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Can we save the Serious Lisbon Debate for weekdays? And have a bit of Sporting Lisbon at weekends?
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The Yes Campaign people were so busting-their-guts about Declan Ganley’s success in effectively communicating legitimate concerns about the substance of the Lisbon Treaty they resorted, as all pseudo-intellectual elites do when the hoi-polloi are in danger of thinking for themselves, to the Mud Raking Conspiracy.
Apparently, because Ganley once met a retired mid ranking US Airforce bureaucrat who’d discovered a loophole in some legislation which led to a secret meeting with some Eskimos which permitted mobile phones to be installed in Iraq which turned seven people in Galway into neo-cons, the whole No Campaign is a disgusting attempt to suck us into a nuclear attack on Iran. Or something.
Oh, these bloomin’ conspiracy theorists! Why, that’s just like saying some prominent Yes Campaigner – oh, I don’t know… say, former head of the WTO (as well as every other international globalisation quango ever invented) Peter Sutherland – is part of a giant world domination conspiracy, just because he’s a core member of the Bilderberg Group. (Bilderberg – you know, the most elitist (some say sinister) private club in the world which counts amongst its members a smattering of former and soon to be U.S. presidents, uber neo-cons Paul Woflowitz and Donald Rumsfeld, some German Chancellors, British Prime Ministers and (Lisbon Treaty author) Valerie Giscard D’Estaing, not to mention the CEO’s of the world’s biggest corporations, conglomerates and banks and which meets privately every year to impose/discuss strategies to protect the western political-economic way of life from communists and Islamists). Because that would be stupid.
On the other hand, were we to let our imaginations wander for a sec, the presence of a teensy-weensy global pro Lisbon conspiracy might help us to understand why Sutherland, such an unbelievably smart man and probably the only person in the country who really actually understands the Lisbon Treaty, does sometimes have some inexplicably Bilderberg Avatar moments.
Like that time when he said that by voting no Ireland would be ‘sleepwalking into catastrophe’: was the ‘catastrophe’ he had in mind the fact that he wouldn’t get the plum Euro President job which prominent Bilderbergers would like to see him get? And last week when, in a moment of apocryphal acid-trippery he said ‘a sense of outrage would permeate Europe’ if we vote Lisbon down, was he really thinking about the fall from eminence he’s currently suffering as the Bilderberg Gang get together for their annual gossip outside Washington D.C. at this very moment? (Curious timing, by the way.) And when he said that the Lisbon Treaty was necessary to tackle climate change, did he forget that he is currently the boss of BP?
Okay, now let’s drop this stupid Jim-Corr-type nonsense and get back to reality.
So, where were we? Oh yes, in an igloo with that dreadful Mr. Ganley hatching plans for world domination with the Eskimos…
Funny, only because the No side is the one that is constantly in hysterics.
What I want to know is why none of the Irish media are making any serious investigations into the money coming in and out of Libertas and Cóir, but Libertas in particular. The Times recently did a profile and similarly found the background to Mr. Ganley’s own finances lacking in clarity.
I find it absolutely disgusting that so many people are paying attention to this shady organisation. This is a country that essentially fired its taoiseach for financial irregularities and is trying to move on from decades of dodgy and ambiguous political funding. But now we’re willing to listen to this organisation, who are less than forthcoming with facts about themselves and resort to making up fantasy stories about the Lisbon Treaty and their own levels of support (McDowell, Dell ??? WTF?).
Also, why is no-one asking Ganley if Libertas will be fielding candidates in the elections next year? It seems obvious that they will.
This will all come out in the wash after the referendum, when it is too late of course.
Libertas are having a huge impact on the debate. Despite being unknown in December of last year when they launched their campiagn, they have said they will spend €1.5m on this campaign. That is more than Labour spent in the ’07 GE period. It is three times what FG can afford to spend on this campaign. They can spend this money without having carried out any known fundraising events and having less than twenty known supporters.
