Its a Yes!

Was at the count centre in Clonard to see the count for the Fiscal Treaty referendum. Strong Yes vote in traditional Fine Gael areas with strong farmer support for Europe.  Support for Yes less strong in urban areas, my own ballot box was about 55:45 Yes so I’m pleased that the time I’d put in to campaign and ask people to vote paid off.

Media seem to focus on the fact that typical Labour areas are less enthusiastic for the Fiscal Treaty.  I’ve heard some claim that it’s a class breakdown and that working class areas are opposed to the fiscal compact due to the impact of cuts.  On the face of it that sounds plausible but if you look at turn out the there is a lot of evidence to show that turn out in working class areas was less than in middle class areas. I accept that working class areas are impacted by austerity but it begs the question why did relatively few voters that are impacted greatly by cuts vote No? I remember referenda on social issues where in the past working class areas were the areas that voted against Labour policy on Divorce and abortion, so I'm not convinced by the analysis that the labour electorate has moved away irrevocably.

The Sinn Fein stunt of going to the High Court on the day of the press embargo had no effect on the polls. Little happened in  a week to change people’s minds as he outcome matched poll predictions form a week ago.

One good thing put to bed is the suggestion that leads to the cynicism about a re-run.  The suggestion that the poll was about austerity was wrong, nobody endorsed austerity and nobody believed that a no vote would end austerity.  What has happened is that when the Irish people considered that the future of our country  and asked themselves was there in a future in being more like Greece or having a disciplined fiscal process they quickly made their minds up and gave Sinn Fein, Declan Ganley, UKIP  and the ULA the thumbs down

With the greatest respect M’lud, I differ

Today’s papers carry a letter signed by 8
former Attorney’s General in relation to the forthcoming referendum on the
right of the Oireacthas to make findings of fact as part of their inquiry. Our learned friends have been motivated by
what they see as the right to protect a citizen’s good name. They are worried that Oireachtas committees
will start asking a few questions that some people may be reluctant to answer.
A few of the signees have a few good reasons to be wary of anyone kicking over the carcass of the Celtic Tiger and asking questions. Dermot Gleeson served as Attorney General to the Rainbow government in the mid 90’s. That’s the same Dermot Gleeson who doorstepped Brian Lenihan to get the infamous bank guarantee scheme about 3 yearsago that has trashed the states finances.
Another signee is Harry Whelehan who has experienced the rough end of an Oireachtas committee following his disastrous handling of the Fr Smyth extradition case. Interestingly Whelehan's successor as AG is conspicuous by his absence from the list.

Goldman Sachs man in this republic is Peter Sutherland, attorney General to Garrett Fitzgerald’s
coalition in the mid 80’s and former FG candidate in Finglas. There are those who regard the collapse of the world economy in 2008 as engineered by Goldman Sachs for the benefit of
Goldman Sachs. Recently Suds as he’s known to his friends suggested we front
load austerity. God help the power divil, where has he been since 2008?

David Byrne who served as AG to that fine leader Bertie Ahern became competition commissioner in the EU. While he had no role in banking, one would
think that completion requires openness and accountability. I could go on but you get my drift!

This type of intervention makes me cynical. The net beneficiaries of any tribunal have been lawyers. We have no more money to pay out however it is now more crucial than ever that we get answers to some of the worrying matters that have damaged our country. I believe there should be a committee to examine the collapse of the 3 main banks.

It will strengthen our democracy
if politicians are seen to this competently as they did in the case of the DIRT report. The ideal vehicle to do this is through an Oireachtas Committee. There exist a number of reports like the Nyberg Report where the investigation work has already been done to provide any committee with the where with all to ask people like Peter Sutherland or Dermot Gleeson to explain why they did what they did and why they expect the irish taxpayer to shoulder the burden they now
do.

It’s the least we can expect of those who have been lucky enough to serve in the highest legal position in cabinet.
Company law already allows the appointment by the Minister of an investigator under the companies act. Greencore, Telecom scandals all investigated on the cheap effectively about 20 years and we all know what happened. Yes there were people who went off to the
courts in relation to the findings at the time and what is proposed differs little in process other than it’s the Oireachtas committee and not the minister who decides. The key thing is that cost
is significantly less and the time period is shorter. It seems that for 40 years one law is good enough for companies and accountants but is not good enough for Barristers.
To quote one eminent lawyer Dr Wynne Jones the citizens right to the high court still exists and any changes in the constitution still are in the context of that provision. That’s why I’m voting yes, I want TD’s to be able to act as legislators and representatives not as poodles.

