The Lisbon Treaty dilemma

Madam, - Steven Collins's suggestion (Opinion, August 2nd) that the Government should ratify the Lisbon Treaty despite the result…

Madam, - Steven Collins's suggestion (Opinion, August 2nd) that the Government should ratify the Lisbon Treaty despite the result of the recent referendum demonstrates a breathtaking contempt for democracy. His view reflects the belief among our political elite that the people are stupid and voted No out of ignorance. As one who voted Yes (out of cowardice) it is obvious even to me that all the reasons given by pollsters to explain the No vote can be boiled down to one simple word: mistrust.

In our democracy we delegate decision-making to public representatives. As a result, that power inevitably gravitates upwards, leaving people feeling increasingly helpless in a rapidly changing society, as well as betrayed by broken election promises and suspicious of the cosy camaraderie that develops among politicians, bureaucrats, and their journalistic sidekicks.

Across Europe, alienation from the EU political process has been growing for decades and Giscard's constitution in its various disguises has been the largely innocent, if ill-designed, victim of public suspicion of government by backroom-deal, which has been leading us into an EU we have neither requested nor designed.

The solution is greater democracy. To start with, decisions should be taken at the lowest possible level of society and only those decisions which cannot be made at that level should be delegated to a higher level. All boards and managers of public bodies should be subject to election. All decision-making should be open to public scrutiny.

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The EU needs a constitution; but if a motley collection of 18th-century intellectuals and tobacco farmers could produce a simple, clear document capable of nurturing US democracy and inspiring its people for over 200 turbulent years, surely our expensively educated, highly paid and finely coiffured public representatives can produce a constitution acceptable to the people of Europe.

Should Brian Cowen choose to follow Steven Collins's advice and betray his own people in order to ingratiate himself with his European colleagues, he will be following the example not of Sean Lemass, as Collins suggests, but of Vidkun Quisling - a gentleman whose political career came to an abrupt conclusion in front of a firing squad.

What this country needs now is not a Quisling but a Dan O'Connell. We need a taoiseach in touch with the feelings of his people, who has the guts to fight for a strong and clear European constitution that puts power firmly in the hands of the voter and which is resilient enough to serve the people of Europe long into the future. - Yours, etc,

BRIAN WALL, Glengarriff, Co Cork.

Madam, - Stephen Collins argues that the Government should ratify the Lisbon Treaty in Dáil Éireann, despite a clear instruction from the electorate not to do so. Whether Mr Collins's article constitutes incitement to treason is a question for another day. What is clear, however, is that any government foolish enough to follow such a course of action (and any opposition that supports it) will face a backlash from the people at the next election, the likes of which will have been unseen since the general election of 1918 with its eradication of Redmond's National Party by Sinn Féin.

I imagine if Bill Clinton were asked why the Irish people rejected the Lisbon Treaty, he would most likely reply: "It's the sovereignty, stupid!" - Yours, etc,

Dr DAVID HONAN, Newbawn, Co Wexford.

Madam, - We can forget about a second referendum: it would be taken over by the same groups of anti-EU people who were responsible for defeating the first one. If we had 10 referendums they could do the same.

Having said that, the main problem is that double-edged sword called the Constitution, which puts decisions of such importance in the wrong hands.

Our democratically appointed government must do what it is well paid for, to see that the country is not damaged by such people. It must find a way of bypassing the Constitution on very rare but important occasions such as this. It should decide (preferably with the backing of the opposition parties) whether the answer is Yes or No. - Yours, etc,

ROBERT WARD, Avalon, Blessington, Co Wicklow.

Madam, - Stephen Collins claims that failure to ratify the Lisbon Treaty will reduce us to being a client state of Britain. Given a choice of being a client state of Britain or a client state of the EU, I would choose the former any day as the lesser of two evils. - Yours, etc,

EWAN DUFFY, Woodview, Castletown, Celbridge, Co Kildare.