I posted my own tuppence worth on the ‘done deal’ for Lisbon II a couple of days ago on Brassneck. The draft resolution reads like a sales brief to a regional sales director who cocked it up last time; along with with the instruction: now redo your pitch! The payoff? The Regional Sales Director gets a permanent seat (ie a Commissioner) on the board for life (along with everyone else). The brief will provide the Irish public with a ‘negative’ focus on what is not there, rather than what is. It will not, nor seemingly was it ever intended, to buy off the Euro sceptics since there the resolution makes a lot of promises with little in the way of detail. And only most atavistic anti Europeans will rejoice at the corrosive burden now placed on an already creaking European bureaucracy, in giving every member country a free gift they may want, but will never likely need.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty