Politics can’t be put on hold for Lisbon Sunday, August 30, 2009 We are firmly in support of a Yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum. This is principally because the consequences of a No vote would carry serious economic and political risks.
However, we feel suggestions that vital national business must be delayed until after the vote is misplaced. Our political system has already had a generous summer break. We cannot afford to wait another month for the Lisbon vote before making progress on the key issues that face us.
The public is well able to separate the key issues. The government needs to get on with the Nama legislation, publish the Commission on Taxation report and work ahead on the December budget in September.
We do not have time to waste. It also, of course, needs to make the case for the Lisbon Treaty in a much more convincing way than it did last time. We need to be spared the lectures on why Lisbon is ‘‘good for us’’ and instead hear reasoned arguments from our political leaders about why we should support the treaty.
The opposition have a responsibility here as well as the government .The parties which support the treaty need to come out and say so, unequivocally. There is no point in sitting back and hoping to gain some domestic political advantage from a second No vote.
There are plenty of issues this autumn for genuine party political argument, to such an extent that the future of the government looks uncertain. However, the Lisbon Treaty should not be one oft hem.
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