The media loves a good yarn. The media’s attention deficit has seen them flit between coverage of nuclear armageddon in Japan and mortal combat in Libya without getting to the heart of the matter in either case.
Take away their diagrams of nuclear reactor cooling ponds and images of fast jets and various armament options and there is precious little of value in the reporting. Usually so fond of providing ‘analysis’ there is a notable absence of thought about the long term effects of the destruction in Japan and what this might mean for the country and its government, or consideration about the potential for a change in the regional power dynamic in north Africa should Gadaffi be brought down by the Libyan rebels.
While the media in Ireland rightly turns its attention to local issues, it also exhibits an idential failure to get to the heart of the matter. We see today the Irish Independent the headline: ‘Our fight to survive: EU in Noonan’s line of fire‘. As an example of hype this is right up there with the most laughable. A more honest description would be Noonan like a rabbit in the EU’s headlights. The piece opens:
The ‘mother and father’ of political and diplomatic battles is looming for Ireland as Finance Minister Michael Noonan goes into tomorrow’s eurozone ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
He will seek to form a grand alliance of smaller European countries in our colossal battle with France and Germany to stop the “torturing” of Ireland and save its low corporation tax rate.
The channelling of Saddam and embellishment of his words notwithstanding, this piece may as well have been written by the former Iraqi Information Minister, Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf. It isn’t going to be much of a battle when Noonan has no weapons at his disposal, as the third paragraph makes clear:
And although taxation rates will not be on the agenda, Mr Noonan intends to use the occasion to build up a relationship with politicians from other countries in the 17 member eurozone.
And that is the problem. The Irish people voted for Fine Gael because they are desperate for a renegotiation of the EU/IMF bailout. Why? because the demands it makes for spending cuts and tax increases are causing the Irish a significant amount of pain. It is ridiculous of the Irish Independent to describe the EU as being in Noonan’s line of fire when the EU is calling the shots. As this humble blog explained back in February, Fine Gael’s win changes nothing:
Bar some tinkering around the edges nothing will change. Ireland’s voters will still be paying higher taxes and experiencing huge cuts in spending on public services. They voted for change but will not see any, because when all is said and done the government of Ireland is cannot be found in the Dail, it resides in Brussels. No one was able to vote for or against it.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, but generally the menu of an establishment you are familiar with gives an idea of what is going to be put on the table. And it was just four days ago that the menu was published. With classic EU doublespeak the headline gave the illusion of flexibility – EU/IMF delegation gives Ireland green light for bailout changes – while the body of text confirmed the usual rigidity as it explained:
But according to the Minister for Public Sector Reform Brendan Howlin, they accept the programme for government as long as the new administration agrees to raise the same amount of money from cuts and tax hikes.
The Irish voted Fine Gael because of the promise to renegotiate the bailout. The bottom line? Nothing will change.
The deckchairs can be re-arranged in the grand buildings where power once resided, but now that power has been handed over to the EU by the quisling politicians who put their own interest and prospects before the people they were supposed to serve, nothing that is said elsewhere means anything any longer.
When reality finally dawns in the Free State one wonders if the people will remember the spin pumped out by the timid, establishment hangers on in the media who tried to keep the deception running. They are every bit as much to blame as the politicians they helped to bring this situation to pass.
Autonomous Mind 
I find it astounding that the Irish people, who threw off the political shackles of the British Empire, have submitted themselves, with such docility and bovine acceptance, to the control of the undemocratic EU.
I feel for the Irish, they have been stitched up like a kipper by the politicans, the same those in England have.
What baffles me, and has done for a long time, is why when the Irish battled for years & years to be free of the English, in favour of a united Ireland, they so willingly ceded their right to govern theselves to the EU. All that bloodshed only to be be ruled by bureaucrats in Brussels who don’t give a stuff about ordinary people or democracy.
Why, when forced to vote for a 2nd time on the Lisbon Treaty they fell for the lies of the pro-supporters amazes me.
What really angers me is that the greedy, venal, despicable Cameron, is desperate to install democracy in Libya, for his own ends, Blair, had a war, why shoudn’t he, but denies outright giving his own people, the English, a referendum on in or out of the EU.
