diggers_1
22-09-2009, 06:00 PM
Just got this email and I am sharing it.
WELCOME TO THE CÓIR UPDATE
Check out Cóir’s video on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjuyHZKgxCs[/url] Another good one here: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLMfcoSCY08
Hello all,
As a new poll shows the No vote is pulling ahead, Micheál Martin has admitted that Cóir’s campaign is gaining traction, and refused to answer the challenge issued by Cóir to debate the effect of the treaty on the right to earn even the minimum wage. As we said: either put up or shut up, if the Minister wants to debate, name a time and a place, but stop hiding behind press releases.
In this update read the Wall Street Journal on the Yes campaign “peddling terrors”, Cóir’s response to Bishop Treanor, the expert opinion which finds Cóir’s campaign a winner, and how the treaty could bring more cuts and hardship. This week we’re rolling out newspaper adverts and a Facebook campaign, so look out for those messages.
10 days left, God Bless the work.
NIAMH
IN THIS UPDATE
· Poll finds No pulling ahead
· Martin admits Cóir’s campaign “gaining traction” as he refuses to rise to Cóir’s debate challenge
· Cóir’s says Bishop Treanor misunderstood or misrepresents position on Lisbon and abortion
· Marketing expert gives Cóir posters thumbs up
· Wall Street Journal accuses Irish government of peddling phantom terrors on Lisbon
Poll matches canvass result as No vote pulls ahead
Cóir have welcomed the result of a poll carried out by Gael Poll which found that, after weeks of intensive campaigning, the No vote has pulled ahead.
Gael Poll say they polled 1,500 respondents in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, Galway, Athlone, Tralee, Dundalk and Letterkenny over the course of six days last week. The respondents were asked one single question: How do you intend to vote in the Lisbon Treaty Referendum? Excluding Don’t Knows, 59% replied No while 41% said they would vote Yes to the treaty.
Campaigners right across the country canvassing with Cóir say that the poll comes close to their own experience that the No vote is pulling ahead in defiance of the “dire threats being made by supporters of the treaty” as Cóir’s campaign intensifies in the last 10 days before the referendum.
“Voters are more informed thanks to the huge canvass we’ve undertaken, and the popularity of Cóir’s website. And the anger at the handling of the economic crisis is overcoming the fear kindled by the Yes campaign in relation to the downturn,” said spokesman Richard Greene.
He added that supporters of the Treaty had “overplayed the fear card” saying that “all the fear-mongering has worn thin and people are asking real questions at the doors – about jobs, wages, the power of the EU Court and our future in Europe.” Mr Greene noted that last week’s Wall Street Journal had described the government’s pro-Lisbon campaign as “peddling phantom terrors”.
“People have been listening to politicians falsely warning of financial ruin if the treaty wasn’t passed, but now the anger felt by voters at NAMA, at job losses, and at cuts, is allowing voters to overcome that fear,” said the Cóir spokesman. “We’re presenting the facts about the treaty to voters; about threats to wages, to jobs, about our loss of power in Europe, and the ability to the EU to raise taxes on us, and people are increasingly telling us at the doors that they will vote No”.
“Our experience is telling us that a No vote is not only possible, but likely,” said Mr Greene. “We’ve seen our volunteers double their efforts in the past fortnight and the canvass is turning don’t knows into solid No voters” ”
With a new series of posters being displayed by Cóir in the last week, and advert and Facebook campaigns catching the attention of voters, the No campaigner was adamant it could be a No. “But we won’t be resting until close of business on October 2nd. That’s the poll that counts,” said Mr Greene
Martin admits Cóir’s campaign “gaining traction” as he refuses to rise to Cóir’s debate challenge
On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme last Friday, Minister Micheál Martin refused to accept an invitation to debate Cóir on the impact of the treaty on the right to earn a living wage, even though the programme repeatedly offered to facilitate the debate. Meanwhile Cóir has re-issued their challenge to the Minister to “debate the issue anytime, anywhere”.
Spokesman Brian Hickey said that Michéal Martin needed to stop hiding behind press statements and argue his case. Minister Martin admitted to reporters following the Fianna Fáíl meeting in Athlone that Coir’s work in revealing the threat to Irish workers’ ability to earn even the minimum wage was “gaining traction” and “causing concern”.
