Madam, - The supporters of a No vote in the referendum campaign have continually expressed outrage that people in other countries were not given the chance to vote on the Lisbon Treaty in their own referendums. Declan Ganley, Patricia McKenna and Mary Lou MacDonald have expressed the belief that other countries would have voted the same way as the French and Dutch did some time ago and the Irish did last week.
Surveys in Germany have been quoted to support this view. I have little reason to doubt this is true. However since, Sinn Féin prides itself on its insular "all-Ireland" perspective, Mr Ganley's business interest seem to lie largely in the UK and the US and Ms McKenna is no longer an MEP, these advocates of plebiscites may be less au fait with the reasons why other countries might vote No. I would like to acquaint them with some of the reasons why the Germans, for example, would have voted the Treaty down.
The majority of Germans are no different to the French, the Dutch and the Irish and look at this issue purely from a particularist, nationalist perspective: what's in it for me or us? Had they been asked to vote they would have said No for one or all of the following reasons. They are unhappy:
1. That Germany has been the paymaster of the EU for decades and massive funds have been transferred to other countries (such as Ireland, which has now even shown itself ungrateful for all this support), when Germany needed the money very badly herself to deal with the financial consequences of re-unification.
2. That some German banks have left Germany with the loss of hundreds of jobs and are taxing their profits in other countries (such as Ireland). The German government has done little to abolish these tax imbalances.
3. That a country of 82 million people like Germany is represented at Commissioner level in the post-Lisbon Treaty EU in the same way as a small country (such as Ireland, with only 4.5 million people).
4. That so little German is spoken in Brussels, although the German language community is actually the largest in the EU.
5. Given last week's events, that a country of 82 million people should be bossed around by a small country (such as Ireland) and be stopped from implementing its own policies, whatever they are.
All this is extremely simplistic of course, but the German electorate is no more and no less sophisticated in these matters than the Irish is. How fostering self-centred nationalist opinions such as these in Germany or in other EU countries can in any way be beneficial for Ireland and the Union as a whole is a riddle only the advocates of plebiscites can solve for me.
Thank God there are still parliamentarians, politicians and civil servants who take a broader view of European and world politics and inhabit the real world of political interdependence and extremely complex negotiations in order to keep every country and its interests somehow on board. If they work in Brussels they are usually denounced as Eurocrats.
As to the view of another advocate of referendums, Mr Joe Higgins, that any No is also an expression of a deep unease about the neo-liberal, globalised, capitalist agenda increasingly taking hold of the world, I fully concur with this assessment. It is, no, doubt as true for Germany as it is for France and the Netherlands. But this particular road map is being designed in Washington, Bejing, Moscow, Delhi and Abu Dhabi as well as in Brussels, with the EU arguably being among the less ruthless of the new superpowers.
This brave new world is not a very pleasant one and it is very understandable that the electorate would like to wish it away by saying No and return to the certainties of a cosy, capitalist pre-1989 world where at least India and China knew their place. But this is cloud-cuckoo land. Then again, electorates in all countries love to have their heads in the clouds and some at times even parade their ignorance.
As some members of the "sophisticated" Irish electorate put it: I don't know what this treaty is about and don't understand the issues [as I did not bother to read a booklet with eight pages of text in plain English] and this is why I vote, and it's No.
Referendums such as these do not bring out the best in people, and certainly not the best thinking. If more than 80 per cent of the elected politicians agree on a point, especially if they comprise both government and opposition, who love to be at loggerheads, they could actually be right. - Yours, etc,
JOACHIM FISCHER,
Ballina,
Co Tipperary.
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Madam, - Well done to all groups who called for for a No vote. It appears to me that the group which put in the most hard work throughout the country was Cóir. Its members' commitment to their faith and their country was evident. Perhaps this is why the Yes men and women from all political parties wanted to belittle and dismiss them.
Some politicians were even dismissing them because they are pro-life, and pro-marriage, as in marriage between a man and woman. These politicians, and some media, seem to think such people have no right to speak except family issues. Eventually they began referring to them as Youth Defence - as if to suggest that there was something wrong or sinister with the group and that their voice should be ignored.
Enda Kenny was outrageous in his attitude to them. Maybe Mr Kenny - "as a Catholic and a father" - should learn to put manners on Young Fine Gael; or did he think their pornographic poster promoting a Yes vote was a valuable contribution to the debate? I am sure decent people in Fine Gael are ashamed.
Also, for Mr Kenny to and suggest the Alive! newspaper be removed from churches smacks of interference by a politician in the running of the church.
Of course other politicians were not far behind in trying to dismiss the Cóir group. But its members are all people who want and work towards respectability and decency and who want and are entitled to have an Ireland that is safe for families, where people can practice their faith without fear or ridicule, where youth can be youthful and not plagued by alcohol or drugs, and coerced into sexual activity.
I hope the the pro-life, pro-family aspects of the No victory will not be played down by media and politicians. - Yours, etc,
NOEL GORMAN,
Carrick Road,
Edenderry,
Co Offaly.
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Madam, - The negative referendum result is no doubt partly due to a mixture of fantasy, ignorance and cussedness. But these do not constitute a reason for the Irish Government to apologise for a clear decision by the Irish people.
