Euro federalists bully us and buy our vote

The run-in to the Lisbon II vote on Friday, which should have been an example of a 2009 modern European democratic exercise at work, has become a depressing and shabby experience.

If anything, it has only heightened concerns about any prospect of a visible and accountable European political entity emerging at the end of it all.

These have been terrible days for Irish democracy.

From the outset, the Euro federalists were outraged that ...