Ciaran’s Peculier [sic] Blog

I want to take this opportunity to urge a non-vote in the forthcoming referendum – not a no vote; nor am I advocating abstention. Let me explain.

I have always been a committed European, who has learned several European languages, and who is dedicated to the idea of greater European unity. Our membership of the European family has helped us as a people become more broad-minded and tolerant. It has also benefited Irish people,, though it must be said that some have benefited more than others, especially those involved in the disbursement of European funds.  Yet I am disinclined to vote for this treaty. I believe in a Europe for everyone and I am worried that this treaty has the supported of big business. Also, the government has taken the Irish people for granted once again, and despite the dire warnings being peddled by the government, a no vote is not the end of the world. If they don’t get the result they want the first time, they’ll keep trying until they do. So I am not going to vote yes in the referendum.

What is more it is a bad treaty, cobbled together in a vain attempt to try and win over euro-sceptics. and those who complained much of the enslavement of eastern Europeans by Communism but who sing an altogether less welcoming tune when those same eastern Europeans seek to be treated as equals in the European Union. I agree with some of the arguments of Sinn Fein, the only political party here which has taken anything like a principled stand on the issue. Yet I am not prepared to stand with the racist, rabid, ignorant racaille of this country, for whom everything from suicides to bad weather is the fault of “fucking foreigners”. So, I will not be voting no either.

Am I going to abstain from voting? Oh no, for that would be to ally myself with people who can’t be arsed to vote or take a stance on anything, and who would no doubt respond to the loss of their right to vote – not that it matters that much – with an ungainly shrug of the shoulders accompanied with a phrase such as “Ah, sure what odds?”

One of the few benefits of being disabled is possession of a postal vote, which I intend to use thus. I will take out my ballot paper, look at it, and then place it back in the envelope ready to be posted. I might place a mark in both the yes and no boxes, and I might even draw a small portrait of our dear and much loved taoiseach. It will be counted as either an invalid or a spoiled vote, but that’s just the point – it will be counted. This is what I mean by a non vote and it is what I am asking other people to do in the referendum.

There will be those storm-troopers of democracy who will scream that I should be stripped of my postal vote and should be dragged to a polling station, through the usual circus of party activists all of whom are to a greater or lesser extent breaking the law. But once there, what I choose to do in the confines of the polling booth is up to me, and so long as my actions there conform to accepted norms of decency and hygiene, they are my affair and no one can force me to do anything – least of all vote for a person or a particular proposition. .