Irish sovereignty 'not for sale'

Dear sir - Brian Cowen has informed us that there will be 'consequences' if we don't accept the new EU constitution/Lisbon Treaty in the upcoming referendum. Aside from this being an obvious attempt at gunboat diplomacy, he would be doing us a favour if he spelt out what consequences a 'No' vote might bring. When Ireland joined the eurozone, the country's external debt was equivalent to 14 per cent of our GDP. We were enjoying the greatest export-driven economic boom the country had ever seen on the strength of a currency devalued by 10 per cent in 1993. After less than 10 years in the eurozone, where we have no currency to devalue and no control over our interest rates, the external debt of this country has risen to €1.67 trillion or 960 per cent of our GDP. This figure can easily be checked on the Central Statistics Office website - it is significant as the second worst external debt ratio in the world. So what 'consequences' does Brian Cowen have in mind when he warns us all not to vote against further erosion of our economic and political independence? Is he afraid that the European Central Bank won't help him to bail out his friends, the bankers? Is he afraid that he will need to govern and legislate, as he is elected and paid to do, instead of opening off licences while the economy collapses around him? Is he afraid that the sports writer for 'The News of the World' whose name appears at the bottom of the Lisbon Treaty / EU Constitution will not become the new 'EU president'? Is he afraid that this country would withdraw from the eurozone, take control of its own economic affairs and return to being a competitive economy, instead of an overpriced banana republic? Or has he complete confidence in his bureaucratic EU friends, who arranged for €200 billion of our fish stocks to be confiscated by the EU and for the multinationals to swamp our domestic market with cheap imported goods while our own farmers and producers go out of business? Brian Cowen needs to look around him at the 'consequences' of a subservient attitude to EU imperialism. Another No vote to Lisbon on 2nd October will remind him that Irish sovereignty is not for sale to the European Central Bank for a 1 ½ per cent interest rate. Yours, Joe Reynolds, Mullingar.