This time vote with your head - The promises politicians make

THE natural cycle of politics, domestic and international, has gone through a gear change in recent days. For the next while that cycle will accelerate culminating in various elections, the formation of new governments, and possibly even new, more difficult international relationships.

Today’s expected confirmation by Taoiseach Enda Kenny of an election date — Friday, February 26, apparently; the long-awaited end of the phoney war in America’s presidential race as the results of the Iowa primaries provoke the inevitable cull of candidates; and the possibility of a vote on Britain’s EU membership within six months, will have meaningful consequences for everyone in each of those countries.

Should Britain vote to quit the EU, and we must fervently hope that they do not, that decision would have a negative impact far beyond the reach of the House of Commons. Spain’s inconclusive vote on December 20, one that returned the most fragmented parliament in that country’s history, feeds into the narrative that the EU, increasingly divided over how to cope with millions of immigrants, needs a steadying hand on the tiller. The very real possibility of Catalonia bowing to the old, tarnished gods of insular nationalism and voting to secede from Spain must exacerbate those fears.