Referendum to be YET ANOTHER Lisbon Treaty?

Yes, I know, boring topic of conversation. Mind blowingly boring topic of conversation, but as you may know if you're living in Ireland (or even if you're not, you can see how we're doing) there is another referendum to be voted on.

And everyone immediately sighs forlornly and thinks back to the last treaty that the E.U. pushed our way eagerly like the Irish do with food to their guests. Only, unlike food, this wasn't an inviting plate of toasty warm stew, it was cold, bland and spit-it-right-back-out nonsense you get at your school canteen.

No one remembers the last treaty joyfully, I suppose you could say it was catsatrophic. Everyone voted no and so, in an effort to please the E.U., the Government forced it down out throats again. This didn't end well, to say the least -the Irish, of course, threw on their defensive scowls and sarcastic mockery and even those who had voted Yes, began saying they were voting No.

It went through. May I suggest something went wrong in counting those ballots.....?

But on more recent topics, we have the new plate of food pushed our way, surprisingly more appetising looking, like that one time you try the canteen just once more and you think, this might not be so bad. Well, now that I am of an age to actually understand all this economic non sense we got ourselves into, I thought I might as well try and explain it to you.

But first, I had to understand it. Easier said than done, may I say.

I looked it up on the internet to say the least, like I do with everything I don't understand, (A bad habit to say the least, especially when you're an impressionable first year....) and I read through it. It was more inviting looking than I first thought it would be, to tell you the truth.

So I worked my way through it, reading over stuff twice and thrice over just so that I wouldn't make any fumbles in explaining it to you. It's called the Fiscal Stability Treaty and honestly, it doesn't seem so bad. If you support slashing government spending with a Spanish machete meaning that hospitals, schools and all those employed by the government will suffer.

I suppose you could say in response to that, the government doesn't spend much on hospitals and schools anyway, which is a fair point seeing as all hospitals seem to be closing down one by one. People may also say, good enough for those civil servants! Doing nothing and getting paid more than the ministers, another good point on which nearly every Irish person feels inclined to mention every political conversation.

However, it's not as bad as you'd think despite all the impending cuts if it does go through.

To put it straight, Ireland's in a bad way. Seriously bad.... I mean we need a Youth Cafe and the situation Ireland is in is worse than that. We spend too much and our government income just isn't sufficient to cover all this. E.U. , who may not be the most sympathetic of councils at the best of times, are forcing us to pull in our belts and make those cuts so that maybe we'll get out of this slump.

So, the big question -Yes or No. Those who are eighteen and over will all be stepping into those booths; a pen and paper in hand, but those pens may be the most powerful tool they have in that moment. As they finally closed over the curtain behind them, they'll stare down at the ballot paper. Bite their pens. A sweat might break and finally they'll check a box.

Yes.

or.

No.

So, which is it.....

Cuts in spending close to that of a machete-yielding ninja that will at the least help us out of this crisis or increasing debt upon increasing debt and life staying like this, floating in a bad situation and getting worse.

Now, this blog is too long, so go vote or tell people to vote, OK?

-Arma