Wexford says Yes to Europe

It won’t be long now until we know the exact result of the second Lisbon Referendum. Voting has been patchy throughout the country and throughout Wexford town. My own ballot box was at about 20% by lunchtime yesterday. I’ve noticed a trend in voters turning out earlier in the day at the 2009 local elections. This is more a lifestyle change as opposed to the rush to vote after tea.
Middle class areas seem to have voted heavier than working class areas within Wexford and this may have been a trend elsewhere. For supporters of the treaty it is vital that Wexford is won. Wexford is a bell weather constituency in Ireland, as Wexford goes so usually does the country. The only exception was Wexford marginally opposed Divorce in 1995. Last time the treaty was lost in Wexford by about 9%. If Lisbon is to be won nationally there is no better place to look for the indication than Wexford.
At the last referendum a high No vote was recorded in Kilmore Quay as fishermen voted No in protest to EU policing of the industry. Elsewhere a late call by the farmers organisation saw the support among farmers for Lisbon well below the usual support for the EU. In Enniscorthy a high No vote was believed to have the local response to the sacking by Brian Cowen of local Minister John Browne. Some people voted no last time in Wexford because the Department of Environment introduced a SPA on Wexford Harbour. The trends toady are less clear other than rural and middle class ares are more supportive than working class areas. We must ask why?

I’ve heard no mention of these issues during this campaign. Having seen the votes being counted today I believe that Wexford will vote Yes this time by a significant majority. The Yes vote will be in excess of 63% and could be as high as 67%. It’s also clear the treaty will be carried nationally. The pictures are of the scene this morning at the Wexford count in Clonard Community Centre in Wexford Town.

So why has Ireland gone Yes? I believe myself the emergence of non-party groups like Generation Yes or Ireland For Europe allowed the argument for Lisbon to be put in a non- party political way. Moreover the emergence of UKIP and return of Libertas injected the negative notion of outside interference to the electorate in a way that Sinn Fein or Coir could not have damaged the No campaign. Having said that the posters by Sinn Fein and Coir suggesting that incomes would drop because of Lisbon were known by the electorate to be wide of the mark and failed to attract support. No lost it rather than Yes winning it.
One final reflection, the debate of the last month was not precisely what was in the treaty but what people thought the effect of the treaty would be. There’s an important difference. Perhaps as the country moves on it’s something we shouldn’t forget

UKIP’s dirty work in Ireland pulling the Legge.

Soon you can look forward to getting a letter from something called UKIP asking you to vote No to Lisbon. Someone who wants you to vote No is one of their MEP’s William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, MEP.
William wants to restrict the right of EU citizens to go and work in Britain. Since independence over 1 million Irish have found a better life in the UK than this republic could offer. Willie doesn’t have to worry about moving abroad to eke out a living as he’s the 10th person to hold the title and he owns a pile somewhere in Yorkshire and even if that goes belly up he’s connected to Barbara Cartland and the Late Princess Diana so there’s a few bob there to tide himself over the downturn just as there was for his 9 predecessors to the title since 1710.
Necessity is the mother of invention and who’d have imagined that a relative of the Princess Diana who had more blue blood than her ex husband, would now be standing shoulder to shoulder with Sinn Fein in opposing the Lisbon Treaty? What would Lord Mountbatten or the Republican icon Bobby Sands make of that? More to the point what would Sinn Fein voters make of it too? As far as I can make out SF still opposes the introduction of the Euro and prefers the pound sterling despite the sneering at the protestant community in the north that they were more loyal to the half crown than the crown? How far can you wrap yourself up in nonsense and who in the end, do you please? If Europe’s Far Right Lite see Lisbon off talking blarney with an English brogue where does that leave Sinn Fein or the Socialist Party?

