Kayaker rescued off Wexford coast

This Friday the people of Ireland will go to the polls and at this moment in time I have no doubt that the Lisbon Treaty will be approved by a majority YES vote.

Yes, I advocate the NO vote but so too am I realistic with respect to the current state of play. Without offence to any individual, the YES side is made up of people whose jobs would not exist if they were not needlessly paid by somebody to be there and die hard Euro fanatics who would question their own mother before questioning the European Parliament, e.g. die hard trade unionists, politicians, minority businessmen whose business depends on EU subsidies, etc. The NO side is made up of people who are independent, self-starters who didn’t inherit a business to run, and minority political forces who will never become career politicians of any magnitude.

So why am I so convinced that the treaty will be carried? Well it’s simple really. The Irish are easily scared, rarely exhibit backbone, and are too ignorant to actually read anything they ever vote on. In addition to this, so-called independent bodies have done nothing but publish guides on how to vote YES, debates on national TV have always portrayed a majority leaning towards YES, the only credible NO campaigner is the victim of a slur campaign by our government and also was brought onto the main evening news to be ripped apart while no YES campaigner has ever received a similar treatment nor stern questioning of the value in voting YES. Finally, effecting the Lisbon Treaty will have consequence as simply put, consequence is the result of implementing any change, and no act of sublime lunacy is without consequence.

So a provisional congratulations to the self-interest groups and career politicians who successfully ran a campaign of, well actually it debases all my beliefs to call it a campaign given that not a single fact was used by the pro-YES vote side. Equally annoyed I am at the pro-NO side for using equal amounts of scaremongering and fallacious rubbish before anyone says anything about them. Anyway, congratulations on making it an iron clad fact that the voice of the Irish people will never be listened to within their own country nor within the EU. Congratulations on securing an opinion poll majority from people who believe that Lisbon will effect economic recovery. Congratulations on reaffirming your unquestionable stance in society whereby democracy is always wrong unless it’s the answer you want. Well done – you should be very proud of yourselves.

For anyone as of yet undecided, for those who have not bought the claptrap that a YES will bring economic recovery, keep us in Europe, send out waves of positivity to foreign investors, and pave the streets with gold – fair play to you for not yet being sucked in. For those who are die hard that the EU has treated us so well, that being part of the EU is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that life can’t exist without the EU as it stands, I have the following question: Why on earth are you voting in a treaty that guarantees changes to the EU and doesn’t preserve it in the way that it currently exists and has been good to us? The only consequence as a result of Friday’s vote will be if the treaty is passed – any other outcome changes nothing about the operation of the EU nor Ireland’s role within.

I’m not a Euro sceptic nor do I have any paranoid delusions of the EU being out to get us. I simply don’t ever accept YES as a default action and I despise change for the sake of change; change that serves little other purpose than justifying huge amounts of expenditure by some group of bureaucratic pen pushers. Let’s put it this way, if the Public Service in Ireland was campaigning for the opportunity to give itself more power and waste extraordinary amounts of public money on rejigging documents that have little to no effect on the running of the country, would you vote YES to their campaign?

Anyway, “que sera, sera”. Frankly I am both ashamed to be an Irish citizen and also ashamed to be a European who is currently frowned upon for not letting petulant, power-hungry, politicians get their way. Post-Lisbon Ireland will bear little difference to pre-Lisbon Ireland – only the passage of time will have any effect on the landscape. Twice in recent history we stuck our heads out and said something to the EU and twice we were slapped on the wrists – I wonder will Lisbon change the respect that Ireland gets for talking? Will effectively becoming a spineless jellyfish who swallows pride and forgets beliefs, win us the respect that we clearly do not yet have from Europe? Only time will tell…

