RAUCOUS CHORUS OF
EU SOURGRAPES
GREETS IRISH NO VOTE:
GREETS IRISH NO VOTE:
The democratic decision of the Irish people to reject the dishonest Lisbon Treaty (the EU “Constitution” under another name) in the Meitheamh/June 12 referendum was greeted in the European Parliament last week by several venomous interjections by representatives from France and Germany who competed with each other to insult and denigrate the Irish Nation for daring to challenge the bureaucratic monster at the heart of EU administration and their deceitful attempt to grab power by political bullying and intimidation which was characteristic of the ‘Yes’ campaign in our country.
Anti-Democratic
These disgraceful anti-democratic outbursts show how far the bureaucratic mindset has penetrated the political elites of major EU countries including those who are nominally “socialist” like Martin Schultz, leader of the Socialist Group in the EU parliament and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, (Green Party). We have already referred to Mr Cohn-Bendit’s ignorant remarks below.
Martin Schulz, SPD, Leader of the EP Socialist Group (PES).
Mr Schulz, whose social-democrat party, SPD, is in coalition with Angela Merkel’s right wing CDU in Germany, has the brass-neck to attempt to lecture us on our “behaviour” as Europeans in being so impudent as to reject the Lisbon Treaty despite Mr Schulz telling us how ungrateful we are because of the funds received by us over the years from various European schemes.
Well, first, let us kill off this myth that we are net beneficiaries of European largesse stone dead. Statistics now available from Eurostat, the official EU statistical bulletin, show that over the period 1975 to present other EEC/EU countries benefited from taking fish from Irish territorial waters(the largest in the EU) to the tune of €180bn. Ireland received €37bn in various EU funding over the same period, mostly in agricultural subsidies and latterly in infrastructure supports, giving the EU a net gain of €140bn from our membership and that’s only the official catch declared, it does not cover the huge illegal hauls by Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch boats with their false bottoms and illegal sized nets. We also remind Mr Schulz that German farmers received the same level of subsidies as the Irish and since there are millions of them, compared with a few hundred thousand here, Germany received far more from the EU than Ireland ever could.
Mr Schulz attacked Irish Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, former Fianna Fáil Minister for Finance in Dublin, for his alleged failures to promote the ‘Yes’ campaign and a statement from McCreevy to journalists that he hadn’t read the Lisbon Treaty himself, just like his leader, Taoiseach Brian Cowen, and many other politicians supporting the ‘Yes’ campaign, going by their incoherent and rambling statements during the last few weeks. Now, we on this blog have no great regard for the politics of Mr McCreevy, either in the past or currently, but it is known that he has a slight speech impediment which sometimes makes it difficult to understand exactly what he is saying, especially if he is agitated. Mr Schulz, in an interview on RTÉ Irish television,Monday, Meitheamh/June 23, made sly, disparaging remarks concerning this on the lines that he had to use the translator equipment in the EU parliament chamber to understand Mr McCreevy. If this is the content of the “argument” being made by Mr Schulz in favour of Lisbon, then it is at a very low level indeed and unworthy of someone pretending to “lead” the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.
We are not surprised, though, at this overweening insolence, as it has characterised the ‘Yes’ campaign, both here and on the Continent since the referendum campaign began. What it shows clearly to the Irish people is that the extreme bureaucratic element within the EU administration and Parliament has no respect, either for the individual human beings who make up the populations of the various member countries or the elected representatives, even on their own side, who do not “perform” to the requirements of the fanatical supporters of the EU Super-state like Mr Schulz.
The sourgrapes were not confined to ignorant members of the French and German delegations; Avril Doyle, MEP (Fine Gael) supposedly “representing” Irish electors in the Parliament chose to waste her time speaking against the media stunt of the members of the UK indepen
dence Party(a British anti-EU political group) who were wearing T-shirts celebrating the Irish NO-vote, (see photo), instead of reminding the Parliament that the Irish people’s vote was a sovereign, democratic decision and that therefore the Lisbon treaty could not be ratified. Instead, Ms Doyle ranted against the UKIP and failed to deal with the principal issue which has arisen; the lack of democracy in the administration of the EU which the Irish people have given their verdict on.
