Tail Wagging the Dog

It is difficult,when everyone is complimenting you on how great a financial success Ireland has become, and when one is regularly told that we are the richest nation in the world, to retain one's grasp on reality. I found it especially so recently, when the campaigning for the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was in progress, and then when the result was declared.
The treaty is designed to enhance the centralised decision-making progress for the European Community, which now has twenty-seven members, and twenty-six members have left the decision to their national parliaments. Ireland chose instead to have a referendum in which each citizen could vote, yes or no, for or against adopting the treaty. The result was that there was a margin of about seven per cent against ratifying the treaty.
I saw everything. One poster said "Vote for Ireland in a Strong Europe, Vote No'. One comment I heard was, 'They (Europe) haven't fixed the roads.' If anything were to turn me against universal suffrage, this election would be it. The Irish government seemed to sleepwalk through the whole process.
The European Union has five hundred million residents, and five million have turned it on its head, because the Treaty has to be accepted unanimously by all twenty-seven members.