Nicely balanced video assay of the social issues arising from the Lisbon Treaty… Mick FealtyMick 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
Sadly, I’ll be in transit when the Dail sits down today to debate the detail put before them by Minster of Finance Brian Lenihan. Shame, because it would make for a great live blog… The government has been brigading the beneficiaries of their upcoming largesse in to their offices partly, one assumes, to din into them just how crucial it is that they’ve been honest in their estimates of their exposure. Dermot Desmond is of a mind with David McWilliams …
Today Senator Paschal Donohue rises to Stephen Kinsella’s challenging essay (LE5) makes a case that actually a Yes or a No does have the capacity to influence Ireland’s economic future. The result either way, he argues, will affect two crucial factors: confidence in those who will be asked to shoulder the country’s substantial and growing debt; and the potential for the country to continue to attract FDI if and when the ‘faucet’ resumes its flow. He argues that a No …
Kicking off, with a slightly dated piece from Jürgen Habermas written in the wake of last year’s Referendum, nevertheless, and regardless of where you stand on Lisbon itself, got to the nub of a perennial problem with the European institutions: With the exception of three members of parliament who voted “no” on the issue, the Irish people and the entire Irish political class are entirely at odds. In a sense, it is also a referendum over politics in general, making …
Nice follow up from Gerard on Pete’s post on the National Dairy Council initiative… in which he notes that “someone should tell them we’re in a Single European Market – and have been for some time now.” Mick FealtyMick 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
Nigel Farage of UKIP has spent a lot of the last week trying to make up for something of deficit in credible speakers on the No side of the Argument. The UKIP leader here argues that the Irish people wider responsibilities than just their own futures. With less than 1% of the European Union’s population Ireland is only country that’s allowed a free vote on whether Lisbon goes ahead or not, and offers substantial evidence that a second No vote …
Eoin O’Broin lays out the core of Sinn Fein’s objections to the Lisbon Treaty. In line with the party’s position just after last year’s vote, their objection is primarily that nothing of any substance has changed in the meantime. The guarantees and the solemn declaration in favour of workers rights do not change in slightest the text of the document. He also points out that the self amending clause in the treaty undermines the Crotty (et al) judgements and means …
Tomorrow’s Red C poll for the Sunday Business Post looks interesting. Although, how much so may depend on who you believe. On Lisbon II, IOL reports [PA report? – Ed] “23% say they will vote against the EU reform measures, while 15% are still undecided ahead of the ballot on October 2” – leaving 62% saying ‘Yes’. But RTÉ gives different figures The results show support for Lisbon holding up, with 52% of adults saying they will vote for the …
Last one of the week is from our own Brian Walker who lays out an interesting historical perspective on the matter that too often dares not speak its own name on the Yes side of this debate. The vexed issue of Irish sovereignty. It’s a far from trivial concern, as Joe Higgins laid out in Lisbon Essay 4, but Walker notes “…supremacy, like sovereignty, does not carry through into all levels of everything”. Instead he predicts the problem the European …
Our Lisbon essays are ticking along nicely… Seven down, just fifteen to go… The intention is to create a calm space in which all sides a get a fair crack of the whip… But then there are other places… where the truth is negotiable (until the end of the campaign at least)… Mick FealtyMick 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 …
It seems sometimes that the integrity of Ireland’s ancient struggle with its neighbour has left it in a semi detached mode in its relations with (and historical memory of) the wider interests (and the conflicts therein) of the rest of Europe. Rónán O’Brien writes of his conviction that the European Union has done much to mediate the effects of raw nationalism and brought peace to much of a continent that was previously continuously shaped by ethnic and nationalist warring… He …
Brian Crowe is our first Northern Irish commentator on the Lisbon Treaty. He takes the view that the debate in the Republic has polarised between the mainstream parties on one side, the slightly constitutional Sinn Fein and what he calls the disreputable right… He takes issue with Michael McLaughlin’s view that the EU is a product of compromise between to great blocks of European opinion, arguing that beyond those two, there is a growing opinion, not least in the accession …
The debate on LIsbon has been plagued by a plagued of red herrings, argues economist Stephen Kinsella. Not least of them that somehow a yes or no to the treaty will result in economic penalties, one way or the other. In fact, the government’s focus on its so-called concessions may be serving to further confuse an already bewildered Irish public. Simply put, he argues that the question being asked by Lisbon is whether Ireland continues on a journey it first …
This week we kick off with an argument from the Irish left, and from the only one of Ireland’s twelve MEPs that could be in the least described as ‘Eurosceptic’. In particular, Joe Higgins notes the proposal to work together to a far greater degree on a raft of what might classed as a common foreign policy (see also LE3 for David Steven’s arguments in favour), linking it to the encouragement of larger countries to form joint military forces. A …
The Sunday Times looks at the economic patriotism behind the Love Irish Food campaign. From the ST article Jim Power, the economist fronting the campaign, admits it is a commercial tactic by a food industry under pressure. “We are seeing moves from certain retailers about sourcing less product in Ireland. Exchange-rate movements, particularly against sterling, have been adverse for the last two years,” he says. “Disposable income is under pressure and consumer spending is down. “There are economic advantages to …
Today, David Steven of Global Dashboard takes the frame of debate wider to look at the international implications of the Lisbon Treaty. The problem lies not just in the rejection itself, but the huge navel gazing it is likely to plunge Europe into in leiu of any substantial means of tackling the complex risks facing it. Ireland is currently suffered the foul taste of one global economic crisis, which may still have some considerable way to go… He concludes that …
Mark Thompson, of Mark Reckons, is everywhere these days. The Reading-based Lib Dem blogger has a piece on Canabis NI blog, looking at the effects of liberalisation of the drugs law in Portugal… …drug use in Portugal has not risen in the last 8 years. In fact it has fallen, by around 10%. This might seem counter-intuitive but proponents of reform of drug laws have been saying for years that rise and fall in the use of drugs is largely …
This is mostly notes for posterity… but former Ivan Yates on yesterday’s Breakfast Show on Newstalk works Coir Spokesman to the bone… But Hickey makes it clear where that €1.84 figure comes from… He should tell his colleague Peter Murphy, who made the false claims we reported here on Slugger yesterday… Sound file here. Poster from The Emergency… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider …
My post yesterday on the poor quality of the debate around Lisbon brought positive feedback from some unexpected quarters… It also brought in a short blog essay contribution from the young editor of the Eurosceptic European Journal, Jim McConalogue. It marks the first a series of guest essays on the broad subject of Lisbon that will run each morning here on Slugger from the No, Yes, and no fixed opinion camps right up until polling day on Friday 2nd October. …
I was on the road yesterday, but spent some of the journey listening to the Pat Kenny Show (you hear it here for the next week). The first substantial item was a discussion between Pat, Peter Murphy from Cóir and Fianna Fail’s spokesman, Dick Roche… A large chunk of the debate centred on that organisation’s new poster campaign… Given it came within 24 hours of the campaign launch, a tiny campaign group effectively set the agenda for the first big …
