Apparently Brian Cowen and José Manuel Barroso have agreed that “the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish electorate is not a vote against Europe.” Well done Naoise. That was a Libertas strapline from the start. And one that didn’t exactly set the Eurosceptics in Westminster alight the other day. Whilst Tim Garton Ash has the details of Plans D and E, Richard Delevan asks a more fundamental question: “why on earth do we not know what the Irish people meant by NO!” There was no RTE exit poll and the Eurobarometer poll has not yet been published:
It was clear – or should have been – from the outset that a No vote would require explanation, and that the Irish Times poll from the week previous or the Red C poll from the Sunday before were not adequate. They didn’t measure actual voters. They measured a general sample, which didn’t account for higher turnout amongst 20somethings.
As imperfect as it might have been, an exit poll commissioned by the Irish media and conducted by an Irish research firm, as is common practice with general elections (here’s RT?s story about the 2007 exit poll conducted for them by Lansdowne Mkt Research) would have given some answers.
As Richard goees on to point this leaves everyone it a political or other self interest in the result to claim they represent the full body of the NO vote with nothing in the public domain to proof or falsify their claims. Read on for the full post…
More from: Cian.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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