type of society there could happen here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/10/scottish-independence-british-irvine-welsh
“On wider political issues, he considers that the peace process in Northern Ireland could be encouraged if the Irish Republic felt more like part of a “shared geographical” entity with Britain.

“This state has stopped England from pursuing its main mission, namely to build an inclusive, post-imperial, multi-racial society, by forcing it to engage with the totally irrelevant (from an English perspective) distractions of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland,” he writes on the Bella Caledonia website.

“From the viewpoint of the Scots, it has foisted 35 years of a destructive neo-liberalism upon us, and prevented us from becoming the European social democracy we are politically inclined to be.

“Therefore I’m advancing another proposition: political separation could promote the cultural unity that the UK state, in its current form, with its notions of ‘assumed Englishness’ is constantly undermining.”

He refers to last summer’s Olympic celebrations, put together by director Danny Boyle, who turned Welsh’s book Trainspotting into a hit film.

“Despite the shallow flag-waving social engineers in government and sections of the media, who tried to turn it into a bread-and-circuses propaganda event, the Olympics were the best expression of inclusive Britishness we’ve had for decades,” he argues.

“Danny Boyle, in a couple of hours, did more to assert democratic socialist values over neo-liberalism than the UK Labour party has managed to do in almost 40 years. But it was also nostalgic; it mirrored not just what many of us still aspire to, it showed us what we have to accept we’ve irredeemably lost.

“But I cheered just as ecstatically when Brad Wiggins crossed the line as when Chris Hoy did, and plenty other Scots I know did too. So post-UK, why not, for example, just keep the British Olympic team?”

He contrasts the countries that make up the UK with those of Scandinavia, in an attempt to dispel any notion that Scottish political independence could lead to “conflict” or distrust.

“If we rid ourselves of the political imperialist baggage of the UK state, new possibilities emerge,” he continues.

“For example, it would become feasible for Ireland, as an established sovereign nation, to see itself as part of a shared geographical and cultural entity.

“This, in turn, brings potential opportunities for the continued development of the peace process in Northern Ireland.

“The idea of the political independence of England and Scotland leading to conflict, hatred and distrust is the mindset of opportunistic status-quo fearmongers and gloomy nationalist fantasists stuck in a Bannockburn-Culloden timewarp, and deeply insulting to the people of both countries.

“Swedes, Norwegians and Danes remain on amicable terms; they trade, co-operate and visit each other socially any time they like.

“They don’t need a pompous, blustering state called Scandinavia, informing them from Stockholm how wonderful they all are, but (kind of) only really meaning Sweden.”

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actually I think you’ll find we had plenty of roads before we joined the EU in 1993 , yes we got funding to build new roads but there is nothing to suggest that given the right political leadership that an Independent nation state could not self generate such funding 10 times over !! , I mean look at the ROSingapore ,appearing in the top 5 GDP per capita economies of the world in reports prepared by the IMF and world bank , yes the prospects for Independent Sovereign states looks quite promising , lets just go back to free trade agreements and keep it at that

It’s interesting how whenever Ireland votes “No” on a treaty they just dismiss the vote until it comes out to the result they like…..Hm democracy in action.

Nonsense. The UK has been a contributor to the EU budget since 1973. No half contributions either. The UK is the second highest net contributor to the UK budget to the tune of €3.5bn a year.

Simply evaluate they don’t accept everything without question doesn’t mean they’re not part of the club.

Hey Andrew, what makes ya think the euro will survive til then? .. it is in a tad of shite too, or did dat escape yer notice? hahaha

If he gives a referendum on in/out of Europe he will, with a landslide.