“We challenge Minister Martin to debate this issue with Cóir, instead of hiding behind press statements,” said Brian Hickey. “But we have a feeling he is afraid to because the facts support Cóir’s case and the Minister knows that.”
“The facts are that the Irish political parties have shown they care nothing about the protection of workers and the right to earn a living wage,” said Mr Hickey. “They could have spoken up last year when the EU Court made its ruling in the Ruffert case which demolished the right to earn even the minimum wage but they kept silent. They could have lobbied for an opt-out from Protocol 27 of the Lisbon Treaty which copperfastens Ruffert, Laval and other judgments which found against workers’ rights, but they didn’t bother. The truth is they are far more interested in riding the gravy train than in protecting workers.”
In the 2008 Ruffert case, the ECJ found that a Polish sub-contractor had the right to bring Polish workers to Germany and pay them less than the German minimum wage. Cóir’s No to Lisbon posters have highlighted the consequences of this ruling for Irish workers, to the dismay of the government and Yes campaigners.
“This ruling means that in real life, Irish workers can work for below the Irish minimum wage or see their jobs go elsewhere,” said Mr Hickey. “When a contractor can import unfortunate foreign workers and pay them slave labour wages, Irish people who want to earn even the Irish minimum wage will have to stay on the dole. That will be the reality of the situation if Lisbon is passed.”
Mr Hickey said that both the second wave of Cóir’s posters and the third series yet to come continued to highlight the issue and it was “a huge cause of concern on the doorsteps”.
At Fianna Fáil’s Athlone meeting this week, businessman Peter Quinn called for the minimum wage to be cut. His call follows similar remarks made by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan in the summer.
Read more on Cóir’s campaign at http://www.coircampaign.org/index.php/about-coir-camp/what-they-say
Cóir says Bishop Treanor has misunderstood pro-life position on Lisbon Treaty
Cóir has said that Bishop Noel Treanor has misunderstood – or is deliberately misrepresenting - the debate on the threat to Ireland’s pro-life laws from the Lisbon Treaty. Spokeswoman Niamh Uí Bhriain said that the Bishop had “clearly been misinformed in regard to the stance taken by pro-life organizations on the treaty, since what Cóir and others argue is that the Lisbon Treaty will give the European Court of Justice the right to decide on Ireland’s abortion laws in the future”. Coir’s response came in following remarks made by the Bishop to the Joint Committee on European Affairs.
“Bishop Treanor has said that, ’the Lisbon Treaty does not alter the legal position of abortion in Ireland’, but that’s not what Cóir or anyone else has argued in relation to the treaty,” said Ms Uí Bhriain. “What we are saying is that the very significant changes brought about by this treaty will give the EU Court the right to decide on abortion and other important social issues in the future”.
“The facts are that Article 1 and 47 of the Lisbon Treaty create a fundamentally different and legally new European Union, and Article 9 makes us all citizens of that EU super-state’” she said. “Article 6 of the Treaty then makes the EU Charter of Rights binding on member states for all EU citizens. That significant change gives the EU Court simply enormously enhanced powers to decide on issues such as abortion.”
Ms Uí Bhriain said that while the Maastricht Protocol may have protected Ireland’s pro-life laws to date, the protocol could be held by the ECJ to be in conflict with the Charter, and the ECJ would then have power, for the first time, under the Lisbon Treaty, to overrule the protocol and the wishes of the Irish people.
“If the European Court of Justice decided that a right to abortion exists under any clause in the Charter, then EU law will simply be held superior to Irish law and to the wishes of the Irish people,” she said. “Therefore if Lisbon is passed it will merely take a court case – such as the D case currently being funded by the Irish Family Planning Association - to come before the ECJ for our pro-life laws to be overruled. And there will then be absolutely nothing we can do about it. We will have voted away our right to decide.”
The Cóir spokeswoman added that it was the belief of a great many Irish people, as indicated by the government’s research after the first No to Lisbon vote, that matters such as the right to life were too important to be left to trust in politicians. “That doesn’t make us lacking in hope, it simply makes us sensible in requiring certainty on the issue,” she said.
Ms Ui Bhriain also pointed that Cóir welcomed persons of all denominations and none. “We represent Irish citizens, whatever their denomination,” said Ms Uí Bhriain. “Our key issues are what define us as an organization: sovereignty, life, family, faith and freedom.”
