In Ireland, we are going to vote on Friday to either reject or accept the Lisbon Treaty. This is the second time we are going to vote on this treaty. We voted No last time, and the government went to Brussells to get gaurantees that Ireland would remain neutral and keep a commissioner within the European commission. They got to keep the commissioner, and were given assurances on nuetrality. The first time there was a vigorous No campaign which I don't think anyone was really expecting. They were headed by Declan Ganley of Libertas, a non entity in Irish politics before this. Suddenly, he bursts onto the scene, a business man with dealings with people from the US military, British hedge funds and the aluminium business in Russia. He may have good intentions, he may not. But he is a mighty suspicious character.
Anyway, the far left are saying vote No. The far right are saying vote No. Most of the political parties in parliament are saying vote Yes. But people are really disillusioned with politics in general at the moment. There is a history of cronyism in this country, golden hand shakes and bribes. The most notorious political party with regards to these sorts of scandals are Fianna Fail, the current government. Traditionally, they have been the most popular party, with their main opposition being Fine Gael. They are not parties with opposing ideologies as in the US. Rather, they have their routes in Civil War politics of the Irish war of independence.
Anyway, Fianna Fail's popularity has plumetted to record lows. Our current economic crisis is being handled ... well, it's hard to know at this stage if it is actually being handled properly at all. One of our banks has been nationalised and they are in the process of creating a bad bank to take all the toxic loans. This really is uncharted territory - they are either going to save the country, or make a bad situation infinitly worse. We the tax payer could be paying for this for, well, our children could be paying for this. And I'm still pretty young!
Anyway, this is the background to the whole Lisbon Treaty referendum, whether we should vote for a more coherent Europe, and potentially (and I cannot stress potentially enough) give away our freedoms (this is really a long shot, as each individual state decides upon it's own laws and institutions, and will still do that under the treaty, but as a worst case scenario, we could potentially lose our identity to a wider European state - well that's the fear behind the No campaign anyway).
Should we be annoyed we are voting again? The Yes campaign has really stepped up their campaigning this time, and a lot of people are worried, given the current economic reality, and being a small country which needs foreign investment, that this will damage Ireland. Some people read the treaty as allowing Europe to be more effective in the things it does i.e. where to alocate money for incentives to industry and such. On the other hand, some see Europe as the evil empire, and worst case scenario is that it has the potential to become one. But I think that is really REALLY unlikely. But if in 50 years down the line some right wing organisation got control of the European parliament ... unlikely, but there is a real feeling over here that empire is bad. However, to call the EU an empire is a stretch by my surmisation.
Anyway, another reason people are voting No is to express dissatisfaction with the government. This, in my opinion, is wrong. There will be consequences if we vote No. We cannot be thrown out of the EU, but Europe wants to go ahead with this, and we could lose all sorts of clout within the corridoors of power in Europe. The truth is that Europe has been really good for Ireland. We joined in the 70s, and things were bad before that. Emmigration was through the roof. This was a land with very little oppurtunity. The EU gave us large incentives and played no small part in making Ireland, a small country, an international player which was viewed as investible with a highly educated work force. And when things were good (90s to a year ago) things were GOOD. Yes, there was corruption, but that was within the country, nothing to do with Europe.
So, all eyes are firmly fixed on this little country of ours. I'm not going to say how I voted last time, or how I intend to vote this time, but it feels like there is a larger battle being fought upon our soil. All sorts of interests are involved, on both the Yes and the No side. A British far right organisation applauded us for voting No, saying that having to vote a second time was an example of the lack of democracy within Europe, to which an Irish member of the parliament responded, "The Irish parliament decided to run the treaty again, and we have not had to do anything we didn't want to since we were ruled by the british empire." These guys are exactly the type of people who opposed Irish independence! This is just one example of how many interests are involved.
So, what say you all? What should we do, from an outside perspective? I have tried to paint as full a picture as possible, that's why this post is so long, but I really would like to see what you all think of this.
Conor
Anyway, the far left are saying vote No. The far right are saying vote No. Most of the political parties in parliament are saying vote Yes. But people are really disillusioned with politics in general at the moment. There is a history of cronyism in this country, golden hand shakes and bribes. The most notorious political party with regards to these sorts of scandals are Fianna Fail, the current government. Traditionally, they have been the most popular party, with their main opposition being Fine Gael. They are not parties with opposing ideologies as in the US. Rather, they have their routes in Civil War politics of the Irish war of independence.
Anyway, Fianna Fail's popularity has plumetted to record lows. Our current economic crisis is being handled ... well, it's hard to know at this stage if it is actually being handled properly at all. One of our banks has been nationalised and they are in the process of creating a bad bank to take all the toxic loans. This really is uncharted territory - they are either going to save the country, or make a bad situation infinitly worse. We the tax payer could be paying for this for, well, our children could be paying for this. And I'm still pretty young!
Anyway, this is the background to the whole Lisbon Treaty referendum, whether we should vote for a more coherent Europe, and potentially (and I cannot stress potentially enough) give away our freedoms (this is really a long shot, as each individual state decides upon it's own laws and institutions, and will still do that under the treaty, but as a worst case scenario, we could potentially lose our identity to a wider European state - well that's the fear behind the No campaign anyway).
Should we be annoyed we are voting again? The Yes campaign has really stepped up their campaigning this time, and a lot of people are worried, given the current economic reality, and being a small country which needs foreign investment, that this will damage Ireland. Some people read the treaty as allowing Europe to be more effective in the things it does i.e. where to alocate money for incentives to industry and such. On the other hand, some see Europe as the evil empire, and worst case scenario is that it has the potential to become one. But I think that is really REALLY unlikely. But if in 50 years down the line some right wing organisation got control of the European parliament ... unlikely, but there is a real feeling over here that empire is bad. However, to call the EU an empire is a stretch by my surmisation.
Anyway, another reason people are voting No is to express dissatisfaction with the government. This, in my opinion, is wrong. There will be consequences if we vote No. We cannot be thrown out of the EU, but Europe wants to go ahead with this, and we could lose all sorts of clout within the corridoors of power in Europe. The truth is that Europe has been really good for Ireland. We joined in the 70s, and things were bad before that. Emmigration was through the roof. This was a land with very little oppurtunity. The EU gave us large incentives and played no small part in making Ireland, a small country, an international player which was viewed as investible with a highly educated work force. And when things were good (90s to a year ago) things were GOOD. Yes, there was corruption, but that was within the country, nothing to do with Europe.
So, all eyes are firmly fixed on this little country of ours. I'm not going to say how I voted last time, or how I intend to vote this time, but it feels like there is a larger battle being fought upon our soil. All sorts of interests are involved, on both the Yes and the No side. A British far right organisation applauded us for voting No, saying that having to vote a second time was an example of the lack of democracy within Europe, to which an Irish member of the parliament responded, "The Irish parliament decided to run the treaty again, and we have not had to do anything we didn't want to since we were ruled by the british empire." These guys are exactly the type of people who opposed Irish independence! This is just one example of how many interests are involved.
So, what say you all? What should we do, from an outside perspective? I have tried to paint as full a picture as possible, that's why this post is so long, but I really would like to see what you all think of this.
Conor
