When two evenly matched teams (like Leinster and Munster last Saturday) meet up, the one that is hungrier and more passionate usually prevails. So it was with the Seanad referendum. The No side cared more about the result. The Yes team were complacent and largely didn't bother making any case other than here's an opportunity to bash a few politicians.
But now, despite all the guff about reform, we will be left with the status quo. As Arthur Beesley phrased it in todays's Irish Times: We "saved an elitist bastion with a tiny franchise, little real power and a craven history of subordination to the Dail". Well done folks. Or as a letter writer in the same paper put it, we have voted to keep a political institution for which 99% of the electorate is not eligible to vote.
Let's see where all those who urged us to vote No for reform get between now and the next General Election.