Can Ireland not campaign for an in or out of the EU referendum?
I despise all politicans & bureaucrats.
The socialists/communists/marxists have learned from history. They know there will never be another 1917, so they have developed a method of deception that is so anodyne, and apparently logical that most people aren’t even aware that the empire is being built around them. Maybe it will be one of the smaller EU members who actually wake up, see what is happening to them and take measures to extricate themselves from the behemoth, thereby bringing the whole socialist dictatorship down.
Sinn Fein spent 100 years opposing British rule with the gun and the bomb.
What is their strategy for EIRE now that they are ruled by BRUSSELS?
Don’t shed any tears for the Irish. They brought this upon themselves. They at least had to chance to vote no and failed to vote no enough times.
FF or FG is the same side of the coin.They could have voted out the budget in the Dail but again they voted for Europe, just as the ConLibLabs will do the same here.
We are all ruled by a one party state. Until we break this party monopoly there will be no change.
We are all doomed!
Alan Wood has raised reality. There are nations you just don’t piss off. North Korea is one, who can name another? Anyone? I am all ears. Speak up!
Another amazing post, dearest Anonymous one.
I do agree with your posters that I find it hard to believe that the Irish fought so hard to be free from British rule, and then rolled over and welcomed rule by the EU. Lets hope that they rise up and start bombing in order to get what they want.
“Take away their diagrams of nuclear reactor cooling ponds and images of fast jets and various armament options and there is precious little of value in the reporting.”
Indeed and very interesting they are, for adolescents of all ages. The BBC has “compiled a guide to the war planes that international forces are using” which asserts that the Typhoon “boasts stealth technology”!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12785746
If only: perhaps it then might sell (sans kickbacks).
One reason why the Irish joined the EEC was that their single biggest trading partner (the UK, to whose currency the punt was pegged) was also joining in 1973. But a rampant, blind europhilia among the political class was the more important reason.
Anthony Coughlan’s think tank has a brilliant post:
“… What is happening now is that Ireland, Greece, Portugal etc and the interests of their peoples are being sacrificed in order to save the Eurozone, whose dissolution would be a blow to the entire integration project of building a European quasi-superstate under Franco-German hegemony to become a big power in the world. The acolytes of that project in Ireland – in the leadership of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour parties, in Foreign Affairs at Iveagh House, the Dept of Finance and the Taoiseach’s Department, in the Central Bank, the Irish Times, RTE and the senior echelons of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions – are desperately afraid that their political life’s work may have been in vain, so they are quite willing that the welfare of the Irish people be sacrificed to save it…”
http://tinyurl.com/642npae
A plug, if allowed:
http://tinyurl.com/figg387 (4MB pdf)
Im sorry but I dont feel sorry for any of them, all they needed was an I larger than their shoe sizze to see this was inevitable, few did, they voted for hope and change, just like the yanks, guess what they all got? I saw the writing on the wall under Heath, when it got too rough I left. They got what they voted for, its their bed, go lie in it!
Yes I am angry that they achieved what Hitled did not!!!!!
Well argued, as usual, AM.
But I don’t agree with you entirely on Ireland’s position.
The Irish could and should default on their loans, although I doubt they will – they are too pro-EU.
Declan Ganley said it best, just after the election. He said that Ireland must “have the balls” to threaten debt default and withdrawal from the single currency.
“We have a hostage, it is called the euro,” he said. “The euro is insolvent. The only question is whether Ireland should be sacrificed to keep the Ponzi scheme going. We have to have a Plan B to the misnamed bailout, which is to go back to the Irish Punt.”
Ireland has HUGE negotiating power here, because Merkel has stated that Germany will do whatever it takes to save the Euro. She foisted the bailout onto Ireland to save the Euro. This means that she believes that if Ireland defaults, there’ll be another bank contagion.
So, Enda Kenny can put it to Merkel that if she wants to save the Euro, she must lower the interest rate to Ireland.
Will he do it, though?
Lets not forget though, Ireland and the Scottish, Welsh and N Irish EU Regions of the British isles are all feeble Politically, militarily and financially and actually NEED the EU, they must get their subsidy somewhere, England however needs neither the EU OR these fringe Regions of the British Isles.