The Inconvenience of Democracy

From Splintered Sunrise:

Well, that’s us told. No less august an organ than the Grauniad saw fit, in its leader on the Lisbon referendum, to describe the Irish electorate as “a horde of Goths”. Saturday’s paper also contained opinion pieces from Fintan O’Toole and Colm Tóibín, of which there’s little to be said except to refer the reader to Des Fennell’s old book, Nice People and Rednecks. God knows why, but our elite seem to be perpetually surprised that there are more rednecks about than nice people.

We’ve also seen various European politicos holding forth, most notably Denis MacShane and Daniel Cohn-Bendit. Of this pair it can fairly be asked, could you possibly find a bigger pair of w*****s to fight the EU’s corner? More seriously, their general point was that it’s unfair for 1% of the Union’s population to hold the other 99% hostage. Perhaps it’s escaped the attention of our progressive internationalists that the other 99% weren’t allowed a vote. It’s an odd situation where that tough old conservative, Czech president Václav Klaus, emerges as the champion of democracy. But perhaps it makes my point about liberal elitism.

The post concludes:

Yes, as so often where the EU is concerned, Brecht was ahead of the game with his quip about the government abolishing the people and electing a new one.