Ganley won’t continue Lisbon campaign if he fails to win Euro seat

I’m just back from a debate on the Lisbon Treaty between Pat Rabbitte and Declan Ganley where the Libertas leader said two interesting things. First, when asked whether he would continue to lead Libertas’s campaign against the Lisbon Treaty if he failed to win a European Parliament seat in Ireland North-West, Ganley answered with a point blank “no”. (Also: “If I’m defeated, I’ll go plant cabbages.”)

No cars go…

 

BikeMi rank at Piazza del Duomo, Milan

Brian Cowen entered the conference hall of the FF Ard Fheis this evening to Arcade Fire’s ‘No Cars Go’. While our Taoiseach may not have seen the environmental message I have decided is contained therein it feels apt that a week ahead of the Green Party’s conference in Wexford (Eoin and Lenny will be down there for YellowRomanCandles) we check out how the Italians have established a bike rental scheme to complement its public transport system. 

Before I try to explain how the scheme works I should probably explain how far the Italians, and the Milanese in particular, are ahead of us in the public transport stakes.

Joe Higgins vs The World

Yellow Roman Candles contributor JP O’Malley recently met with former Dublin West TD Joe Higgins to discuss Irish politics post-Lisbon and, hopefully, pre-the entry of Higgins onto the European political stage.

Fearing the myth of an elite

That’s the subject of an article on the second Lisbon Treaty referendum I wrote for the latest issue of Sin, NUI Galway’s student newspaper.

Just this week, I saw this poster in a window beside the Royal Dublin Hotel on O’Connell St. It’s an example of one of the more extreme conspiracy theories that has being linked to Lisbon.

Light blogging here (ie, no blogging) since December. But that’s about to change. Lenny says he’s going to go ape on his keyboard in the coming days. Can’t wait…

Murdoch’s influence on the Sunday Times’ Lisbon stance

Sarah Carey sheds some light on an area of the Irish media that’s rarely discussed publicly – the inner workings of Rupert Murdoch’s Irish (and in some cases Oirish) outlets. The ex-Sunday Times columnist details how the editor of that paper’s Irish edition suddenly changed his stance on the Lisbon Treaty just weeks before the referendum. Frank Fitzgibbon originally believed the treaty was a “political imperative,” she says, but then changed his mind and banned any pro-treaty opinion articles from appearing in the paper.

It goes without saying that Murdoch has been a long-time critic of the European project and his newspapers in the UK reflect that. With a second referendum now looking inevitable, all possible reasons for the first result will be closely scrutinised in the coming weeks. Carey is asking that people consider whether some backers of the No vote are taking that position for ulterior motives:

I’m not saying that anyone who voted No didn’t care about Ireland. But I am saying that certain constituencies who argued against Lisbon did so not because they believed it to be the right thing, but for other reasons. If our entire political establishment was dismayed because Lisbon was defeated and the cheers from Wapping were ringing in our ears, doesn’t that make anyone wonder whether No was the right answer to the question?

It’s worth noting that while Carey believes Fitzgibbon told her he was infavour of the treaty, she accepts it is possible that she “misunderstood his views”.

Also, it’s refreshing to see a columnist write so openly about the internal machinations of another newspaper. The national media is a relatively small pond in Ireland and we don’t see such frank criticism of journalists by their colleagues (or former colleagues) very often.

Looking for assurances

It has begun. As well as retaining a commissioner, assurances/declarations are being negotiated on neutrality, abortion and taxation.

It seems almost certain we’re going to have a straight re-run of Lisbon with the above clarifications tacked on. So the big question is when. Can it be done before the European and local elections in June? If not, we’ll have to elect MEPs under the current Nice rules and not the new ones. The Lisbon rules don’t effect us but they do increase the MEPs for Spain, France, Sweden, Austria, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Latvia, Slovenia, and Malta. I’m sure those countries are keen to vote under the Lisbon system but is it too soon for Cowen to risk a referendum? Defeat would almost certainly force a general election.

Three options

So Micheál Martin has confirmed that the Government will make a decision on another Lisbon referendum before the European Council meeting in December. Senator Déirdre de Búrca and Irish Times foreign editor Paul Gillespie predicted as much on Saturday, when they were speaking at the Young Greens convention.

De Búrca narrowed the Government’s options down to three choices: 1) Put the treaty before the people again, having received assurances and declarations from the European Council on issues like neutrality and retaining a commissioner; 2) Have the Oireachtas ratify all aspects of the treaty that do not have implications for Bunreacht na hÉireann and put the constitutional issues to the people (in stages or all at once) at a later date; or 3) Propose a multi-speed Europe with Ireland and other sceptical member states opting out from certain developments (though the legal mechanisms for this are not currently in place). So, which option will Cowen go for?