Madam, – As the No vote gathers momentum again as a protest vote against the Government, due in no small part to the impeccable timing of the powers-that-be in releasing the McCarthy report, the report of the Commission on Taxation and the Nama legislation in the immediate run-up to the referendum, I have a few suggestions as to how this might be combated:
1. Urge the Government to ask for a No vote, thereby turning the protest vote into an endorsement of the Lisbon Treaty; or 2. Agree to call a general election post Lisbon and allow voters the opportunity to protest against the government in the appropriate manner and let the vote on Lisbon be just that; and 3. Stop continuing with a poster campaign based on vague generalities – such as “Yes to Recovery” “Yes to Europe” (as opposed to “Yes to South America” presumably) – and take a leaf out of the No campaigners’ book and concentrate on delivering concrete points such as “Yes to keeping a commissioner”.
4. Finally, if Lisbon is passed, perhaps politicians in future will refrain from taking credit locally for all the benefits received from the EU and blaming the EU for any decisions that are unpopular. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Reports (Home News, September 5th and September 7th) of recent statements of the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and of the secretary general of the EU Commission Ms Catherine Day are to be welcomed.
Prime Minister Reinfeldt said that EU leaders are working on an alternative plan in the event of another No vote to the Lisbon treaty. He said that if the treaty was rejected on October 2nd, the EU would continue to operate under the provisions of the Nice treaty.
Ms Day confirmed that “the EU is not punitive and there would be no question of throwing Ireland out [of the EU] or taking repercussions” against the State.
In light of these comments, Irish people can now be confident that there is no need for the Lisbon Treaty, and there is nothing to fear from Europe if we vote No. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Robert Ballagh (September 8th) declares that he is “concerned by the level of misleading information that is being put about by many of those who support the Lisbon Treaty”. In particular, he claims that the slogans: “We belong to Europe, vote Yes” and “Vote Yes to keep Ireland in the heart of Europe” are both misleading and untrue.
Neither slogan is demonstrably true or false – they represent an arguable point of view. By contrast, facts stated by Cóir on their posters clearly misrepresent the EU decision-making process and falsely imply that the treaty will reduce our minimum wage to €1.84.
It seems to me that such deliberate mis-statements are far more serious and help no-one in this debate. – Yours, etc,