The Irish Times has a piece this morning on the referendum fatigue afflicting the politicians who used a big fear-shillelagh to beat Irish voters into compliance with Brussels’ ambitions, warning them that if they didn’t vote yes on the Lisbon Treaty, Ireland would go into an economic tailspin. They won the referendum, then Ireland went into an economic tailspin. The country’s chasing Greece in the default stakes,and lay-offs and pay-cuts are everywhere.

The solution to that awkward turn of events is obvious. No more referendums, please! Brendan Halligan, who led the pro-Lisbon campaign:

“This is no way to run our national affairs, especially on the one issue that affects us most, membership of the European Union. Experience with referenda on European treaties is that the campaign becomes a contest between the extremes and the centre,” said Mr Halligan, who added that the centre was notoriously difficult to motivate and then mobilise.

Halligan did not need to add that he represented the winning “extreme.” The method used by the EU to tighten its grip is to bypass citizens and simply grant itself ever-expanding power. Having won in Ireland, no further decisions are necessary, thanks.

His ally, EUphile Pat Cox, explained why.

“We have learned a lesson through Ireland for Europe, and proved a point that politics alone does not contain all the answers,” he said.

If “politics” cannot be used to determine the way people are ruled, then what’s left? Not “active citizenship,” that’s for sure. The last thing EUphiliacs want is the kind of “active citizenship” that might steal away their most recent victory in another referendum.

That persistent search for “permanence” in Brussels (and Washington, for that matter) is based on a pretty simple strategy: Just dump so much government-by-decree on taxpayers that digging out from under it is more work than living under it. But as even the New York Times’s reporters admit, that kind of stuff is dangerous, plus it stinks.