Meanwhile, philosopher Fr Brendan Purcell has expressed misgivings about the potential impact of the Lisbon Treaty concerning abortion, experiments on human embryos and euthanasia. Stressing that he
was pro-Europe and had voted “yes” in several previous European referenda, the scholar pointed to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is part of the Lisbon Treaty, and how the European
Court of Justice might interpret the Charter, as grounds for concern. He said he was worried that the European Court might eventually function like the US Supreme Court.
He noted that the Charter does not protect unborn babies or of patients who might be killed in EU countries that permit euthanasia. Dr Purcell also described the “democratic deficit” in the EU as
another area of concern.
Marketing expert gives Cóir posters thumbs up
In an interview with the Irish Times, a marketing expert has given Cóir’s No to Lisbon posters the thumbs up, saying that while “Yes side's posters have been terribly disappointing, Cóir is leading the No pack.”
Chris Cawley, co-founder of advertising agency Cawley Nea, who said he supported the treaty said of Cóir’s posters: “Most eyecatching, yes. First in, yes. But much more significantly, the content of what's in the posters is focused. There's passion, there's intent and tragically, there's intelligence behind it”.
The article continued “This is how Cóir insiders claim it's done: A team of volunteers aged 19 to 40 get together to whittle down a huge number of ideas they have been e-mailing to each other. The genius of the group, they say, is a young female graphic designer who is currently volunteering from her home in Dublin. One night last year, after she had put her children to bed, she made herself a cup of coffee and the idea for the "three monkeys" poster popped into her head.
“She appears to be on a roll again this year, having placed a photograph of an indignant giraffe with the slogan "Vote again? They've got some neck" on a long, slim poster.
“Before the final designs are selected, Cóir volunteers take to the streets of Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick armed with clipboards and A4-sized poster samples to ask passersby which poster "speaks best to you".
“If that all sounds homespun, it is certainly the case that the increasing accessibility of high-end technology has meant DIY poster designers have as much chance of making an impact as slick advertising executives. The days when homemade meant hokey are over.”
The article also quoted Paul Moran of advertising agency Owens DDB who said “the poster war is being won by the No side”.
To see the Round 3 of Cóir’s posters dealing with the right to life and the economy go to http://www.coircampaign.org/index.php/materials-documents/posters (scroll down to Round 3).
Wall Street Journal
The widely-respected financial newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, has taken the Irish government to task for what it described as “peddling phantom terrors” on the Lisbon Treaty. The newspaper also advised that the Irish people had nothing to fear from voting No.
The article is well worth reading in its entirety.
http://www.coircampaign.org/index.php/news-articles/comment/216-fear-and-loathing-in-dublin
WELCOME TO THE CÓIR UPDATE
Check out Cóir’s video on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjuyHZKgxCs[/url] Another good one here: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLMfcoSCY08
Hello all,
As a new poll shows the No vote is pulling ahead, Micheál Martin has admitted that Cóir’s campaign is gaining traction, and refused to answer the challenge issued by Cóir to debate the effect of the treaty on the right to earn even the minimum wage. As we said: either put up or shut up, if the Minister wants to debate, name a time and a place, but stop hiding behind press releases.
In this update read the Wall Street Journal on the Yes campaign “peddling terrors”, Cóir’s response to Bishop Treanor, the expert opinion which finds Cóir’s campaign a winner, and how the treaty could bring more cuts and hardship. This week we’re rolling out newspaper adverts and a Facebook campaign, so look out for those messages.
10 days left, God Bless the work.
NIAMH
IN THIS UPDATE
· Poll finds No pulling ahead
· Martin admits Cóir’s campaign “gaining traction” as he refuses to rise to Cóir’s debate challenge
· Cóir’s says Bishop Treanor misunderstood or misrepresents position on Lisbon and abortion
· Marketing expert gives Cóir posters thumbs up
· Wall Street Journal accuses Irish government of peddling phantom terrors on Lisbon
Poll matches canvass result as No vote pulls ahead
Cóir have welcomed the result of a poll carried out by Gael Poll which found that, after weeks of intensive campaigning, the No vote has pulled ahead.
