No to Lisbon, NO to NAMA, No to
Cutbacks
Many people see the NO vote as a way of
driving government from office. VoteNo.ie fully agrees with this sentiment and
believes it to be valid on a number of grounds.
1. The economic strategy of the current
government has been underwritten by the EU Commission. Each of the bank bail
outs that have already occurred has received the express permission of the EU
Commission. This same body prohibits the Irish state providing aid to save jobs
`- but it gives full support to bank bail outs. The Lisbon Treaty gives the EU
Commission greater oversight role on state budgets - and this is reason enough
to vote NO.
2. The programme of cutbacks, which the
government will introduce after the Lisbon vote, is connected to the EU Growth
and Stability Pact. This forces governments to stick within strict limits for
deficit spending. The present programme of cutback is designed to reach those
limits by 2013 - once again as agreed with the EU Commission. In our view, the
government should not be constrained by such neoliberal measures when they
involve great hardship for the people.
3. This government has lost the consent of
the governed. It has received no mandate at an election for its programme of
bank bail outs and cutbacks. It has brazenly claimed that it will stay in office
- no matter what the public feels about it. Given these extraordinary
circumstances, a NO vote is a perfectly legitimate means of imposing the popular
will on this terrible government - particularly as it merely re-affirms what
people expressed in the referendum last year.'
