[ILUG] Eek! McCreevy wants to legalise Software Patents via a US-EU patent treaty

[Thomas Bridge]

2008/5/19 James McCarthy <James.McCarthy at sun.com>:

> Timothy Murphy wrote:

>> This seems a bizarre view.
>> If you think it is a good idea to have a referendum,
>> why complain about it?

> I'm complaining about a lack of referendum everywhere else in Europe, and

There are good reasons for this - I'm told that one of the reasons
Germany doesn't have referenda is bad memories of referenda being used
in the 1930s.

> the one-sided ness this whole thing is being run, have to seen how much
> government (my/our money) and private money has been pumped into the yes
> campaign?

I thought there was a ruling earlier on that said the government
couldn't use money to push one side of the referendum.

> How many people have read our constitution? But it is no less important to
> every person on this Island, every right & protection we have stems from
> that document. The foundation of our government, and as a result our
> country, from our economy to our religious beliefs are built on that
> document.

It's a very strange religion that is based on the Irish constitution.
  Usually those of a religious bent prefer other, older texts, such as
the Bible or the Koran.

As for the point about Nice - the number of votes cast against the
Nice treaty barely moved from the first to the second referendum.
What happened in the first referendum was the yes voters all assumed
they didn't need to vote.   In between, there was a general election
held in which a key manifesto promise was to do a rerun of the Nice
treaty.   So I don't quite understand your complaint.

Thomas

-- 
Thomas Bridge
CCIE #14108