Cowen: does he consider himself incompetent?

I presume Brian Cowen and his government aren't standing for re-election in Ireland. Firstly they ignore what the Irish people who pay their wages decided whilst announcing to the world that they think they are stupid, ignorant people who don't know anything about anything. Oh, and lie to them, of course.

Europe's leaders have agreed on 'assurances' designed to persuade Irish voters to reverse their rejection of the EU constitution.

'Lisbon is adopted,' one EU diplomat said today. The deal was confirmed separately by two other diplomats at the meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

Irish voters will be encouraged to back the document in a second vote next year.

EU chiefs last night agreed in principle key concessions to Dublin at a Brussels summit in return for a re-run of the referendum. They hope the Irish will deliver the 'right' result when they vote again.

When are people going to fucking learn that NO is not a word in the EU's language?

The bastards in Brussels, frantically working out how they can ignore the democratic will of the people in the one state they had to hold a referendum, have come up with a few ways which they can try to convince the Irish that they voted NO because they just didn't understand about how wonderful Lisbon was.

The points they are going to claim they have won a 'victory' on are:

• Retaining Ireland's EU commissioner


• military neutrality


• abortion


• workers' rights


• taxation laws

Frankly, why they think having an Irish Commissioner, and thus more bastard EU Commissioners on large salaries and expenses, is a nonsense on its own. EU Commissioners do not represent the views of the country: (nor do the governments if these talks are anything to go by) their job is to further the aims of the European Union. Claiming this will protect Irish interests is like admitting Peter Mandelson was good for the UK when he was Commissioner in Brussels. The only reason him going there was a benefit was because he left the bloody country.

As for the other elements, I really don't see how they will stand up. The European Court of Justice is supreme, as is EU law to Irish law. There will be an EU armed forces and if Ireland are part of that then they'll be involved. Employment law is decided by the EU and soon their tax powers will be expanded. They already decide the basics on VAT, and take a lump sum, and the base rate for corporation tax.

But the reason I am assuming that Brian and his pals are going to stand down is that by being so determined that the Irish will sign up to the Constitution means they clearly have no faith in their own abilities to govern. He is doing everything he can, including being undemocratic, insulting, deceptive, costly and vile to ensure that power is taken away from the Irish government and handed to the fuckwit EU, unaccountable to the people. So I can only assume that he is going to these extraordinary levels, something us bloggers and most people expect of politicians these days because we know that politicos are in power to further their own interests and to try make us live as they want us to live, because he realises he's shit at being in charge.

By that measure, I hope we can expect Gordon Brown, 'Saviour of the World' (dear God, that's a comic that would never sell) and David Miliband to be stepping down shortly. And, presumably, everyone who voted for the Lisbon Treaty. Their persistence in trying to convince a British public that the Lisbon Treaty was not the Constitution and that it was good for the country could also have been a desperate effort to pass the responsibility of running the last bits of the country they have to do to Brussels.

In Ireland, the opposition were also in favour of the Constitution whereas in the UK it seems that David Cameron has slightly more faith in his own abilities as he doesn't want Lisbon (although he'll happily do fuck all about it if it does get ratified) and wants some competences back, although how he plans to do anything about it when it requires unanimity or withdrawal pretty much implies that it's impossible.

So rather than considering that Cameron doesn't consider himself competent to run the country, with him it's a case of having to apply to Polly Conundrum:

As regular readers will know, the Polly Conundrum is very simple: when faced with a particularly egregious statistical error, one simply asks whether the writer is a moron or a liar. When faced with anything in Comment Is Free, the answer is usually that the writer is both a moron and a liar.

It's probably the case with any politician, too.

Of course, it's really just a fantasy of mine that politicians lack faith in their abilities. The reason that they want the EU is because it's a totalitarian wet dream, a socialist utopia and it means less work for them for the same or, in the case of our beloved MPs, more money.