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

[James McCarthy]

> 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.
>   
Good reasons perhaps for Germany, if the Germans so choose, everyone 
else however is another matter.
Which highlights the problem with Lisbon (and Nice before it), either 
forcing our methods  on the Germans or have their methods forced on us. 
The U.S. doesn't have this problem, one group of states cannot by a 
majority force laws on another state. But this is exactly what we 
already have (from Nice), and which will be made even worse from Lisbon.

> 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.
>   
Our right to religious freedom is protected by our constitution, you 
probably know that there were (and still are) a good number of countries 
where this is not the case. Communist China (more so in Mao's time than 
today), the Soviet Union,  Saudi Arabia, Myanmar etc. So it's pretty 
essential.
> 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
>   
Have you managed to find a single political party that represents all 
your views? I haven't and don't imagine you have either, which brings up 
a very good reason to have referendums in the first place, because a 
government won't represent the peoples views on all (possibly even most) 
issues.

And the main issue in the general election was the economy, not Nice or 
any other treaty. There are a lot of FF supporters who didn't like Nice, 
and the same goes for FG (an extremely pro EU party).

-- 
- 
James McCarthy
Software Engineer
Solaris PIT Group
Sun Microsystems Ireland.
--------------------------
Phone: +353-1-8119283
Email: james.mccarthy at sun.com
Blog:  http://blogs.sun.com/breakdown
--------------------------