Maybe you think we should trust the word of a group based around an individual of whom we know little. If so, grand. But if your view is simply that questions should not be asked of Libertas because you agree with them, then I’ll let you reflect on that your self.
Lads, your missing my point, which was this: If you want to, you can drum up a sinister conspiracy about anyone and anything on the planet – we all have something about our pasts and/or presents which, when presented in a certain light, might make us look like complete freaks to the rest of society.
This is a referendum. We’re being asked for our own opinions – not our opinions of other peoples’ opinions – about the structure the EU should adopt as it expands. It is our duty to read what is being put before us and judge it on its own terms.
If you really think the structure being suggested is the best way to go forward, you vote yes. If you think it’s wrong or needs more work, vote no.
If the no vote prevails, the worst that can happen is that the member states sit down and come up with a better structure.
(My sub-point in the original post, by the way, was that I have problems (maybe not problems – issues, perhaps) with the Bilderberg Group. I don’t think it’s sinister, I just don’t think its a great idea.)
Also, why is no-one asking Ganley if Libertas will be fielding candidates in the elections next year? It seems obvious that they will.
If only for the comedy value (I’m assuming here that you’re not that familiar with the bios of Libertas’ employees/’members’) I hope you’re right!
By the way, I just found out today that the Attorney General, Paul Gallagher, was in all likelihood at the Bilderberg Group meeting this weekend. I think this is something, whether you’re on the yes or the no side, to be genuinely concerned about. Bilderberg attendees are expected to keep all conference procedings a secret; the press aren’t allowed to report on them either. I have a difficulty with this secrecy aspect of Bilderberg, especially if a representative of the Irish Government is complicit and most especially if the only reason they’d invite him to attend was to discuss issues regarding the Referendum.
You know what, I don’t really know all that much about the Bilderberg group. But the only people who seem to have real concerns about them are the kind of diabolists that Umberto Eco mocked so wonderfully in Foucault’s Pendulum. I tend to roll my eyes when ever the group is mentioned.
Before you roll your eyes at the mention of the Bilderberg group, I ask only that you do some investigating of your own first. Look at who attends, their roles in politics, media and business. They are the elite ruling class of the Atlantic.
When these guys meet to discuss the major global issues, it is a big deal. Depending on what is agreed through consensus, the opinions coming from the meetings on these major issues are likely to shape policy in all nations both sides of the Atlantic. Yet the meetings go unreported in mainstream media, coincidentally owned by same media moguls who have attended the meetings, including our own Sir Tony O’Reilly, and Rupert Murdock.
If these meetings were insignificant, they would not take place, as the security, planning and cost involved in holding the event must be extraordinary. Why all the secrecy? And why is their role always played down when its obvious that such an event is of significance?
From what I can gather, the US politicians who attend the meeting are breakin federal law, under the Logan Act, which forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.
The media will have you believe Libertas are the bad guys. The evil do-ers. And looking at Ganleys links to US defense you might get worried. But if that worries you, why does the Bilderbergs links not worry you?
Their attendees only directly control the US military, and indirectly the armies of europe, have written and pushed for adoption of the lisbon treaty, control the IMF, WTO (Mandelson is an attendee did you know!), and the world bank. But because they have ABSOLUTE POWER, anyone who even considers their actions anything other than benevolent is treated as a lunatic and mocked. You may think i’m crazy too but it hints of fascism. Maybe you haven’t noticed it, but i’ve seem all over europe recently.
-Cowen threatening expulsion to any FF’er who did support a yes vote.
-Threats from Sarkozy, Barroso, Merkel and others than we must ratify
-Posters with photos and catchy slogans but no mention of the treatys content all over the country..
I’ll leave you with the words of two Bilderbergers:
“Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly … All the earlier proposals will be in the new text, but will be hidden and disguised in some way.”
- Former French President V.Giscard D’Estaing, Le Monde, 14 June 2007
“The Constitution is the capstone of a European Federal State”
- Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian Prime Minister, Financial Times, 21 June 2004