Tuesday, 22nd September 2009

The 2,000 Irish employees of accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC),  while munching on their prawn sandwiches during a lazy lunchtime last week, received an email from senior management urging them to vote Yes in the upcoming Lisbon Treaty referendum, writes Hermann Kelly.

While Ireland still has the benefit of the secret ballot it most certainly does not have the benefit of equal campaign funding for both sides. 

Incidentally, not all Yes campaigning companies are canvassing the same way. Microsoft Ireland managing director Paul Rellis said his company’s public Yes position on the treaty was well known, and "you don’t have to tell people what you think". PwC clearly think you do.

A month ago, The Sunday Times reported that supporters of the Lisbon Treaty are set to outspend the No side by 10 to 1 in the referendum campaign. An estimate of the budgets for the Yes side indicates it will spend at least €2.4m, compared with the No campaigners' €270,000.

Two large firms, Intel and Ryanair have both said they will spend large amounts of money to campaign for a Yes vote. Incidentally, both firms have a lot to gain in keeping the EU Commission very sweet at this time. Intel to overturn a 1 billion-plus euro fine, and Ryanair - the permission to buy up Aer Lingus.

While large corporations such as Intel and Ryanair and others pump a huge amount of money into the Yes side, they help to dwarf the meagre spending of the No side which relies on the pennies of ordinary people. Although 53.4 per cent of the Irish voters voted No to Lisbon last year, all the major parties in Ireland are running on the Yes for Lisbon trail.

They are not alone - last week, a group of lobbyt firms in Brussels got together for a half-million euro whip around to campaign for a Yes vote in Ireland. It's progenitor, Brussels-based Eamon Bates wrote:  “Personally, I do not think it was right to ask the Irish to vote again. However, now there is a re-run, I am convinced it would be wrong to allow a second No vote to occur."

In response to this less-than-altruistic venture by the 'Europe for Ireland' group, Chris Whitehouse, director of Whitehouse Consultancy, wrote: "The Irish electorate are likely to take a very dim view of commercial lobbyists entering the debate simply to protect their own profits, derived in part from lobbying the very institutions that would benefit most from a 'Yes' vote for the Treaty." Touché

And what about the broadcast media in Ireland? In terms of funding and media reach, it really is a battle of David and Goliath.

Last year, this writer had the temerity to throw the State broadcaster RTE, the moniker of 'Radio Lisbon' such was its stream of obviously one-sided broadcasts. In simple terms, every time a No side speaker or news-related article was on, there were two Yes side speakers.

Up until this point, the 'independent' broadcast media has been constrained by a Supreme Court judgement which meant that there was a requirement of equal broadcast time for both sides in a referendum debate, and that has worked pretty well. But the state appointed Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) was having none of it at this crucial juncture. At the encouragement of some Yes campaigners, the BCI decreed, and for this Lisbon referendum only, that the requirement for equal airtime for both sides of referendum debate was to be abolished.

The Lisbon debate is European battle which is taking place on Irish soil - and within the Irish soul. One group COIR, have up posters of pictures of those who fought for Irish independence with a caption - 'People died for your freedom, don't throw it away'.

This is a resonating theme also taken up by Nigel Farage, who recently resigned as head of UKIP to concentrate on running against Commons Speaker John Bercow at the next general election in Buckingham.

Mr Farage, one of the founders of UKIP, remains head of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, and  has strode into the breech in Ireland, given the paltry resources of the No side in Ireland to fight the good fight for greater democratic accountability across Europe. He pointed out the irony, if not gross stupidity of Ireland struggling for its freedom and independence from Britain for 800 years, to give it all away to Brussels within 90 years - without a shot being fired - by the simple stroke of a ballot pencil.

Given Ireland's stressed economic circumstances, powerful political muscle, and vast financial firepower on the Yes side - the referendum outcome should have been wrapped up  months ago, but this is certainly not the case. One of the reasons for the tenacious strength in the No side is the commitment of ordinary Irish people to democracy, encouraged with a little help from their friends.

The Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, of which the 13 UKIP MEPs are members, has decided to produce and distribute a glossy and eye-catching Lisbon information leaflet (Download here) which has already produced results. It has driven the Government and opposition Yes campaign bananas - which is fitting as the leaflet has an earthy feel to it.

It concentrates on the themes of job displacement, higher taxation, loss of sovereignty and worthlessness of EU government 'clarifications' on Lisbon.
Its page three has a real bird on it - this time a turkey - which is representing the country Turkey, whose entry Lisbon would potentially facilitate.  While the Yes side feign offence and shout racism - the EFD leader has told them to go out and buy a sense of humour. And humour is something Nigel Farage has used relentlessly to great advantage in radio debates and TV interviews in Ireland in the last month.

[I seriously recommend you look up Nigel Farage on YouTube in his debate against Irish Minister for Europe Dick Roche - as well as a tete a tete with UCD Monnet professor, Bridget Laffan - it’s what you call real entertainment].

And the response of the political class in Ireland who have made shouts of racism and xenophobia? They have suddenly started to use the terms 'Anglo-Saxon' and 'foreign interference' as if they are going out of fashion - while inviting over a conveyer belt of EU Commissioners, MEPs and well-paid EU parliament staff, 80 of whom are doing a propaganda tour of Irish secondary schools, singing the wonders of EU integration.

As they sign hymns to EU federalism, they also relentlessly attempt to smear and demonise everybody on the No side. Farage has remarked he has never experienced anything like the level of media bias against the No side in Ireland. All the national papers, bar The Daily Mail and Sunday Times are plugging a Yes vote, while No campaigners get little chance to voice their worries about the Treaty of Lisbon.

Polls in the major papers have the Yes side well ahead - as they did for Lisbon I. But there is still plenty of light, and a chance of a major upset again.

The group which carried out the most accurate poll before the first Lisbon vote, just this week, with a large countrywide sample, found that the No side were on 59 per cent of the vote. Could this be the upset to make the Eurocrats sick? Yes, it could be.

The Lisbon referendum is Ireland is still anyone's game and  just over a week to see which side kicks the opposition the most and the ball the hardest in the winning net. The game might not be fair, but sometimes guile beats brawn -  just ask Ryan Giggs.

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