Madam, – Many of your writers point out that it is not undemocratic to hold another referendum and I agree with them.
What is undemocratic, however, is to ignore the result of a referendum.
After the last referendum result our Government, without any mandate from the people, immediately started to negotiate with European leaders to organise a second referendum.
Democracy is not about voting, it is about carrying out the expressed wishes of those who vote. Sadly in the case of Lisbon this has not been done. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Eugene McEldowney’s claim (June 24th) that a Yes vote in the second Lisbon referendum would be “a shameful overturning of the democratically expressed will of the Irish people in the first referendum” is deeply flawed.
Does Mr McEldowney honestly believe that once the electorate votes on an issue, then the outcome must be set in stone, never to be challenged? Would he consider a change in government to be a shameful overturning of the democratically expressed will of the Irish people in the 2007 general election? I suspect not. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Stephen Kearon (June 24th) is mistaken in his claim that “the people’s concerns will be addressed by legally binding guarantees”. The only things being addressed are the nonsense claims from many on the No side. There is still plenty within the treaty to be concerned about (eg the shrinking of Ireland’s voting power).
All these guarantees mean is that we may get to debate the actual treaty without the misleading scaremongering of conscription to a European army for voting Yes and expulsion from the EU for voting No, to give just two obvious examples. – Yours, etc,