A clever and appropriate nomenclature coined by John Murray Brown of FT.com to summarise Ireland at the moment. Our Emerald Isle is looking more like a junk shop, jade dragon – cheap, useless, outdated, and fragile. On one hand our country is fighting the evil of wreckless developers and their associated debts while on the other the government and courts appear to be doing everything possible to stop these people from going bankrupt and giving them all the chances necessary to welcome them into the ba-nama republic that we have created. It’s fair to say that some great strokes were pulled over the years by unscrupulous Irish politicians but what we are currently witnessing is the equivalent of the first admiral on the Titanic persuading people to get back out of the lifeboats! Amidst all of this iceberg hugging behaviour is the persistent belief that somehow getting the public to vote YES on the Lisbon Treaty’s second time referendum will save the country, as if Christ the Financier were due a second coming. Rather than awaiting the return of our money messiah however, we should probably be more focused on crucifying the current radicals that have brought us to the water’s edge but neglected to admit that they were drowning while supposedly they were walking on the surface. Here’s a link to the FT.com article.

Last October the Irish people went to the polling booth to have their say on the Lisbon Treaty – the result was a definite NO. The path is now being paved for a second vote on the treaty; So, what’s changed?

Before the first Lisbon vote, many people had a great number of concerns about the Lisbon Treaty’s content. Unusually despite this, every single, major political party supported the YES vote. The public were subjected to the opinions of ministers who openly admitted never reading the treaty document yet were convinced that YES was the only way to vote. After the NO vote won out, the government played out on the back foot for a while; the occasional snipe at the public and various fallacious comments such as how they made the recession worse by voting NO.

In recent times we have heard about the legal agreements sought by the government of Ireland, that would protect the points of concern, as expressed by the public. Concerns that you will remember, did not exist before the last vote as they were supposedly non-issues. However, the government now seems to agree that these are actually issues and has spent a great deal of public monies on legal council and drafting these so-called guarantees. So, the NO vote was right all along, we actually had genuine concerns?

So, the parties’ line is now that these agreements are in place and protect the genuine concerns of the Irish people so we can all be good little EU subordinates and vote YES because they want us to. Every major broadcaster and printed media has conveyed this message to the people and many lobby groups have convinced pockets of voters that YES is now the only option because these guarantees are in place. Very clever PR and electioneering; I take my hat off to the powers that be for conceiving and executing such an incredibly intricate and conniving plan.

What we haven’t heard anything about in the Irish media is how not a single word of the Lisbon Treaty document has been changed. We have also not been told how these guarantees are standalone documents that do not form an appendix to the treaty and that these guarantees are effected now, prior to the impending second vote on the treaty. What we are not being told is that voting YES to this treaty will supercede these guarantees, give power to the EU commission on all future decisions (a commission on which Ireland is still not guaranteed a seat) and allow the EU commission to govern with a treaty that remains unchanged from the original NO vote, still carrying all the concerns of the Irish public (confirmed recently by the Irish government’s actions as being genuine concerns). So essentially, Lisbon II will see the Irish government persuade the Irish citizens to return to the polls and despite ratifying all original fears and concerns, ignore their better judgement and vote YES anyway. This request will be made despite not a single word of the original treaty being changed and our only guarantees of comfort being standalone documents that will be superceded by the treaty coming into effect, rendering them null and void.

While not being one for holding back on what I believe in nor what I think about things, I really am lost for words that the Irish government truly believes that the Irish people are that stupid. I’m further confounded that somehow, lobby groups are managing to persuade certain groups that these hard times are linked to the last NO vote. I’ve always said that the Irish state verged on being Orwellian but am I truly gobsmacked at the blatant, stone-faced, audacity with which this deception is being performed.

Last time I voted NO because of concerns that the Irish government now says are genuine. Nothing has changed and the Irish people are being hoodwinked by clever political manoeuvres and fallacious scaremongering – this time I will be voting NO again, regardless of what anyone says. We’re still at square one.

