I want to take some time to comment on the campaign on the Nice referendum, particularly by those who oppose a 'Yes' vote. I accept that some of the opponents of Nice are well-meaning. But many of them have destructive, isolationist and rejectionist politics behind their arguments. For example, the hard left-wing parties who oppose Nice do so because they are fundamentally hostile to international trade and investment. The Workers' Party, Joe Higgins and Sinn Fein are hostile to the international companies that account directly for at least 140,000 jobs in Ireland today.
Many more jobs result as a spin-off from international companies trading from an Irish base.
If these left wing parties had their way, they'd drive those jobs out of Ireland. They'd impose high taxes and crippling regulation on all business, international and local, small and large. And just as they used to speak up for the oppressive Communist regimes, they offer nothing but continued poverty and misery to the peoples of Eastern Europe with their wild anti-enterprise policies. We favour this. It is right that the European Union collectively should be able to match rhetoric with action when peoples are threatened with genocide, ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses.