The impression given by the media coverage was that many of the people who voted against the Lisbon Treaty in the Irish referendum did so because they didn’t understand it. The vox pops repeatedly said that they were so confused about the detail that they thought it best to reject it.
The people who do think they know what it meant are those on the Europhile and Eurosceptic wings. In a sense, the detail is irrelevevant to them because they have prior positions in favour or against integration and vote accordingly.
So put that all together and it is clear that the media and governments failed to explain what the Treaty was about. Or rather, the different versions of what it was about were so confusing and contradictory that the unprejudiced citizen could only make a decision out of fear, distrust and ignorance.
Regardless of what you think about the EU, this does seem to indicate that conventional political communication isn’t working. I don’t think you can blame the media. Thanks partly to the Internet, all the information was out there. You can’t force people to attend seminars before they vote. If highly informed and intelligent folk couldn’t agree what this was about, never mind which way to vote, then how could the humble jornalist or citizen?
Referenda on this scale are clearly a joke. The sight of a nation made rich in great part thanks to European subsidy voting against integration is darkly funny too. But so is the claim for democratic legitimacy for the Lisbon Treaty.
I once spent 18 months as a BBC European politics producer in a period when that issue brought down governments and wrecked political parties. In those days Ever Greater Union was seen as an irresistable force of nature. If you stood in its way you would be swept aside.
I don’t think it has the power to do that anymore. In the UK the largely euro-sceptic printed media has chimed with public sentiment in a way that the pro-Brussels British broadcast media did not.
The interesting question is not how to revise the Lisbon Treaty in to something that the Irish will accept. Nor can we simply say let’s leave Europe where it is. With 27 members in a rapidly changing world it needs reform not rejection.
Personally, I felt that the Lisbon Treaty had elements in it, such as a permanent President, that would have helped increase accountability. It would have given the EU someone that the public could relate to. Perhaps that could have been the beginning of a tangible political relationship with the citizens. If so, perhaps that is exactly why the sceptics prefer the current confusion, ignorance and illogicality that the Irish vote has left in its wake.
Darkly funny indeed.
Sinn fein and my old man in agreement: tragic.
“It would have given the EU someone that the public could relate to. Perhaps that could have been the beginning of a tangible political relationship with the citizens. If so, perhaps that is exactly why the sceptics prefer the current confusion”
Many national politicians (even the less eurosceptic ones) might be worried about people developing tangible political relationships with Europe.
“Personally, I felt that the Lisbon Treaty had elements in it, such as a permanent President, that would have helped increase accountability. It would have given the EU someone that the public could relate to.”
One wonders how you or anyone could conclude that an unelected President could “increase accountability” or give the public someone “they could relate to”.
I can relate to democracy. That is what referenda are all about. The real joke is your political system with its First past The Post, ‘winner takes all’ undemocratic nature. When are you getting a say on the Treaty? Oh wait, you won’t. If we hadn’t got a safeguard in our constitution we wouldn’t have gotten a vote either.
You are naive if you think these guys are a force for good. They are already trying to wriggle out of the result and thinking of foisting another vote on the Irish people.
Thanks for the comments.
What I think this debate shows is how various ideas of democracy can be. The UK preaches about democracy but we do have a strange system with first past the post and a House of Lords. In an age of celebrity and single issue campaigns an unelected person like Bob Geldof can sometimes claim a kind of legitimacy. Look around the world and there are very few systems (like the Swiss!) that offer direct voter power. My point about having a permanent (unelected) EU president is that at least it gives a name, face and positition that can symbolise a very disparate EU. The power will still be with the national leaders. Anthony is right to say that a democrati EU may be seen as a threat by national politicians.
As for being naive, United Irelander, I may be wrong or stupid but I am not naive. I find that is a word people use when they mean they disagree with someone…nationalism may not be dead. Indeed, it may be an increasingly important part of people’s political identity in a globalising world. But it isn’t a solution to the increasingly multi-national problems we face.
Charlie,
Is it that a democratic EU is seen as a threat to national politicians, or, as I would argue, that democratic nation-states are seen as a threat to EU politicians?
It would seem to me, from viewing the reaction of EU ministers, that their claims to be democratic are quite hollow. I personally see no point in ideas like an EU president unless you are of the view that a United States of Europe offers the best future for the EU. However if such proposals are put to the people, that’s fair enough. Why though are these plans being implemented without consulting the people?
Are we here for their benefit? I thought it was suposed to be the other way around.
It saddens me that your country will not get a say on the Treaty because I feel they would put the nail in its coffin as David Cameron said, and with the UK on our side we might be able to achieve a more democratic EU.
Dear UnitedIrelander,
‘Are we here for their benefit? I thought it was suposed to be the other way around’
May I remind you of how much money on cohesion funds Ireland and my country, Spain, have got out of the EU? Do you remember where Ireland and Spain were 40 years ago prior to entering the EU. I can respect views on not wanting more integration, but don’t say the citizens of Ireland haven’t benefited from EU membership.
Cheers.