Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Can Tony Blair win a referendum on the EU Constitution?

Options
  • 25-06-2004 12:18am
    #1
    arcadegame2004
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,406 ✭✭✭


    Any "Yes" votes in our referendum (as well as how Spain, Portugal, Czech republic etc.) won't really count for much if the UK rejects it. At the moment, opinion-polls in the UK show 2/3rds against and just 24% in favour.

    It looks like Blair will play the long game, delaying a referendum until a prospective Labour re-election (far from certain that re-election will happen) in 2005, possibly hoping that previous "Yes" votes will help sway public-opinion.

    What do you think? Can the Brits be persuaded?

    I personally am convinced they can't be. The British press are almost unanimously anti-EU. The broadsheets are mostly Eurosceptic and most of the tabloids (especially The Sun) are positively Europhobic (except the Mirror).

    There is also the problem of the British ego. As the former master of a vast empire many of them (though not all) consider themselves, well, of superior intellect and as such they are distrustful and often scornful of the EU as its conception was devised originally by mainland Europeans, and they took no part in that.

    I guess bigger states are bound to have bigger egos. But look where that led before 1945? There is a need to rise above the "them versus us" outlook and act in common to resolve common problems.

    Can the British be persuaded to back the EU Constitution? 1 vote

    Yes
    0% 0 votes
    No
    100% 1 vote


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    bonkey
    Registered Users Posts: 15,443 ✭✭✭✭bonkey


    Originally posted by arcadegame2004
    What do you think? Can the Brits be persuaded?

    Personally, I'd rank the chances of the British agreeing to this constitution (or any EU constitution in the forseeable future) as being less likely than the Swiss joining the EU and signing such a constitution.

    In other words....No.

    jc


  • Options
    #3
    flogen
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 10,247 Mod ✭✭✭✭flogen


    Its far too early to say, at the moment there is a lot of Anti EU feeling in the UK, and alot of it is because Blair hasnt bothered to tell them how good it really is for them, also, any polls taken until shortly before the vote in the UK will almost certainly be NO, because no one knows what the constiution says or how it effects the UK.

    Wait until the people are educated on what they're voting on, or at least until shortly before hand, then we'll get a good idea.

    Flogen


  • Options
    #4
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    I doubt it. The UK is leaning heavily towards isolationist viewpoints, and renewing their own national identity. Basically theres alot of muppets in the UK, and just like Irelands first referendum towards the Nice treaty went.


  • Options
    #5
    AngelofFire
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,450 ✭✭✭AngelofFire


    Anti Euro sentiment is rife in britain, it all stems from pride in the "almighty british empire". British society is too insular to want to become part of a more unified europe. Tony blair`s popularity has been dented of late with public outrage at the war and British labour`s dire performance in the local and european elections.


Advertisement