Fiscal Union Referendum: Can the Irish REALLY be so dumb?

[Posts: 1834Joined: 03 Jan 2004, 19:43Location: north west]

It would seem so, if you believe Danial Hannan (MEP) Eurosceptic
par excellence in this blog from the Daily Telegraph. The short clip at the end is also amusing:-

"It's hard to see what else the eurozone leaders have to do to encourage Ireland to vote 'No' to the FU Treaty. Christine Lagarde and José Manuel Barroso lecture people about austerity while paying almost no tax on their own salaries. Billions of euros are confiscated from ordinary taxpayers to rescue wealthy fools from their poor investment decisions. Germany is demanding that Ireland and the other debtor nations hand over their gold reserves.

Meanwhile Spain's financial institutions are being downgraded by the ratings agencies, raising the prospect that the slow-motion bank run in Greece will accelerate across the Mediterranean. While it might still be possible to manage the Greek default as a controlled explosion, the prospect of a chain reaction across the eurozone looks likelier by the hour.

Yet, unbelievably, polls suggest that the Irish are about to strap themselves into the impending wreckage. Indeed, they seem happy to pay for the privilege. Ireland is raising taxes and cutting spending to cover its tithe to Europe's bankers and bondholders. While doing so, it eschews the competitive exchange rate which, outside the euro, would lift its economy off the rocks.

The polls might be wrong, of course. But the failure of any mainstream Irish party to push the default-decouple-devalue option is extraordinary. I blogged recently that, when Right-wing parties lock themselves into Euro-corporatism, they open the door to the populist Left. I was writing about France and Greece, but the same applies to Ireland. All the main parties are unblushingly taking the same line that they did during the last Euro-referendum, leaving the 'No' campaign to the Trotskyists and Sinn Féin.

These parties have duly surged – SF has risen from seven to 24 per cent, and Gerry Adams is now the most popular party leader in the Republic – but, to put it as gently as possible, they have only limited appeal to Middle Ireland. Once again, the Pro-Treaty Forces intend to win through the overwhelming weight of big corporations, big parties and the MSM.

Have a look at the video below. Parody? Perhaps, but it's hard to improve on the way in which the old parties are playing the recession-versus-recovery card as if the 2009 Lisbon referendum hadn't happened (the montage below the video isn't a parody: it's genuine).

Irish people are being offered a vote that other eurozone countries would kill for. They alone are being asked whether or not they approve of the idea of giving public money to private banks. They alone get to decide whether they want to be part of the racket in future. Tomorrow, they have a chance to throw off their economic vassalage, assert their democratic rights and – best of all – reject the bank bailouts. Lucky them."


LInk to article with video clip:-
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100161609/the-euro-crash-is-coming-will-ireland-vote-to-be-part-of-it/

[Posts: 1834Joined: 03 Jan 2004, 19:43Location: north west]

Or, try this analysis of Ireland's knee-bending to an undemocratic overlord from Ed West in today's Daily Telegraph

...Imagine if, for example, Ireland had signed up to a single currency with the United Kingdom and the Irish people were being asked to make cuts for the sake of their membership of the British currency area (although, in fact, it wouldn’t come to that because Ireland using sterling would make economic sense). Would the Irish accept it? Not in 800 years. That they’re likely to do it for the euro is entirely down to the psychological need the Irish have for Europe...

Read the whole piece at:-
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100161937/ireland-wouldnt-accept-starvation-austerity-to-stay-in-the-pound-why-will-it-do-so-for-the-euro/

[Posts: 3650Joined: 08 Jul 2009, 22:10Location: Wexford]

I'm not convinced the vote will be Yes. I was working all day in a polling station and if that was anything to go by it's going to be very tight. Obviously I don't know what way people voted but a good many people seemed disillusioned with the Government and the mess the country is in. I reckon the Government may once again be given the two-finger salute from the people.

[Posts: 4763Joined: 07 Oct 2002, 11:50Location: Scotland]

.. it's a good job the Mick's voted Yes or they woud be forced to have referendums until they did .. RIP democracy lol.