2 contrasting policies in 2 different jurisdictions see SF arguing for an All-Ireland economy yet opposing moves to a single currency. What perplexes me is why will the Republican Movement stand shoulder to shoulder beside some of the most unsavoury element of European politics just to oppose continental bureaucrats? The logic of the community is that Britain should join the Euro and be at the centre.
Nigel Farage isn’t the person to lead them there. Former public schoolboy Nigel was a money man, not of course that we need another money man to tell us how our economy should be run. Nigel is a keen supporter of the Better Of Out (BOO) campaign an anti EU grouping of British MP’s that includes Lord Tebbit, Ian Paisley, Author and former Wicklow resident Frederick Forsyth and a number of right wing Northern Unionist and Tory MP’s. Some of these people like Christopher Chope oppose the minimum wage while claiming expenses from the British taxpayers to cover furniture vital to the UK economy like their sofa, or Bob Spink UKIP and former Tory MP who wrote in 2001; “What bit of sending them back do you not understand, Mr Blair?” or Ann Winterton MP who lost her front bench post for cracking racist jokes! These are the intellectual powerhouses lining up on the No side, our problem in this country is that they’ve gained a credence they don’t deserve because those leading the Yes campaign are so discredited.

Later this week Nigel will be in Dublin to debate Lisbon with David Begg. He’ll sit alongside Mary Lou McDonald. Nigel boasts he’s not anti-Irish but pro-British. What interests me about the UKIP intervention is who is paying for the mailshot? Have they registered with SIPO and who’s paying for their campaign? We’ve had Coir YD getting dollars in the past, Libertas with their own funny money and now the party that thinks all Ireland is part of the UK according to their Banner is spending more than a few half crowns getting its snout in. Shades of Yeats’ greasy till about this lot. Failte go h-Eireann agus Slán abhaile.

Coir principles, rotten to the core

It’s about 20 years since I first came across one of the founding fathers of Youth Defence. He is from Blanchardstown and he’s a decent guy. We’d often debated politics, he a strong but critical FF supporter, I on the other hand, backed Dick Spring. He embraced Youth Defence with vigour about the time that Charlie Haughey lost out to Reynolds and the horrific events of the X case unfolded. On the other side of the fence, I had huge sympathy for the child at the centre of the case and felt it was wrong that a 12 year old rape victim be put through the additional trauma of child birth. My acquaintance was opposed to allowing the girl terminate her pregnancy and threw himself full blooded into Youth Defence. All abortion was in his view wrong, all women who took that choice were as much murderers as the medical staff who performed terminations.
The 12 months from the Autumn of 1991 to late 1992 was a very dramatic year. It saw enormous scandals of all sorts rock the Irish establishment; Greencore, Beef Tribunal, Telecom Eireann, Bishop Casey, Ben Dunne, culminating in the hammering of Fianna Fail by Labour in the General Election. Middle class folk wanting to hold onto old certainties found the going tough and when their kids came home from the latin mass they joined Youth Defence and took to militant campaigning like ducks to water. Nothing was too far to get the type of publicity they craved. Picketing Brendan Howlin’s family home, opposing access to contraception, regular spats with the Irish Family Planning Association on IUD’s quickly gave them the reputation of the Religious Right’s wild child.
Except many who were genuinely religious had doubts too, the attachment of some to quasi religious conservatism of the 1930’s was noticeably out of step with the average Catholic. Many YD members were devout catholics who preferred the Pre Vatican 2 Catholic church to the doctrine of the modern Catholic Church. Psychiatrist Patricia Casey was deeply disturbed at the association of Youth Defence with the Pro-Life movement. Youth Defence grew quickly but in so doing damaged their name.

Needless to say, YD split not before the divorce referendum with the establishment of “No Divorce Campaign” with their infamous Hello Divorce Goodbye Daddy posters, “HLI” and “Family and Life” all horse from the YD stable. Youth Defence learned that for each campaign they needed to re-morph under a new title drawing the public away from the antics of Youth Defence. I recall a Canadian priest touring Ireland with what he claimed to be an aborted foetus in a jar as a publicity stunt.
So “No To Nice” evolved into Coir. When attacked by FF over the link to YD, Coir described the attack as dirty politics. But YD and Coir share the same office in Capel St! All campaigns run on the same basic YD formula of half truth and naive and exaggerated claims from Niamh that a hidden section of a treaty would bring in abortion by the back door as part of some European conspiracy, all funded from out of thin air.

