Politicians show characteristic respect for citizens

Helped, of course, by their equally respectful friends in the media.

I know of no-one who thought the Lisbon Treaty would force Irish soldiers to fight in an EU army. I know of no No campaigner who claimed it would. I know of no leaflet, poster or letter to the editor from the No camp which made that claim.

What opponents do claim is that it would hasten the creation of a European army whose missions Ireland would have to morally and financially support, even if we weren't actually sending soldiers to fight in it.

But I actually think it's encouraging that the europhiles are scurrying around gathering up all the wrong explanations for Ireland's No to Lisbon. It means they don't want to face up to the true reasons. "The Irish people didn't understand the Treaty!" they splutter. "They thought their sons and brothers would be conscripted off to Afghanistan! They thought they'd be forced to introduce abortion on demand! It was just a protest vote! They only wanted to punish the government!" And so on. They don't want to face up to the real reason, which is that we Irish think the "European project" has gone far enough and we don't want to give any more of our national sovereignty away.

And as for people not understanding the Treaty - do you think that was the fault of the citizens, or of men like this? I don't deny that I met some people who said they were voting No simply because they didn't understand the thing. But there's no shame in not understanding it, since the Treaty was deliberately intended to be incomprehensible. M Giscard d'Estaing says it was, and M Giscard d'Estaing probably knows more about the Lisbon Treaty than anyone. Voting No to a treaty you can't understand seems much more sensible to me than voting Yes to a treaty you can't understand.