Category Archives: Ireland

THE IRISH PROBLEM….

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International economics guru, Sanchia Berg, was on the BBC this morning to entertain us with an “analysis” of Ireland’s economic woes. At first I was curious as to why the BBC seemed so interested in the fact that Moody’s (They never saw the recession coming, why should we pay much attention to them now?) had downrated Irish credit worthiness – then it became clear. You see Ireland has actually TRIED to deal with out of control public sector spending by imposing wage cuts and the like. I salute the Irish for facing into financial reality. However Sanchia was not impressed and in the predictable BBC fetish that “you get out of a spending induced recession by spending even more” mode, suggested that Ireland was heading for a double dip recession because of foolishly trying to live within budget. The BBC agenda is to advance the Labour economic policy – the one that got us into the trouble. In doing so, they will seek to do down the Irish and any other country that dares suggest that responsible economic practice.

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Ireland Referendum Update

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Further to David’s post, this from Guido Fawkes :

When the result came in yesterday Mark Mardell looked shocked and sounded exasperated. The BBC has continually been running this line in its reporting of Ireland’s historic vote on the Lisbon Treaty:

“Just over three million Irish voters are registered – in a European Union of 490 million people.”

The implication is clear. Those beastly Paddies are depriving everyone else in Europe of the benefits of the Lisbon Treaty. They want to convey the image of a minority running rough shod over every one else. The BBC fails to mention that Ireland is not depriving Europeans of their say. It is the only member state which gave its people a say on the matter. It is the other member states who are depriving their people of a say lest they give the wrong answer.

There’s more – read the whole thing.

UPDATE – from a Guido commenter :

BBC reporting yesterday was a disgrace. They continued to say that turnout was 45% even after the official result was declared (the actual turnout was 53.13%, “a significant improvement on past referendums” – LT). Either wilful distortion or BBC hack too thick to look up the official referendum website.

UPDATE2 – On Any Answers Eddie Mair read out a letter arguing that the low turnour of only 40% compromised the authority of the vote. Mair, out of bias or (more likely IMHO) ignorance, failed to point out the correct turnout. These people just aren’t up to the job.

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IRELAND SAYS NO!

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Well now – what a turn up. The Irish have refused to be led by the nose and follow the advice of all the main political parties, big business and trade unions, and said NO to the Lisbon Treaty. The BBC coverage on this should be most interesting – just listen to the tonality of it (as the late unlamented Hillhunt would have suggested). I was reading Mark Mardell’s take on it here which is lamentable in terms of asking the hard questions about the serial failure of the Eurocrats to seLl their lousy Constitution to the people of Europe. Instead Mark seems more interested in considering how a way can be found to get around this awkward business of democracy. I predict the BBC will be in mourning with grim faced news-readers breaking the news but they will try to gain encouragement from Mr Broon’s claim that he plans to go ahead and force it through Parliament.

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NEVER SAY NO.

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It’s been a long day – having spent it in a sunny Dublin. Bumped into Andrew Neil who was over with his team covering the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty aka EU Constitution. On the way home, I tuned in to the PM programme on the BBC to catch their very special coverage of the Irish referendum. (Around 5.25pm) It’s pretty clear to just about everybody that the result is going to be close, with some polls suggesting a NO victory. The Irish political establishment, big business and trade unions all support a YES vote, and it was nice to see the BBC doing their best to help them. The vox pop that PM conducted in Dublin was unable to find anyone intending to vote No. What rotten luck. The BBC has no influence over how Irish voters will behave but it is so obvious that the BBC is overwhelmingly biased in favour of the implementation of this EU Constitution and it will be gobsmacked if Ireland says NO. It should also act as a warning to us all that should our UK political masters ever find the guts to grant us a vote on the EU constitution – the BBC will be to the fore to secure a Yes vote. It appears NO is not just in their vocabulary when Brussels beckons.

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