Gael Poll say they polled 1,500 respondents in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, Galway, Athlone, Tralee, Dundalk and Letterkenny over the course of six days last week. The respondents were asked one single question: How do you intend to vote in the Lisbon Treaty Referendum? Excluding Don’t Knows, 59% replied No while 41% said they would vote Yes to the treaty.
Campaigners right across the country canvassing with Cóir say that the poll comes close to their own experience that the No vote is pulling ahead in defiance of the “dire threats being made by supporters of the treaty” as Cóir’s campaign intensifies in the last 10 days before the referendum.
“Voters are more informed thanks to the huge canvass we’ve undertaken, and the popularity of Cóir’s website. And the anger at the handling of the economic crisis is overcoming the fear kindled by the Yes campaign in relation to the downturn,” said spokesman Richard Greene.
He added that supporters of the Treaty had “overplayed the fear card” saying that “all the fear-mongering has worn thin and people are asking real questions at the doors – about jobs, wages, the power of the EU Court and our future in Europe.” Mr Greene noted that last week’s Wall Street Journal had described the government’s pro-Lisbon campaign as “peddling phantom terrors”.
“People have been listening to politicians falsely warning of financial ruin if the treaty wasn’t passed, but now the anger felt by voters at NAMA, at job losses, and at cuts, is allowing voters to overcome that fear,” said the Cóir spokesman. “We’re presenting the facts about the treaty to voters; about threats to wages, to jobs, about our loss of power in Europe, and the ability to the EU to raise taxes on us, and people are increasingly telling us at the doors that they will vote No”.
“Our experience is telling us that a No vote is not only possible, but likely,” said Mr Greene. “We’ve seen our volunteers double their efforts in the past fortnight and the canvass is turning don’t knows into solid No voters” ”
With a new series of posters being displayed by Cóir in the last week, and advert and Facebook campaigns catching the attention of voters, the No campaigner was adamant it could be a No. “But we won’t be resting until close of business on October 2nd. That’s the poll that counts,” said Mr Greene
Martin admits Cóir’s campaign “gaining traction” as he refuses to rise to Cóir’s debate challenge
On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme last Friday, Minister Micheál Martin refused to accept an invitation to debate Cóir on the impact of the treaty on the right to earn a living wage, even though the programme repeatedly offered to facilitate the debate. Meanwhile Cóir has re-issued their challenge to the Minister to “debate the issue anytime, anywhere”.
Spokesman Brian Hickey said that Michéal Martin needed to stop hiding behind press statements and argue his case. Minister Martin admitted to reporters following the Fianna Fáíl meeting in Athlone that Coir’s work in revealing the threat to Irish workers’ ability to earn even the minimum wage was “gaining traction” and “causing concern”.
“We challenge Minister Martin to debate this issue with Cóir, instead of hiding behind press statements,” said Brian Hickey. “But we have a feeling he is afraid to because the facts support Cóir’s case and the Minister knows that.”
“The facts are that the Irish political parties have shown they care nothing about the protection of workers and the right to earn a living wage,” said Mr Hickey. “They could have spoken up last year when the EU Court made its ruling in the Ruffert case which demolished the right to earn even the minimum wage but they kept silent. They could have lobbied for an opt-out from Protocol 27 of the Lisbon Treaty which copperfastens Ruffert, Laval and other judgments which found against workers’ rights, but they didn’t bother. The truth is they are far more interested in riding the gravy train than in protecting workers.”
In the 2008 Ruffert case, the ECJ found that a Polish sub-contractor had the right to bring Polish workers to Germany and pay them less than the German minimum wage. Cóir’s No to Lisbon posters have highlighted the consequences of this ruling for Irish workers, to the dismay of the government and Yes campaigners.
“This ruling means that in real life, Irish workers can work for below the Irish minimum wage or see their jobs go elsewhere,” said Mr Hickey. “When a contractor can import unfortunate foreign workers and pay them slave labour wages, Irish people who want to earn even the Irish minimum wage will have to stay on the dole. That will be the reality of the situation if Lisbon is passed.”
Mr Hickey said that both the second wave of Cóir’s posters and the third series yet to come continued to highlight the issue and it was “a huge cause of concern on the doorsteps”.
At Fianna Fáil’s Athlone meeting this week, businessman Peter Quinn called for the minimum wage to be cut. His call follows similar remarks made by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan in the summer.
