Dick Cheney's Mission to Destroy Europe

I don't nornally write about Euroloonies, partly because I have trouble taking the European Parliament any more seriously than I do the Liberal Democrats. That is to say, it - and they - cross my mind no more than twice a year. But this, via the indomitable Trixy, is sufficiently priceless as to merit attention:

Questions over the funding of the No campaign in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty referendum
Raising a point of order, Co-President Daniel Cohn Bendit (Greens/EFA , Germany) said: "Last weekend, the Irish press revealed that there possibly exists a link between the financers of the no-campaign in Ireland and the Pentagon as well as the CIA. This was a very interesting story and the explanation given was that Europe should not become too strong. I would ask the President to please clarify this matter and suggest that we also ask the Council as well as the Commission to inform us next time, because if this story turns out to be true it would be an interesting fact indeed, confirming what lies behind the €1.2 million which was used to finance the no-campaign in Ireland. I therefore would like to ask the President to please look into the matter so that we receive information and achieve transparency."

Of course, people who bore on about "transparency" invariably have plenty to hide themselves. Not that anyone would ever suggest such a thing about the European Parliament. Oh no. Nonetheless, it's also reassuring that, despite everything, some things never change: members of the European Parliament are still reliably, even reassuringly, loopy.

Comments

[luke mc]

Eh, Libertas, an unheralded group who campaigned vigorously for a No vote was personally funded by Declan Ganley who has made his money from US defence contracts.

[MattF]

So... the concept here is that there's someone at the CIA who's paying attention to Europe?

[ndm]

The loopy US view, according to the Wall Street Journal editorial pages, is that the EU is evil incarnate - until Turkish accession is mentioned, at which point the EU becomes the most important institution in the history of the World. Of course, that is probably just part of the dastardly US plan to destroy the EU.

[Luke Mc]

No Matt, the concept is that there is an undeniable and direct cash link between the Pentagon and the Irish No to Lisbon result, which as I an Irishman I feel is sinister and deeply worrying. When I read blog posts describing others who are worried about such things as "loonies" then I wonder what is happening in the world.

[MattF]

Luke Mc--

It's certainly possible that some loose cannon at the Pentagon or the CIA is spending my hard-earned tax dollars on something breathtakingly stupid and useless. It happens a lot, and not just recently. So, possible, but unlikely, in my opinion, for what that's worth.

What's problematic to me are arguments claiming that some particular electoral defeat is due to the influence of sinister external influences. This is just a classic political rationalization. If there are enough people in Ireland who could be swayed by a few dollars thrown in their direction by some Mayberry Machiavelli, then I'd say there's a problem in Ireland.

We don't have an established culture in Ireland of rich people spending freely to influence important national votes (though we have many other rotten political cultures) and long may it stay that way.

Libertas, the political organisation which sprang into life with an extraordinary budget to spend on advertising, undoubtedly had a key role to play in the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty in this country.

I think it would be fair to say that the fact that Declan Ganley spent so much money on Libertas's campaign probably swung the vote in favour of "No" (the end result was 53% to 47%). Advertising works.

Declan Ganley's private agenda - the fact that his business relies on his relationship with the American Military - is entirely different to his publically expressed agenda. This is a sinister influence, whether its an external one or not is beside the point.

The guy is a combination of Ross Perot, Roman Abrahamovich and Robert Kilroy-Silk, and if that's the guy you want calling the shots in your country then fair play, you must have enjoyed the Cheney Administration.

As for the "problem in Ireland", there are many, and the manifest imperfections of the Lisbon Treaty made it an easy thing to argue against, and a trickier thing to argue for.

But it would have been a more open and fairer debate if a shady billionaire had opted not to spend his spoils of war so freely on it.

That is a problem as far as I am concerned.