Is Crotty killing off any sane domestic consideration of Irish foreign policy?

Before the landmark Crotty vs the Taoiseach judgement in 1987, the Irish Constitution had amassed nine amendments in the previous fifty years of its existence. In the twenty five years since it has scored another seventeen. Some of those were responses to the massive social changes the country has undergone in those years. Three originate from reversals of previously negative decisions over the very sorts of treaties Anthony Crotty originally hoped to stymie, and a fourth though approved is still …

Read more…

Would Ireland really need a Referendum on Treaty change?

Paul doesn’t like themdoesn’t like them, but there is some limited evidence (according to the Spectator this week) that populations which are regularly consulted and feel part of the political process are happier than those who are not. In Ireland the population is so rarely consulted (and her politicians so rarely called upon to publicly justify policy), that it always feels like a game of political Russian roulette, with four of six chambers loaded. Yet the Irish Times’ leader today …

Read more…

AV Referendum: Don’t vote – it only encourages them! #meh2av

I hope you don’t vote in the AV referendum today. A while ago, I posted a general criticism on the use of referendums. As I put it then, using a referendum to choose an electoral system is like using trial-by-combat to pick the winner of a peace prize. The conduct of the AV campaign has vindicated the strongest of these criticisms – and then some. We will be told over the next few days that a No verdict (a certainty, …

Read more…

Why referendums should be banned

In the not too-distant, we are going to be offered a referendum to decide which voting system we prefer in the UK and Northern Ireland. This is the equivalent of being offered a trial-by-combat to decide who should be awarded a peace prize. There is little evidence that referendums make a vote fair. Nor are they widely seen as a means of forming good policies. Yet they have gradually slipped into the British constitution in recent years without much discussion …

Read more…