For those who voted yes, and are dissappointed.

PopeBuckfastXVI

I appear to be all out of thanks', but thanks!

eoin2nc

NO- feckin LC....
NO
YES (even though it would kill me to work alongside FF)

hmmm

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Perhaps people with different expertise could take different FAQ's, also I would like to run a Petition off the same site which would call for another Referrendum.

...
I feel that we should be taking immediate steps to educate people, and point out where they were lied to, and build a consensus towards a second referendum.

I'm absolutely interested in this, what has happened is too serious to muck around in this twilight zone. This is our future economic wellbeing at stake and it has already been badly damaged. We should try and run a serious ground up campaign which explains the objectives and benefits of the EU, what the Lisbon treaty means and challenges any false accusations from the "no" side.

As you said, I think it is important that we let our politicians know that we want another vote on this and this time we want people to have adequate time and information to understand this treaty.

I wouldn't like to see any politicians associated with this, they have made a complete balls of the campaign to date and they simply aren't trusted. In fact, the more abuse we could hurl at politicians the more it would help us.

ixtlan

hmmm wrote: »

As you said, I think it is important that we let our politicians know that we want another vote on this and this time we want people to have adequate time and information to understand this treaty.

I wouldn't like to see any politicians associated with this, they have made a complete balls of the campaign to date and they simply aren't trusted. In fact, the more abuse we could hurl at politicians the more it would help us.

I agree but we do need to tread carefully. At an absolute minimum the government needs to get some declarations on the treaty to clarify concerns of no voters. How binding is a "declaration"? I recall I think in Nice II the no side saying they weren't worth much and saying they did not resolve any issues at all. Now in that case a larger turnout saved the day, but this time I'm not so sure.

Also, there is the concern that too quick an attempt to have another referendum may be taken very badly indeed by the public.

Surely, any discussion of options would wait until after the Czech's and all other countries ratify? So, we would be in to next year. Then there are the MEP elections in June, which politicians will not want to interfere with, though the EU will be annoyed that the new rules on MEP number cannot apply.

At that point we are less than 2 years away from needing a new treaty for the accession of Croatia, and you can imagine politicians figuring 2 birds one stone.

Maybe I'm being pessimistic? I'd love another vote tomorrow, but I can't see it happening for a long time.

ix

bringitdown

No
No
Yes

Ditto.

In the debates before and after Lisbon so many mates were to put it mildly scared of 'worst' case scenarios. Despite refuting such concerns as clearly as possible, time and time again they defaulted with a No.

Sometimes I get the feeling of people internally thinking 'yahoo, we got the feckers, take the money and run'.

I do agree the Yes campaign was shoddy a picture of your local TD is not a convincing argument.

The campaign should have celebrated the fact for the first time in my memory all major parties were agreed on something (well apart from the other EU referenda!). Not only that it should have celebrated the EU.

• Joint campaign with a single look and feel on posters. (FF, FG, PD, Lab + pro EU lobbies)
• Joint clear website with evolving FAQ answered by independent experts and TD's themselves in plain English and Irish.
• Focus on clear positives from EU and Lisbon.
• A exhibition in major towns of the history of Ireland in the EEC, EC and EU.
• Reminding how amazing the EU has been for us and how integral it was/is to the Celtic Tiger(s).
• No smiley faced TDs on posters

There are plenty of other things.

On what we can do now perhaps pledge to a million-man march on pro-EU in Dublin!

PopeBuckfastXVI

I take the points about immediate re-runs, but I very much don't want the politicians to think they can fob us off with a severely watered down treaty or ridiculous halfway house either.

Now, as much as ever it is important for our voices to be heard.

I think the FAQ site to start with, the sooner the better, is a good idea.

Hopefully it can evolve into a living site, perhaps with several of you taking time to write pro Lisbon/EU blogs/articles from different perspectives e.g. Social Democrat, Economic Libertarian, Youth, Senior etc. The more the merrier!

Then when the time is right and there is sufficient profile we can begin the lobbying process... if we do it right the Meeja/Politicos should have well picked up on us by then, and we might be in a position to make statements through press releases, the way other lobby groups do.

EDIT: I wouldn't be so hasty to reject Politicians, I'll accept help from wherever it comes, I have absolutely zero experience of public relations, or politics, I'm not a member of any party and I've only voted in 2 GE's. I just care about this thing too much to not be motivated.

For once I find myself on the outside of the mainstream, believe me I've just been radicalised!