why i’m STILL voting “yes” on lisbon

Just over one week ago, I published a post here on my blog entitled “Why I’m voting ‘Yes’ On Lisbon”.

My intention was to set out 6 reasons which, when taken together, persuaded me to vote yes in the upcoming referendum.

Apparently, I made a balls of it, and instead, I gave the impression that each individual point on its own was enough to convince me, and what’s more, I suggested that if you didn’t feel the same, you were some kind of moron.

I wholeheartedly apologise for this, and I’d like to give it one more shot, but please, remember that this is how I see it. Just me.

This time, I’m going for the analogy.

For me, the EU is like a bus service.

Generally, I like to go places under my own steam, but once in a while, I need to take the bus, and invariably I use the same route.

Now I know there are many drawbacks to the bus service, and we all talk about them every day…

• You have to associate with people you would normally run away from
• They are rarely on time
• They seem to take ages, mostly because they have to keep stopping to let other people on and off
• The people who work for the service don’t seem to really care about you and your journey
• They’re inconvenient in that they rarely bring you all the way to where you want to go

Despite all of those flaws, I’m glad there’s a bus service, and while I would prefer if the people involved in running things did more to correct those flaws, when a push comes to a shove, I’d rather have one organisation overseeing the whole operation rather than separate ones for every route.

Now, it seems, the people that run the service are trying to introduce a new fleet of buses throughout the system, yet as things transpire, only the people who are on my particular route are being given a direct say in whether or not the new models are turned out.

I have three choices. I can vote “yes”, I can vote “no” or I can not vote at all.

First, I have to ask myself what is meant by my voting “yes”.

Will I have to see the new bus model for myself? Will I have to actually travel in it? If I do, will I be confident that I have tested it in every conceivable condition? What about when it rains? What about days that are busier than others? These buses may work fine now but how will I know that they will stand the test of time?

I couldn’t possibly perform all those tests myself even if I didn’t work full time. So I can’t REALLY give a perfectly-informed “Yes”, can I?

But wait a minute – I see a lot of people are trying to persuade me to Vote “No”. [Just so we’re clear I am NOT referring to 73man here – remember, I’m trying to re-word what I was saying BEFORE his retort]. Who are they?

I check their websites. One thing I notice above all else is that despite the fact that I am being asked not to trust the new service, not once on all the major “no” campaign sites do I see someone willing to link their own name with their reasons for me to vote no.

It seems very simple to me. “My name is (INSERT NAME HERE) and I am voting “No” on the Bus Service, for these reasons…” I could at least respect that even if I didn't actually agree with said reasons.

Even the one major political party which is against it won’t put a name on their main page. A picture, yes, but not a definitive name. So why, therefore, should I trust them?

As well as the lack of accountability, the political party in question is one I would personally never vote for anyway, the reasons for which I’m sure I could find another analogy to annoy my readers on another day, just not this one.

Then I notice that there’s a lot more “no” hype around than “yes”. Does this necessarily mean that more people are against it? Or perhaps there are a lot of people who, like me, would rather say “yes” but are afraid to because they don’t have the time to scrutinize the new buses as I outlined above?

This leads me to believe that if I decide not to vote at all, then these nameless nay-sayers, who at best I disagree with on most matters and at worst I don't trust at all, will get their way.

So when all is said and done, and having taken everything I could conceivably think of into account, I come to the conclusion that just because I can’t inspect the new buses myself, I prefer there to be a service than none at all, and I decide to put MY faith in the people who have run it up to now.

Sure, down the line I will probably still be complaining about it, but something tells me I would have been doing that anyway, and I believe that just because I vote "yes", I haven't thrown away my democratic right to challenge the way the buses run in the future.

THAT is why I am STILL voting “yes” on the Lisbon Treaty.

I’m sorry if you don’t agree, but I don’t expect you to, and feel free to comment either way.

But I will say this – if the Irish vote DOES turn out to be “No” after all, nobody will EVER have the opportunity to say they told me so.

How’s THAT for frightening? ;-)