Little common sense at home and in Brussels

This country may be run by a clown’s convention, but nobody is laughing any longer, such is the state the country is in, despite all the so-called benefits of EU membership.

The carefully-choreographed scenes at Brussels for the impending treaty were ridiculous in the extreme.

The EU seems to be keen on keeping up appearances despite chronic problems that have developed within it.

However, all the sweet smiling and back patting are not going to take the blues away with a debt crisis hanging over it like a albatross waiting for a carcass.

The EU has been chipping away at our sovereignty since the Maastricht treaty in 1993 and now asks that budgetary control be handed over or part thereof. Then we have the AG, on behalf of the Government, deciding whether or not to hold a referendum, when one is clearly needed, such are the national issues at stake and the long-term consequences of ratification. There is clearly an attempt to avoid a referendum and any negative consequences of a negative vote, with the AG and the Department of Justice burning the midnight oil.

What an incredible irony it is that the Government is trying to take any decision out of the Irish peoples’ hands and the EU is trying to take any decision out of the Government’s hands.

Is there are grain of respect or commonsense to be found anywhere?

Maurice Fitzgerald

Shanbally

Co Cork