An interesting and intriguing situation has arisen in Ireland in which the result of a referendum, held in 2012 about the rights of children, is being challenged on the basis of a Supreme Court judgement made two days before the referendum which stated that the government issued incorrect information in a leaflet.

This resultant Appeal which is currently being heard and background to this case can be read here, here, here and here. As has been noted in the first link, any referendum must be about upholding the rights of all of the electorate “to vote freely, to a fair and democratic process, to equality and to fair procedures”.

When a government is held to have ‘clearly and unequivocally’ breached the constitutional process governing the conduct of referendums and a government minister acknowledges that fact; yet the referendum is allowed to proceed, the question has to be asked: where is democracy?

Not that the Irish government is alone in ‘rigging’ a referendum; both Heath and Wilson lied to the British electorate on British membership of what has now become the European Union and allowed others to lie on their behalf.; yet allowed a referendum to proceed. Neither has anything changed; today we still have politicians lying on the same subject and allowing others so to do on their behalf.

No doubt when the time comes for a referendum on ‘Brexit’, we too will be lied to – and, of course, all within the rules. Remember: In politics, a lie unanswered becomes truth within 24 hours.



Perhaps the reason the British people seem unable to accept wisdom when they hear it is because those voices get ‘drowned out’, especially today, by those of the ‘seen’ and ‘unseen’, both of whom govern this country. The most obvious example of that was undoubtedly Enoch Powell who was right on the subjects of Europe; the single currency; economic management; and multiculturalism too.

Until the people of this nation understand that our present system of democracy really is but a form of democratised dictatorship, so will we remain in the grip of wolves in sheep’s clothing.