I’ve regularly heard politicians ask questions as to where individuals with criminal records known to be claiming social welfare get the resources to maintain their lifestyle. Similarly I wonder where does Coir and similar organisations get the funds to run their campaigns. Already the posters are up so perhaps the buckets of dollars have arrived from the US. Ten years ago Scully raised nearly £500 K for his own outfit Pro Life Movement Ltd.
Posters such as the one claiming that the signatories of the 1916 would oppose the Lisbon Treaty don’t come cheap. James Connolly was central to that rebellion; he was an internationalist who believed in women’s rights. A key part of the proclamation states The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally.
Presumably the boys and girls of Coir haven’t read the Charter of Fundamental Rights that is included in the Treaty of Lisbon. The charter extends every Irish citizen rights significantly; the right to join a union, new rights in education, the right to travel (something YD opposed in 1992), rights to asylum, children’s rights to name a few. Coir (or Youth Defence as I remember it) is opposed to Lisbon not because they of the maths of QMV decision making or any interest in neutrality (their class don’t do the fighting but usually get working class to do it for them), but because it makes a right wing agenda less likely. The facts are that Coir opposes the extension of the very liberties in the 1916 proclamation that they are now hypocritically claiming to protect.
Coir will use any referendum to obstruct anything that impacts on their agenda of a 1950’s Ireland. Even if it has no connection as is the case with abortion and Lisbon, they’ll warp the logic and add a half truth to an obfuscation and hey presto, they’ll get the referendum commission to spend tax payers cash spinning their line for them.
They’ve realised that by playing games with the constitution they can achieve much more than seeking a mandate on behalf of their electorate, but here’s a challenge to them, why not seek a mandate at the next General or local election, indeed I’d relish a debate with any Coir Candidate in Wexford in the next 5 years. Any time. I’d enjoy picking up where myself and my old acquaintance left off almost 20 years ago, my latin isn’t as it was but I’ll take Coir/YD on!

Lisbon 2 slipping away as the government sleep walks again

It’s a little over a month to the re-run of Lisbon but you wouldn’t believe there’s a campaign on. The government is asleep at the wheel. The Taoiseach who promised to lead the campaign has been invisible for the last month. Fianna Fail’s organisation which is in no order to fight a campaign after the kicking it got in the locals, is moribund. The Greens are agonising over NAMA and will be re-negotiating the programme for government.
On top of all of this is a government that is complacent because of the polls and while they secured clarification of matters arising from the issues identified by the Oireachtas sub-committee set up in the wake for the Lisbon 1 defeat, there’s a presumption that the people will turn out and will beg forgiveness from FF & The Greens on October 2 and nod it through.
As someone who lays a huge significance in particular on the Charter of Fundamental Rights as an advance for the citizen and I instanced at the last referendum how it could advance rights in education, an area that the EU has been happy to leave to subsidiarity , I’m pleased that our education system may have to justify itself to international norms under Lisbon. In the past I’ve voted for Lisbon and Amsterdam but against SEA, Maastricht & Nice. I’ve always believed that because treaties are so complex that you’ve got to decide on balance either yes or no. There’s always something that’s beneficial and something that’s detrimental to each nation in EU negotiation, you won’t get everything and what’s agreed is a compromise of all nations negotiating, So what’s important to me is not what’s agreed but who’s there negotiating and what they stand for. A Europe governed mostly by right wing parties gave us Nice and the SEA. 20 years ago the balance tipped in favour of corporations and market interests while the citizen was seen merely as a consumer in Maastricht & Nice.
Ultimately it’s a matter of trust. Labour was lucky in having Prionsias De Rossa as part of the team at the early stage of the treaty discussions. Do I think he’d sell out the interest of ordinary people in this country to people like Berlusconi? Do I think that grandstanding on issues like abortion and neutrality that have been dealt with in previous treaties is the way forward? Talking about trust, Would I lose sleep at night if Charlie McCreevy or any other right wing Irish politician wasn’t in the commission? You should know the answer on all of these.
Talking about abortion, it’s not the way I’d be happiest with but then I’m a democrat and I believe that if a society puts in place a right that you can’t take it away unlike the People’s Movement who want referenda every week on the same issue)

But what mostly worries me is that many other people would share my views and yet they now distrust the political class because of the government’s incompetence. I think that if nothing changes in the next month that it is likely that the people will once more reject Lisbon and then we as a nation will be in a very serious position. The problem for the government is that it may be rejected for different reasons now, NAMA, the banks, unemployment, cuts etc.
One FF TD quoted this week says he detects a death wish among the people. I don’t get that at all, the Irish people still want what’s best. The problem for FF & The Greens is that they see this government delivering the worst, the people have given up on them and can’t wait to see the back of them.
Cowen to go after Lisbon 2 is beaten, a general election of national renewal to follow will see Labour in power driving the agenda of government. That's the best Europe can hope for and that Ireland can offer.

