Has the no to Lisbon campaign in Ireland been terminally damaged?

[earth]

They put themselves up before the electorate and the electorate said no thank you.

Shockingly, the electorate care about more issues than the Lisbon Treaty. Which is a perfectly rational thing to do, given that the public will be able to decide for themselves on Lisbon.

I hear there's some story about the economy lately.

[lapsedmethodist]

Joe Higgins is admittedly elected and is anti Lisbon but that was only part of his campaign.. and I believe he got votes from Dubliners who were more anti FF than anti Lisbon.

Key Issues | Joe Higgins.eu

His 10 point manifesto was a standard leftist agenda focussing on national issues in the main.



So with only Joe (who will run a mile from the Coir / PLC crowd) How can they recover between now and October?

Admittedly without a change of government the Yes campaign will hardly be inspiring either.

Don't forget that Joe Higgins represents the weirdest kind of socialism ever.
If a rogue army is surrounding your city and shelling your markets... don't look to the likes of Joe for help, because he belongs to the hand-wringing, stern-letter-writing, UN called-upon- to -act pussy socialism that , frankly , shames the very concept.
Gone are the days when a socialist would issue a call to arms to defend the helpless.

[McDave]

I think it has been terminally damaged.

- With no MEP, Sinn Fein have lost their primary means of argument. Do they really want to alienate the Republic's electorate any more?
- Libertas have shot themselves in both feet with their inept alienation of all but the reactionary part of our electorate. DG has effectively written himself out of the script.

With Labour and the Greens officially swinging behind Lisbon 2, there will be no significant political organisation other than (half-hearted?) SF behind the No. So the No campaign will end up being run by a ragbag of activists, some articulate (e.g. Joe H and Richard BB), some not so.

And if FF have any sense, they'll take Roche off the case.

[fergalr]

It depends a lot on whether or not RTE will re-weight their panels to give more time to elected representatives instead of the 50:50 pro/con which inflates the importance and mandate of the No groups.

You shouldn't have to ignore the fact that FF, FG, Lab, Greens all support one side and that their opponents have scarcely any national politicians and dramatically less public support.

[Ah Well]

My gut feeling is this certainly has damaged the No to Lisbon Campaign. But then again 2 "No" MEPs have failed for re-election and another "No" MEP has been elected.

It would of course have been better for the No campaign if Ganley was elected. I cannot see Libertas being effective in Lisbon MkII, assuming that there is a Libertas involvement in the first place ....

Actually, FF should join the "No" Campaign ... that'd ensure a MASSIVE majority would vote Yes

Personally I still intend to vote No as I have said previously. And it is not Communism -v- Capitalism as a prior Poster states, that's a simplistic view of it in the extreme.

[kerrynorth]

As very much a No person, it has been severly damaged. Two strands of the No campaign have been 'taken out' and a 3rd, SF, will be nursing its wounds for a while. As much as I like Joe on a personal basis there is only so much you can take of him and his communist rethoric and mantras. The biggest blow to the No campaign is that even though the Yes people have been saying ad nausiem that Lisbon was not an issue they will use their electoral defeat as a stick to beat the No campaign, again and again. Many of the best media performers are 'damaged' goods to a degree as a result of the election, even though it was close in some cases.

[vid]

It depends a lot on whether or not RTE will re-weight their panels to give more time to elected representatives instead of the 50:50 pro/con which inflates the importance and mandate of the No groups.

You shouldn't have to ignore the fact that FF, FG, Lab, Greens all support one side and that their opponents have scarcely any national politicians and dramatically less public support.

So the no campaign should be allowed no airtime and everyone subjected to hours of propaganda.I dont think RTE can re weight panels as a result of McKenna.Its terrible that the arguments in favour of further EU Integration are so weak, that your only way to succeed is to supress debate on the issues.

[oceanclub]

The Socialist Party, PBP and others claims that the European Union is a neo-liberal nightmare.

Declan Ganley claims that it's actually a "Communist totalitarian system".

One of these groups have to be, not just wrong, but staggeringly wrong. In which case, why would you give them any credence by voting for them?

And how would you expect such a "No" side to be able to deal with the European Union in any coherent way?

P.

[Demotruk]

Yep. If you want it passed, now is the time to pounce.

[fergalr]

So the no campaign should be allowed no airtime and everyone subjected to hours of propaganda.I dont think RTE can re weight panels as a result of McKenna.Its terrible that the arguments in favour of further EU Integration are so weak, that your only way to succeed is to supress debate on the issues.

No, I said that 50:50 is disingenuous in portraying the No camp as being in some sense equally popular as the political parties in terms of public support.

FG needs to send George Lee on a national "Cop On" tour to drum up the Yes vote.