Mr Schulz attacked Irish Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, former Fianna Fáil Minister for Finance in Dublin, for his alleged failures to promote the ‘Yes’ campaign and a statement from McCreevy to journalists that he hadn’t read the Lisbon Treaty himself, just like his leader, Taoiseach Brian Cowen, and many other politicians supporting the ‘Yes’ campaign, going by their incoherent and rambling statements during the last few weeks. Now, we on this blog have no great regard for the politics of Mr McCreevy, either in the past or currently, but it is known that he has a slight speech impediment which sometimes makes it difficult to understand exactly what he is saying, especially if he is agitated. Mr Schulz, in an interview on RTÉ Irish television,Monday, Meitheamh/June 23, made sly, disparaging remarks concerning this on the lines that he had to use the translator equipment in the EU parliament chamber to understand Mr McCreevy. If this is the content of the “argument” being made by Mr Schulz in favour of Lisbon, then it is at a very low level indeed and unworthy of someone pretending to “lead” the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.
We are not surprised, though, at this overweening insolence, as it has characterised the ‘Yes’ campaign, both here and on the Continent since the referendum campaign began. What it shows clearly to the Irish people is that the extreme bureaucratic element within the EU administration and Parliament has no respect, either for the individual human beings who make up the populations of the various member countries or the elected representatives, even on their own side, who do not “perform” to the requirements of the fanatical supporters of the EU Super-state like Mr Schulz.
The sourgrapes were not confined to ignorant members of the French and German delegations; Avril Doyle, MEP (Fine Gael) supposedly “representing” Irish electors in the Parliament chose to waste her time speaking against the media stunt of the members of the UK indepen
dence Party(a British anti-EU political group) who were wearing T-shirts celebrating the Irish NO-vote, (see photo), instead of reminding the Parliament that the Irish people’s vote was a sovereign, democratic decision and that therefore the Lisbon treaty could not be ratified. Instead, Ms Doyle ranted against the UKIP and failed to deal with the principal issue which has arisen; the lack of democracy in the administration of the EU which the Irish people have given their verdict on.Avril Doyle, MEP (Fine Gael): more worried about UKIP
T-Shirts than lack of democracy in EU.
Don't Lose Your Head!
In an interview in the Irish Times, Thursday, Meitheamh/June 26th, former French President(1974-81), Giscard d’Estaing and President of the Convention which drafted the EU “Constitution” which, having been rejected by French and Netherlands voters, was re-hashed as the Lisbon Treaty, re-iterated the bureaucratic line that there “is no alternative to a second Irish vote” and when challenged on the question of the existing rule of unanimity stated the EC was founded on unanimity but “We are evolving towards majority voting because if we stay with unanimity we will do nothing”. The aristocratic arrogance of this shows that M. d’Estaing seems to forget that he was President of the French Republic and now thinks like Louis XV1. Well, we have news for M d’Estaing, the people of this Republic are not for bullying or intimidation; the essence of democracy is the consent of the individual citizen to the doings of Government and we have not given our consent to this Lisbon Treaty.
It is part of the propagandist view of the Irish political elite to suggest that the NO-vote in Ireland was somehow due to the malign influence of a handful of right-wing agitators rather than the mature decision of an alert people defending their democratic rights. This fits in with their own shameful subservience to the Brussels Bureaucrats and their failure to condemn the political manoeuvering by French and German leaders to promote ways of ignoring the Irish vote. This will be remembered by the people at the European Parliament elections next year.
In an interview in the Irish Times, Thursday, Meitheamh/June 26th, former French President(1974-81), Giscard d’Estaing and President of the Convention which drafted the EU “Constitution” which, having been rejected by French and Netherlands voters, was re-hashed as the Lisbon Treaty, re-iterated the bureaucratic line that there “is no alternative to a second Irish vote” and when challenged on the question of the existing rule of unanimity stated the EC was founded on unanimity but “We are evolving towards majority voting because if we stay with unanimity we will do nothing”. The aristocratic arrogance of this shows that M. d’Estaing seems to forget that he was President of the French Republic and now thinks like Louis XV1. Well, we have news for M d’Estaing, the people of this Republic are not for bullying or intimidation; the essence of democracy is the consent of the individual citizen to the doings of Government and we have not given our consent to this Lisbon Treaty.
It is part of the propagandist view of the Irish political elite to suggest that the NO-vote in Ireland was somehow due to the malign influence of a handful of right-wing agitators rather than the mature decision of an alert people defending their democratic rights. This fits in with their own shameful subservience to the Brussels Bureaucrats and their failure to condemn the political manoeuvering by French and German leaders to promote ways of ignoring the Irish vote. This will be remembered by the people at the European Parliament elections next year.
FearFeasa Mac Léinn
Áth Cliath/DUBLIN, 27 Meitheamh/June 2008.
Áth Cliath/DUBLIN, 27 Meitheamh/June 2008.
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