Referendum day (redux)

Having voted 'no' in the first referendum, the Irish have been made to vote again on the European Treaty.

I'm pretty conflicted on this one. Like many socialists, I distrust the EU as a capitalist plot. On the other hand, all other European countries are better than Britain, particularly when it comes to work/life balance, worker protection, dashing off to illegal wars because America says so, climate change… you get the picture. So I support the EU as a counterbalance to the appalling governments we get in the UK and Ireland (which has a tiny capitalist/government elite which has bankrupted the country through shocking crony capitalism - suitcases of cash for pols, planning permissions, secret loans to bank directors etc. etc. etc. Ideally, I'd like a USSE…

So I hope that my sister and my cousins are all voting yes on the basis of the lesser evil, but it still sticks in the craw that a nation's vote can be set aside in this way. Sure, the previous campaign was marred by distortion and communications, but a vote's a vote. That's the point of democracy - people make mistakes and have to live with them, and our representatives should accept that.