Lisbon Campaign – ‘By their friends ye shall know them?’

Rumour has it that the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ camps plan to get down and dirty in the last few days of the campaign – as if they could diminish themselves further than they’ve already managed to do in some of last week’s bitter exchanges of accusations and bile.

It struck me that should it transpire that dirt is being discharged in all directions like flak against flight of incoming bombers, it might be useful to have one post dedicated to recording some of the more outrageous accusations, as well as the properly-targeted ones, likely to be flying around.

For instance, it will be of interest if the following short report in today’s Sunday Independent gains any traction in the days to come:

“DECLAN Ganley’s ‘No to Lisbon Campaign’ has been bankrolled by a secretive British hedge fund boss that made hundreds of millions of euros “short selling” Irish banks last year.

Regulatory filings reveal that the wealthy investor, Crispin Odey, donated almost €3,500 to “Pro-Democracy: Libertas.eu” on May 28. The Mayfair-based hedge fund boss also donated nearly €15,000 worth of services to the organisation. Libertas is also backed by other London financiers.

Odey, who received a near €35m bonus last year, was one of the leading short sellers of Anglo Irish Bank, before the bank imploded.”

Short-selling of banks’ stocks became a hugely controversial issue from mid-2008 to the near collapse of financail system in September that year and were banned by the regulatory authorities for several months in the US, UK, Autralia and most European States thereafter. Hedge fund managers, who made billions from bringing banks to the edge of ruin by short selling their stocks on the market, may have been exposing the real value of the banks concerned, but also arguably precipitated a crisis for their own personal enrichment that might have ruined the lives and societies of millions of people. Although it’s largely all forgotten about now, hedge fund managers were about as popular as bankers and developers and their political hangers on are around here these days.

At the end of August, the Financial Times reported on the Odey-Libertas connection:

“Hedge fund boss Crispin Odey seems to have diversified his political support, judging by the donation list for the three months to June,” the FT noted on 28 August.

“The founder of Odey Asset Management, a Tory donor in the past, gave £25,000 to the Christian party whose slogan is “Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship” as well as £3,000 to Libertas EU, founded by Ireland’s Declan Ganley, advocating a “no” vote for the Treaty of Lisbon. Mr Odey also gave £10,000 to the Tories…”

Curious that the Irish media are picking up on it now; and possible that it may pose problems for Declan Ganley in the days ahead?