Out of the Oil and All Around Fire

I flicked on the City Channel or Channel 6 or something to see one of many Lisbon Treaty debates. On it Yes-man Garreth Fitzgerald interrupted No-man Richard Boyd Barrett. From there I switched to RTE's Primetime where Yes-man Pat Cox interrupted No-woman Patricia McKenna and Yes-man Íñigo Méndez De Vigo interrupted well, everyone, but especially No-man Jens-Peter Bonde, who wondered aloud why everyone was picking on him (because 'we like what you say' answered De Vigo). Is it just me or are the entire Yes-camp basing their arguments on shouting down everyone else? I am, and have always been a committed European, but something stinks here and it's not just in the state of Denmark. It's hardly an argument to vote 'No', but I am getting pretty damn sick of the main Yes-men.

Of course, Pat Cox is hardly a recommendation to vote 'Yes'. I had to clean my television screen after the programme, it was so smeared with his oily presence. The best argument he seemed to come up with was that the 'No' camp were supported by 'Gerry Adams and his Neo-Marxists'; hardly a constructive comment there, Paddy.

I still wonder how Eamonn Gilmore and the Labour Party can be so fully behind the Treaty when the main worker friendly elements, such as collective bargaining, have already been rejected as being definitely adopted by Brian Cowen. How come our Government can suddenly cherry-pick what they want? I thought it was the Treaty or nothing? And why do we reject one of the few obvious bright spots?

I'm definitely a maybe and probably will be until the very last moment.