Does the average voter need to read the Treaty

Handsome_Pete

I've been reading a lot of the Lisbon related debates on Boards in the last couple of days, and was impressed with how many of the posters have read the treaty.

I haven't read it, and, i'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that most of the people who will vote won't have read it. (not much of a limb really,)

I have tried to read it but gave up after 20 pages or so because, a) its not exactly a page turner, and b) it seemed fairly innocous, and sensible.

I have read the referendum commission leaflet, and some of the stuff on the europa website and would consider i have a reasonable grasp of what's involved, my question is, is it possible to make an informed, intelligent decision, and Vote on Lisbon without having read the Treaty?

Daftendirekt

Ideally you should, but if you can can glean the important points through summaries and analyses, it's not absolutely essential. Just be sure to check any outlandish claims against the text itself, whether positive or negative. And always ask for a treaty reference whenever anyone makes a claim about the text.

I haven't read the entire treaty, but I've read the parts that are of interest or relevancy to me, while skimming or skipping bits that aren't.

If you have the patience to wade through the whole thing, then you should, but it's possible to gain a good grasp of its content using other, more to-the-point sources.

ei.sdraob

Handsome_Pete wrote:

Does the average voter need to read the Treaty?

if you have no issues with the referendum commission leaflets (ie they do their jobs and explain the key points to you)

then yes it is possible to make a decision without reading the full text treaty


if you are having doubts then it might be a good idea to dig in deeper but in all honesty the Treaty is a very boring document written by lawyers for lawyers

if you have any questions then don't hesitate to ask here on forum



i suppose a car analogy can be made here your question would be analogous to:

"do you need to know exactly how your car works down to the bolts in order to drive it?"

Handsome_Pete

LIke the car analogy.

Could it be argued that if you intend to vote yes, then you don't really need to read the treaty, but if you intend to vote no, especially on the back of some of the no side's posters/literature, then it might be an idea to give the treaty a quick gander, and if you still want to vote no, well good luck to you.

I skimmed it looking for the free abortions for all etc. articles, and strangely enough, didn't really find anything

meglome

Handsome_Pete wrote: »

LIke the car analogy.

Could it be argued that if you intend to vote yes, then you don't really need to read the treaty, but if you intend to vote no, especially on the back of some of the no side's posters/literature, then it might be an idea to give the treaty a quick gander, and if you still want to vote no, well good luck to you.

I skimmed it looking for the free abortions for all etc. articles, and strangely enough, didn't really find anything

Well pretty much everything the No campaign say is a lie or a misrepresentation. That doesn't also mean there's nothing in the treaty you might not like, it just means what the No campaign are saying isn't true. Personally I'm fine with it, haven't come across anything yet that really bothers me, mostly good stuff.