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Rounding up the Lisbon bloggers – Part II
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Our second round up will start with a plug for myself marking the Return of Rock the Vote, something which has not met with great rejoicing from Mamam Poulet It will be interesting to see what impact the group makes, given that they are arriving so late in the game. Moving from Rock the Vote, Public Inquiry is concerned that there is not equal coverage of the no campaign on current affairs shows, while Justin O’Mahony suggests that we should annoy the headbangers and vote yes. The Lisbon Treaty blog offers ten reasons to vote no, whilst your good author puts forward another argument – this time the increased role of national parliaments for voting yes.
The Crabling Otter is verring towards a no vote given a lack of public information, but the Journal of Integrity has gone in the opposite direction and will be voting Yes. Bodhran Banger isn’t so sure. Steve Nolan ponders in detail the question; Is the Lisbon Treaty evil?
The latest opinion poll attracts coverage from Worldbystorm who looks at the Cowen effect and the Irish Bulletin which takes a ‘novel’ view of the whole thing. Pgmcc is leaning towards a yes vote, but is frustrated with the lack of clarity about what changes are being made – that being the case, may I point in the direction of the Institute of European Affairs annotated consolidated version of the Treaties available from Richard Corbett MEP’s site which shows what has been added and subtracted from the Treaties with Lisbon. Senator Alex White provides an account of a recent Labour party meeting on the Treaty and Cian has news that tomorrow’s Sunday Times will have the complete version of the amended treaties.
The Referendum Commission is accused of failing its duty, something picked up by Public Inquiry in its piece above while Limerick Blogger has Fianna Fáil’s Peter Power‘s opinion piece seeking a Yes vote. Sinn Féin councillor Killian Forde provides his views on how the campaing is going, higlighting the ‘fuzzy’ nature of yes supporters. Finally, the Goblin Insane has thrown out it out for people to convince him to vote No.
no mention of Ireland’s Eurobore?
As David McCullagh, RTE’s political correspondant has just said on the 9 o’clock news, the “Yes” side were even further ahead at this stage of the first Nice referendum, and the “No’s” still won. As you know by now, I am profoundly opposed to this Treaty on the grounds that I regard it as an appalling deal for Ireland which will consign Irish independence and European democracy to the dustbin of history, by centralising power in the hands of unelected, unaccountable, bureaucrats in Brussels. I believe it deserves rejection on June 12th, as it weakens Ireland’s hand at the Council of Ministers, the Irish Supreme Court’s independence from Brussels, Ireland’s right to referenda on EU treaties and institutional changes, and Irish neutrality. It is a bad deal for Ireland, and I am counting on the 47% undecided and a high turnout of “No” voters to make up the numbers to defeat the document. To those on the “yes” side who dismiss my hopes as fantasy, I would remind you that almost all the undecideds in 2001 voted “No”, and if it happened once, it could well happen again. I certainly hope so. The Irish people deserve better, and by voting no we will – I trust – bring that about
Thank you very much for the mention.
I’ve been urging a no vote on my website – The Planning Dispatch – and in my column in the property section of the Tribune. You’ll find a sampler here:
http://www.garrymiley.com/2008/02/07/Lisbon.aspx
My main argument is that, if they’re serious about forging a more democratic link with the citizenry, the EU should be replacing the Commission with an upper house of the European Parliament having two elected representatives from each member state. A directly elected European head should be given executive powers limited to the EU’s areas of jurisdiction.
A vote for Lisbon is a vote to consolidate a system which is already wrong. I intend to write about this issue further both on the website http://www.garrymiley.com and in the Trib. Cheers
Oddly enough Garry I was suggesting something similar on p.ie in terms of a European Senate with 3 from each member state until the total number exceeds 100 and then it should drop to 2 per state. I would still allow the member states to nominate commissioners though.
Dan, my thinking behind nominating Commissioners is that countries as small as Ireland will seldom be in a position to supply someone of sufficient callibre or expertise for what should be an executive position. I prefer the American system where Commissioners (i.e. Secretaries) with serious, serious job qualifications go before the Senate for approval in what is a very public job interview.
On the bigger issue, though, isn’t it amazing that this aspect of the debate – structures for democracy (what its all about, really) – hasn’t been addressed by any element of the media that I’m aware of.
It’s important to understand that if we vote no, all that will happen is the status-quo – which I can accept and even like (with some reservations). This isn’t a no to Europe. France and Holland remain in the EU, and unemployment has fallen since they voted no.
During the French referendum on the Constitution, they had a quite long series of nightly debates on one of the main public channels (I saw it over here on Sky’s TV5 which lifts programmes from a range of different sources – I think France 2 was the original broadcaster). It was astonishing how differently the French discussed what is, essentially, the same material we’re being asked to vote on. Their debate focussed on the real core issues: social and community structure, relationship of citizen to state, the conceptual shape Europe was taking on, federalism versus centralism, etc. It was vigorous and, although quite tiring, also quite refreshing. Yes, some of the politicians spun to suit themselves and, yes, some of the nationalist and anti-nationalist rhetoric was overblown (it’s France we’re talking about after all) but by and large public commentators made their way to the heart of the matter and stayed there. And by voting no to the Constitution, I think the majority of people in France understood that they were not voting no to Europe – they simply didn’t like what they were being asked to vote on. The comparison to how Irish politicians are leading the debate here is actually – I can’t think of a better word for it – embarrassing. Neither Bertie Ahern, Martin Cullen (in a particularly awful appearance on Q and A), Charlie McCreevy nor Dick Roche have had the courtesy to the Irish people to at least try to discuss Lisbon on its own terms.