Given the recent No votes in France, the Netherlands and Ireland, it is clear that a large but unknown proportion of people in all EU countries, not only in Ireland, distrust the EU. All governments must deal with this distrust, because if they do not, the EU will not have the support of the EU peoples that it needs. Only when it has been tackled can governments expect support for their activities.
A basic reason for this distrust is because governments have not done what they agreed to do in the Laeken Declaration - i.e. make the European institutions more democratic, transparent and efficient. At the European Council this week the Taoiseach could say that all governments should accept that they must make clear what is happening within the EU institutions. As a first step, they should open Council meetings to the public. This does not need a treaty change and could be done immediately.
The most urgent and important change needed in the treaties is the re-weighting of the votes in the Council to introduce the "double majority" and give Germany the votes to which its size entitles it. In our view, that change does not require a referendum in Ireland since it involves no significant change in Ireland's influence, the test used by the Supreme Court in the Crotty case. - Yours, etc,
JOHN TEMPLE LANG,
EAMONN GALLAGHER,
Brussels,
Belgium.
****
Madam, - Chris Murphy (June 17th) says he knew he was right to vote Yes when he saw the delight of UK Conservatives following the No result. I agree; I felt equally content with my own Yes vote when I watched the syrupy smugness of Sinn Féin, the dogmatic and negative Patricia McKenna, the crooning of the electorally rejected Joe Higgins and the genuine disappointment of Ireland's European colleagues, who have struggled hard to put this treaty in place.
Declan Ganley's strategy may have been clever and our politicians may have been inept, but it is we, the Irish people, who will pay dearly for this momentous error. I believe it will be regarded in future years as the gateway to Ireland's recession and isolation. Truly, the Celtic Error. - Yours, etc,
GEOFF SCARGILL,
Loreto Grange,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
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A chara, - Is it not interesting that the treaty "designed to make the EU more democratic" has been rejected by the only member-state that provided its citizens with a democratic voice. And the result? "Crisis."
Democracy is listening to the voice of the people, not getting the result you want. My advice to the Taoiseach is to start with this fundamental point and take it from there. - Is mise,
MACDARA Ó CUAIG,
Carna,
Conamara,
Co na Gaillimhe.
****
Madam, - Last weekend I met some European friends, of various nationalities. Their general attitude was that Ireland was selfish, a brake on progress; and there was a widely held view that referendums aren't the useful democratic weapon we Irish think they are. The No side may have no problem with the contempt of the elite in Brussels, but do they realise how angry ordinary Europeans are with us too? - Yours, etc,
IAN M. O'MARA,
Great Dover Street,
London SE1.
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Madam, - As polling day for the Lisbon Treaty drew near, it was becoming increasingly clear to me that I should vote in favour. The much-touted red herrings of the No campaigns were beginning to smell increasingly fishy. What I felt I really needed in the final days of the campaign was the chance to discuss the issues with the various party activists. I waited. And waited.
Not one representative of any party came to the door. Is it because a sitting MEP lives a few doors down that the foot-soldiers felt our bóithrín was safe for the Yes camp?
Instead of the much-needed face-to-face discussion with engaged campaigners, we got the patrician smiles of our public representatives beaming down from every pole in the parish, exhorting us to place our trust in their superior knowledge of the mysterious machinations of the EU. Given that these posters were all we had to go on, this appeal for trust seemed a bit of a stretch, in the case of Fine Gael particularly.
The Irish version of its poster - the most commonly displayed in our area - failed to spell the word "Eoraip" correctly. - Is mise,
TADHG MAC DHONNAGÁIN,
Baile an Dónalláin,
An Spidéal,
Co na Gaillimhe.
****
Madam, - The responsibility for the growing economic crisis lies squarely on the shoulders of President Bush, his neo-con advisers, their wars and their supporters throughout the world, including Ireland.
The supporters of President Bush and his wars were the main advocates of the Yes vote and their defeat was a victory not just for the Irish peace movement, but also peace movements throughout the world.
Throughout the world, for business to thrive, stability and social justice must be the cornerstone of any economy.
The defeat of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish people was due in no small measure to their rejection of the military ambitions of the EU elite. A better Europe, a partnership Europe, a Europe of independent, democratic states, legal equals, without a military dimension is now back on the table. - Yours, etc,
ROGER COLE,
Chair, Peace and Neutrality Alliance,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - Even the most naive "No" voters must now be feeling a little used, after reading the British Sunday newspapers. Triumphalist Eurosceptic commentators made no pretence that Libertas was anything but an Irish version of Tory Euroscepticism. In deference to the the deep-seated pro-European nature of the Irish, Libertas was careful throughout the campaign to insist that it was pro-European, and was only quibbling with aspects of this particular treaty.
The Irish enthusiastically supported the European project because it offered the opportunity to escape our previous humiliating status as a semi-independent part of the British Isles. How quickly we have forgotten. Ireland is now reduced to Tory Euroscepticism's Trojan horse, sabotaging Europe on their behalf in pursuit of a sham independence. In fact, far from protecting our independence, the No vote has restored our status as the UK's poodle.
Indeed, we are now the poodle of a mere poodle, since the UK itself is now so completely subservient to the US. Some blow for independence! Gerry Adams, the Fenian dead will turn in their graves to see you in such company. - Yours, etc,
TIM O'HALLORAN,
Ferndale Road,
Finglas,
Dublin 11.