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Despite Ireland being in recession and despite an emergency, early budget to try to deal with the crisis, and despite a projected shortfall in taxes of €7.5 billion the government of Ireland still sees fit to proceed with a €4 billion plan to develop a small metro system in Dublin. This proposed budget, which will no doubt be inflated as time goes on given government failures with previous capital projects, is equal to over half of the tax shortfall and would put the country in a far better position financially if it was not spent developing a metro line only in Dublin. Many respected business people have already said that building a metro in Dublin will not be a sensible decision nor return any true net worth to the tax payers who are paying for it. In addition, a similar metro project, but more advanced, was completed in Madrid in 2003 at a mere €1.6 billion (http://www.urbantransport-technology.com/projects/madrid/), less than half of the proposed Irish budget. This is a gross misuse of Irish taxpayer’s money and it should be stopped. It’s no more than a vanity project for the government and is far too costly in these times of economic recession and tax shortfalls. Join the cause, let the feeling be known!

I’m dreaming of a tight Christmas,
Just like the one in ’84.
When the minister’s gone fishin’
and people start wishin’
To the sound of an economy gone below.

I’m dreaming of a tight Christmas,
With every pathetic government slight.
You may take a ferry, or flight,
And leave Ireland long out of sight.

I’m dreaming of a tight Christmas,
A Christmas when the future’s shyte.
They get a raise and you get plight,
And may all your votes next year be spite.

Merry Recession everybody!

Sadly the answer to that in recent times has been all those, of a young age, who could avail of the new wonder vaccine for cervical cancer in Ireland. This post was prompted by listening to the Ray D’Arcy show on Today FM this morning when Health Minister, Mary Harney, took her life into her hands and put herself at the mercy of the headline crusader himself.

While it is a crying shame that the health service in Ireland cannot be realigned to find the Eur 10 million necessary to commence this vaccination program for young females, and that money is still being spent on ridiculous overheads and crazy misadventures within the health service instead of this; my post is not about that matter.

The “interview” as I will refer to this morning’s airing of Mary Harney trying to get a word in was one of the most ridiculous, amateurish, wastes of air time that I have ever heard. Why oh why would anybody bring a minister onto a radio show to do nothing but constantly talk over them and hurl abuse at them, making cutting and insincere comments such as “I really admire the way you can detach yourself from the emotion” (not exact quote) in the context of talking about people dying from cancer. Ray, you should be ashamed of yourself as a respected, national media figure. While the on-going crisis in the health service is a cause for concern and people are probably dying on a daily basis without just cause, the way to conduct an interview with the Minister on this matter is not what you did this morning.

By all means point out the problems. By all means debate the point at hand but one should never descend into a shouting battle nor constantly talking over the guest on the programme if any value is to be obtained from it. We never heard you launch into “cuddly Bertie” like this despite all the problems and “issues” associated with him. Mary Harney took a poison chalice when she took the position of Minister for Health. Unlike every other spineless Fianna Fáil TD when her term was up, she didn’t dodge the bullet and head for the hills, she took it on again because she gives a damn. How many ministers in this country can that be said of? The task may be insurmountable, many thanks to the national pay deals and other union bowing maneuvers signed off by Bertie but no, this doesn’t come up in discussion.

I greatly fear that this is the opening of a floodgate for the media to have one last crack at the government without having to slate a Fianna Fáil minister. The window of opportunity is narrow with the dissolution of the PDs and Mary Harney is merely a sitting duck for wrongly directed criticism. The sad reality with the health service, no matter how well it is run, is that there is a finite budget and spending money on one thing means that it cannot be spent on something else, possibly people will die as a result of this but if the money is redirected then other people will die – it’s an awful fact of life. Tackling wage bills in the health service means that workers will strike and more people will suffer. Tackling taxis and buses that currently deliver people to hospital results in union disputes as to who should do the work now and that dedicated couriers should probably be hired, resulting in more wage bills, procurement processes for vehicles, dedicated fleet lying idle and costing maintenance charges when not in use for the majority of patients, training for drivers to deal with the infirm, insurance costs for people who could die in your vehicle from heart conditions when you are in full knowledge of their medical history, and delays for who knows what else! Trying to break up the animal that is the HSE with its massive wage bill is like breaking iron with a feather. There is no easy solution. Trade-offs will always be made. It’s a much bigger problem than a single ministerial position – this needs complete government attention across all aspects of society and management.