Visualising Lisbon 2009 and 2008 by constituency

The results are in. Lisbon 2 has been passed by Ireland. Voting results are available Irish Election, from RTE, and the IT. I've added a couple of visualisations using dot plots to help show where it all changed from last year.

The 2009 Lisbon Referendum Ireland voting results by region and constituency.


Here are the 2008 results for comparison.

Lisbon Red C Polling 2009 Dot Plots

I've been playing around with R and dot plots. Today's SBP poll from RedC was a prefect excuse to have some fun.

LisbonRedCPolling2009-IncludingDontKnows
Originally uploaded by bluepelican

LisbonRedCPolling2009-ExcludingDontKnows
Originally uploaded by bluepelican

Lisbon 2 Round up

It's almost time for Lisbon 2 so to I've brushed up my readings to take the new changes into account and decided to post a few of the more interesting pieces I've found online.

Elvis making his case against the treaty:


A very nice summary of the social side of the treaty, slightly pro but I guess it depends on how you view it.


Jim Corr and the New World Order.... oh and how it relates to the Lisbon treaty


Michael O'Leary - 5 Reasons to Vote Yes


The Forum for Europe has collected a number of debate transcripts that they held and printed them online.
Defense, Foreign Policy and Neutrality Yes: Pat Cox No: Joe Noonan
Ireland and Social Europe Yes: Ruari Quinn No: Joe Higgins
Institutional Arrangements Yes: David Byrne No: Susan George
Economic Implications Yes: Peter Sutherland No: Mary-Lou McDonald.

Neutral Sites with Information:
Citizen's Information Service - Guide to Lisbon Treaty
Referendum Commission

Guides to support the arguments
YES: The Improved Spoofers Guide to the Lisbon Treaty
NO: Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) (including UKIP) Guide to the Lisbon Treaty

I've listened again to many false arguments and blatant lies so I'm voting YES. The times are different now and it is even more critical to be part of the wider European community for so many reasons. Whilst I'd love to give the Government a bloody nose by voting No, it is sheer stupidity to think that way as a referendum is not a general election and won't cause any change to the government. I do believe Ireland needs a change of direction and government, voting YES is the first step in that process.

Voting Yes Tomorrow

Well for a long time I wasn't fully convinced for why I should vote Yes tomorrow. I had waded through parts of the treaty but ended up scratching my head. The papers and general media were pretty poor and the referendum commission materials were freeze dried. However, over the weekend finally a couple of factual articles in plain English helped separate the lies from the actuality of the treaty. What really surprised me was watching Prime Time last night and actually watching RTE put a report together that made it clean why (if you're sensible) that Yes is how you should be voting.

Embedded from RTE.IE

The discussion and arguments were even better and I have to admit that Pat Cox is some speaker. I can see why he was president in the European Parliament.

Embedded from RTE.IE

Maybe the arguments here will convince some people to vote no and point others to vote yes but the important thing tomorrow is to vote. I don't know how many voter registration campaigns I've helped out in and I can't say it more vehemently but get out and vote, regardless of which way. Not using your vote is in my mind a sin when you think about how many people in this country fought to ensure we had one and when so many in other countries would and do die to get a vote. Democracy only works if people participate so vote tomorrow! If you're not sure, my two cents is vote yes.