The Mad Hatter told Alice that "words mean what you want them to mean." He would have been at home in the European Union, where "no" means "yes" and political propaganda is passed off as information. If Ireland votes No to the Lisbon Treaty, the EU will continue and Ireland will be part of it, but if they vote Yes the Irish will find they have even less leverage in Europe than today.

In the course of the second referendum campaign in Ireland some extraordinary claims have been made about the economic consequences of voting No: it would frighten investors, cost jobs and condemn Ireland to economic isolation; while a Yes vote, to quote the Taoiseach, is the "critical first step on the path to recovery."