Follow the leader
I did something yesterday that was completely out of character.
I voted in the referendums.
I had to drop down to the village anyway for fags and medications [the same thing really?] so I decided that as I was down there I might as well drop into the National School voting centre.
I won’t say how I voted as that is between me and the ballot box. Suffice it to say that I am delighted to see that people across the country have in the main followed my example and voted my way. I always suspected I was an “influencer” but this is beyond my wildest expectations. I am humbled.
Now of course the gubmint will enter a period of mourning trying to work out how it all went so wrong. They will come up with various definitive decisions as to why exactly the vote went the way it did, ranging from Russian hackers to the weather. None of it will be their fault. I can tell them exactly why it went wrong in just two words – “durable” and “strive”.
In the course of the campaign they tried to explain precisely what a “durable relationship” was but no one came up with a simple answer, for the obvious reason that there isn’t one. Am I in an “endurable relationship” with the lads down in the coffee shop? What about Daughter who has a long term partner [i.e. a durable relationship] but is also married to Son-in-Law [i.e. a durable relationship]. Son-in-Law also has a long term partner [i.e. a durable relationship]. Where the fuck do the Grandkids fit into that little tangle?
As for “strive”! I shall strive to take more exercise? Does that mean I am going to? Does it mean I intend to? Does that mean I would like to but just couldn’t be arsed? Am I just pandering to the “woke” and have actually no intention whatsoever?
The only good thing about this referendum was that I never saw a single tatty poster on the local lampposts.
But that’s another €20 million flushed down the pan.
Don’t you just love it when the electorate gives the ruling bunch a bloody nose in a referendum? Well done to all our smart Irish friends.
Across the Irish Sea eastwards, the UK establishment still hasn’t got over losing the Brexit vote, when the great unwashed delivered the ‘wrong’ answer, indeed many UK civil servants are carrying on as if they’d actually won it – yours may also play the ‘ignore the result, carry on as planned’ approach, so keep a wary eye on them.
Even stable and boring Switzerland, which thrives on referenda, has just stiffed its national government by refusing to raise the state pension age, amongst other unpopular proposals. They’ve got spirit too.
It’s a bugger, this democracy thing, but a fun one at times like this.
It wasn’t so much a bloody nose as a slashed jugular. It think it’s an all time record rejection in a referendum [and we have had quite a few]
The Anti-Brexit mob seem to take comfort in the fact that the margin was quite small [a couple of percentage points?], but still a majority is a majority, even if it’s by only one vote.
(RTE website)
Can you imagine a “Political analysis” being begun had the result been the other way? Me neither.
They are all now frantically “reflecting”. Maybe they should reflect on the fact that the Plain Irish aren’t as dim as they had hoped.
UK media seems to be in shock. Asking no one in particular, “What went wrong?”
As a general rule in marriage, and probably gubmint, if you think you might not like the answer, do not ask the question.
Did your new enrichers get to vote? Or would it be rashist to ask if any of them are in a durable relationship?
And by the way ‘n’ that, this is an excuse for showing pictures of your esteemed Teashop, Le O’Varadkar (sounds like rhyming slang, c.f. the UK’s own Chancer of the Ex Chequer). He has that smug durable face that you would never tire of whacking with a good old loy.
Hah! I wasn’t even aware that the UK had noticed.
I used to do the occasional piece on “Faces I would never tire of kicking“. I must revive it!
It was all a piece of nonsense, legislation rushed through in eleven days with no pre-legislative scrutiny.
None of that stuff should have been in the constitution anyway, constitutions are about the manner of governance, not providing prescriptions for people’s private lives.
It would have seemed sensible to have voted just to delete the articles but the neo-liberal Varadkar tried to pull a fast one and use the amendment to absolve the government of a duty of care towards those who had paid taxes all of their lives.
I agree that some of the existing language is somewhat outdated but that’s to be expected. It talks about a woman’s place being in the home but I have never heard of a single court case where that statement has been used as an excuse for anything. As you say – if some find it offensive then just delete it.
Was an allowance made for the women folk to step outside for a few breaths of fresh air every two hours?
If not, then they should at least be allowed to sit by an open window now and again.
Brilliant. Like Declan Kidney’s men kicking them Citizens’ Assemblies in the erm . . .kidneys.
I reckon MyHeritage will sell a few more DNA tests in the UK this month just so us UK peeps can show their friends we got some Irish in us.
Welcome Andrew! I must say I gave an inward cheer at the result [I voted No and No]. I do have issues with the wording of the Constitution but it was the high-handed handling of the affair with an attitude of “we have decided what to replace and you lot just go out and vote for it, like good little children“. They are totally out of touch with the general population.