Newsnight: Pluck of the Irish

This is like the dead parrot sketch in Monty Python. Is it dead or isn’t it? Is it sleeping? Is it dormant? It’s dead! — Gavin Esler

Excerpts from BBC’s Newsnight program showing the reaction to Ireland’s negative vote on the proposed Lisbon Treaty.

The Times hailed the Irish “no” vote on the Lisbon Treaty as a victory against “a process hitherto shrouded in jargon and pushed along by the civil servants who invented it.” It said the vote, that was more than 53% opposed, was in Ireland’s own interest, because approval would have meant a dilution of its influence under the proposed changes to majority voting in the enlarged bloc.