Time to Libert-ask the key questions

A year ago Libertas was the creation of a recluse Galway neo con businessman who founded a company that claimed to be a think tank. Only Ireland could produce Declan Ganley. A Galway man with a home counties accent, whose mysterious money created an aura of acceptance. The Irish psyche always has a soft spot for the quare fella with the foreign accent to give him authenticity; Eamon De Valera, Sean McBride or Sean Thornton each dissidents in their day. Declan Ganley became the Mister Pussy of Irish politics, on the surface you see something quiet different to what goes on beneath.
It’s a symptom of how far politics in Ireland has been discredited that someone like Declan Ganley can get so far in a year. His company Libertas employs as members, employees of one of his other interest Rivada. Rivada was awarded substantial contracts in telecommunications in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Rivada also has been given US defence contracts in communications and boasts ex US military personnel on its board. Ganley who, it seems, uses his dual nationality when it suits him has an equally ambivalent attitude to being Irish, his company Libertas opposes “our political elite” but if he can get a dig out from another nation’s political elite sure what the hell? But Ganley will combine with those who oppose the US military stopover at Shannon and begorrah he’ll forget about his business interests because he knows that when it comes to having a cut at a discredited government, his ultimate interest is in creating in Ireland the circumstances where Ireland exists economically as Europe but citizens are riding second class behind his “elite”. It’s his intention to create an Ireland riding side rear guard on a neo con driven US agenda, at lest it was until Obama got into power. Ganley will transfer Ireland’s European reliance to one on the US. He’ll replace a social model of society with an economic one.

As someone who sees the benefit in the Lisbon Treaty from the point of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and in particular education and how this could benefit pupils in Ireland, I smile when I see this Hertfordshire man’s butler raise the Irish flag over his home from his flagpole overlooking the N17, the road that leads to Shannon Airport. What does the man with the Alaskan board actually understand about the lives of ordinary people?

Let me put my hand up. I’ve voted against Maastricht but for Amsterdam, against Nice but for Lisbon. I’ve always felt that when you look on an EU Treaty you vote because of one key issue. I could not have got through college but for getting a job in Germany during the 80’s. I never got a J1 I always went to Germany because it was new culture. My recollection of the 80’s was that in Europe the left and right had an understanding that mutually assured their dominance. This was why the European Christian Democrats so successfully marginalised Margaret Thatcher in EU negotiations. Her response was to cosy up to Ronald Reagan. The EU worked because of the balances that politically existed. Now with the upsurge in regional parties with an obstructionist agenda such as UKIP the neo cons see their opportunity and strike to bring European progress to a halt.
But my concerns about EU as a military power disappeared when the Berlin wall collapsed. I still have concerns about the EU and it’s because of the democratic deficit that is inherent in the structures. Lisbon was a way to bring in more democracy and accountability into decision making.
And this is where I wonder about Declan Ganley, why is it that he’s big not accountability in Eurioe but won’t disclose to SIPO details of Libertas’ funding, 6 months after he gave the commitment on TV that he would. I wonder about his connections with an Albanian solicitor who was subsequently murdered amidst allegations of financial connections with businessmen. I wonder about how Declan Ganley claimed he was a key government advisor in the 1990’s in a Baltic state. I also wonder how if CJ Haughey & Co hadn’t discredited politics in this country how far Declan Ganley could have ever got if questions when asked were answered? Once on a local radio discussion on CJ Haughey I offered the opinion that the problem with this country is that it takes 15 years to find out what’s going on today. This maxim doesn’t only apply to the affairs of the late Taoiseach but also our dissident Solzhenitsyn from the salt mines in Glenamaddy.