The Lisbon Treaty: Time to Vote

I feel I couldn’t really let the whole Lisbon Treaty debate pass by without giving a nod towards it in the little space on the web I set aside for, well, my general rantings and opinions on life. Being an Irish citizen who takes a fairly passing, albeit often irritated, interest in what goes on in the world around me, I feel compelled to talk about Lisbon. What is odd to me is that the EU reform treaty itself is not what is compelling me, because lets face it: it’s complicated and not all that exciting. I think anyone whose burners are lit by proportional representation in the European Parliament and corporate taxation is either a) kidding themselves or b) a bit sad. But, I do feel that regardless of the lack of juice in the treaty, it is my responsibility as an Irish voter and apparently informed person to become involved and aware of the issues at stake in Lisbon. Having listened to the debate on both sides, like many of us have, my leanings towards the ‘Yes’ side have become even stronger. This is simply because I haven’t heard anything from the ‘No’ campaign that isn’t scaremongering, exaggeration or simply untrue. A very good blog post was made by Steve Nolan recently on the issue and some of the flaws in the ‘No’ campaign.

This post addresses, among other things, one of the things that has annoyed me most about the ‘No’ campaign. This is the complaints of Libertas, Sinn Féin et al. that voting Yes to Lisbon will make us lose our voice in Europe. This is simply ridiculous. We are a country of 4 million people in the EU and we will have the say of a country with 4 million people in the EU. We are not France or Germany. That is just a fact, and Ireland’s short-man syndrome over the whole issue of our voice in Europe is embarrassing. We will still have a louder voice due to our economic strength and length of time spent as an EU member state. But I am worried about how this whole Lisbon fiasco will make us look in the eyes of relatively new member states in Eastern Europe. We look like whingey, jumped up arrogant little sods.

In a television debate this week on Questions and Answers, leader of Libertas, Declan Ganley, and Sinn Féin MEP, Mary Lou MacDonald, put forward the ‘No’ arguments while Mcheál Martin, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Enda Kenny TD, leader of Fine Gael, put forward the case for voting ‘Yes’ to Lisbon. To be honest, quotes form IBEC read out by Ganley in answer to questions from the audience on corporate tax, and refusal to listen to any answers without speaking over them with the same repeated refrain didn’t do the ‘No’ side much good. Mary-Lou MacDonald’s floundering in the face of a question from the chair, John Bowman, on what would happen if we say no, and what is the alternative to Lisbon left her clutching at verbal and political straws as she clearly couldn’t think of an actual answer. It turns out even Mary-Lou MacDonald can’t think of fast, shiny and convincing words to cover up for the rather unsavoury truth of what she stands for even at the best of times. This was even further emphasised when Enda Kenny called her on her protestations that Ireland would lose its neutrality is we vote yes to Lisbon. (As if Ireland’s neutrality was ever some big moral stance to be proud of anyway) Kenny criticised her for talking about neutrality when her party has a private army behind them. This impressive and uncharacteristically bold stroke from Kenny was in line with his form for the evening. He beat back criticism from probably one of the most moronic audience members on the ‘No’ side for being rude and childlike by saying she was as bad for cutting across him. Which wasn’t necessarily true, she was actually worse: because she wasn’t just rude, she was ignorant and hypocritical. She seemed to think that voting yes to Lisbon would mean losing our right to protest and strike in order to get the minimum wage. So she was wrong on top of everything else. But she had 3 kids, so she is qualified to say whatever she wants and not be questioned.

Moving away from the criticism of the sheer stupidity of some people in the ‘No’ campaign, there is also quite a dangerous side to their misrepresentation. As I have already mentioned, Mary Lou MacDonald is the shiny middle class face of the Sinn Féin Republican Party. She has the ability to make things which she must realise are lies sound convincing and sensible. This, in a sense, makes her more dangerous than the violent terrorists that fall in line behind Sinn Féin in the IRA. The manipulation of the Lisbon campaign exists throughout Libertas and the Socialist Party also. Declan Ganley and co. have been turning the ‘No’ campaign on its head. Instead of jumping on the isolationist bandwagon, Ganley has been pumping money into making the case that Europe has been good for us, and lets keep it that way by voting no. This tactic is clearly designed to capture the attention of those who don’t want to read the treaty and don’t want to do anything to change things or change our situation. But as far as I can see it, the more we stay the same and things change around us the more distanced we become from Europe.

I’m tired of Ireland shying away from pinning its colours to the mast when it comes to taking a step into the future. The rest of Europe don’t seem to need the same spoon of sugar to let the medicine of change go down, so why do we find it so hard? Neutrality is not some moral stance we have taken, as I see it. Ireland has never really been neutral, just a bit afraid. Its not admirable, it’s just unsure and uncommital.  As for the argument that it is the government/referendum commission at fault for not informing us enough, I don’t buy that. The responsibility to inform rests with the latter, and every home in Ireland has had an explanatory booklet popped through their letterbox. It’s just not a good enough reason to vote no.

Well, the day of voting is upon us, and I know what I am going t do. I am voting yes. And while I am doing this because I think we should pass the treaty, I accept the legitimate concerns over some of those people voting no to Lisbon. My concern though, is that the majority of those voting no are doing so for the wrong reasons. I’m off to vote after work, and I hope everybody who is registered and has access t their polling station does the same, regardless of which camp they fall into. Time will tell us what the country really thinks about Lisbon…