Read more on Cóir’s campaign at http://www.coircampaign.org/index.php/about-coir-camp/what-they-say
Cóir says Bishop Treanor has misunderstood pro-life position on Lisbon Treaty
Cóir has said that Bishop Noel Treanor has misunderstood – or is deliberately misrepresenting - the debate on the threat to Ireland’s pro-life laws from the Lisbon Treaty. Spokeswoman Niamh Uí Bhriain said that the Bishop had “clearly been misinformed in regard to the stance taken by pro-life organizations on the treaty, since what Cóir and others argue is that the Lisbon Treaty will give the European Court of Justice the right to decide on Ireland’s abortion laws in the future”. Coir’s response came in following remarks made by the Bishop to the Joint Committee on European Affairs.
“Bishop Treanor has said that, ’the Lisbon Treaty does not alter the legal position of abortion in Ireland’, but that’s not what Cóir or anyone else has argued in relation to the treaty,” said Ms Uí Bhriain. “What we are saying is that the very significant changes brought about by this treaty will give the EU Court the right to decide on abortion and other important social issues in the future”.
“The facts are that Article 1 and 47 of the Lisbon Treaty create a fundamentally different and legally new European Union, and Article 9 makes us all citizens of that EU super-state’” she said. “Article 6 of the Treaty then makes the EU Charter of Rights binding on member states for all EU citizens. That significant change gives the EU Court simply enormously enhanced powers to decide on issues such as abortion.”
Ms Uí Bhriain said that while the Maastricht Protocol may have protected Ireland’s pro-life laws to date, the protocol could be held by the ECJ to be in conflict with the Charter, and the ECJ would then have power, for the first time, under the Lisbon Treaty, to overrule the protocol and the wishes of the Irish people.
“If the European Court of Justice decided that a right to abortion exists under any clause in the Charter, then EU law will simply be held superior to Irish law and to the wishes of the Irish people,” she said. “Therefore if Lisbon is passed it will merely take a court case – such as the D case currently being funded by the Irish Family Planning Association - to come before the ECJ for our pro-life laws to be overruled. And there will then be absolutely nothing we can do about it. We will have voted away our right to decide.”
The Cóir spokeswoman added that it was the belief of a great many Irish people, as indicated by the government’s research after the first No to Lisbon vote, that matters such as the right to life were too important to be left to trust in politicians. “That doesn’t make us lacking in hope, it simply makes us sensible in requiring certainty on the issue,” she said.
Ms Ui Bhriain also pointed that Cóir welcomed persons of all denominations and none. “We represent Irish citizens, whatever their denomination,” said Ms Uí Bhriain. “Our key issues are what define us as an organization: sovereignty, life, family, faith and freedom.”
Meanwhile, philosopher Fr Brendan Purcell has expressed misgivings about the potential impact of the Lisbon Treaty concerning abortion, experiments on human embryos and euthanasia. Stressing that he
was pro-Europe and had voted “yes” in several previous European referenda, the scholar pointed to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is part of the Lisbon Treaty, and how the European
Court of Justice might interpret the Charter, as grounds for concern. He said he was worried that the European Court might eventually function like the US Supreme Court.
He noted that the Charter does not protect unborn babies or of patients who might be killed in EU countries that permit euthanasia. Dr Purcell also described the “democratic deficit” in the EU as
another area of concern.
Marketing expert gives Cóir posters thumbs up
In an interview with the Irish Times, a marketing expert has given Cóir’s No to Lisbon posters the thumbs up, saying that while “Yes side's posters have been terribly disappointing, Cóir is leading the No pack.”
Chris Cawley, co-founder of advertising agency Cawley Nea, who said he supported the treaty said of Cóir’s posters: “Most eyecatching, yes. First in, yes. But much more significantly, the content of what's in the posters is focused. There's passion, there's intent and tragically, there's intelligence behind it”.
The article continued “This is how Cóir insiders claim it's done: A team of volunteers aged 19 to 40 get together to whittle down a huge number of ideas they have been e-mailing to each other. The genius of the group, they say, is a young female graphic designer who is currently volunteering from her home in Dublin. One night last year, after she had put her children to bed, she made herself a cup of coffee and the idea for the "three monkeys" poster popped into her head.
“She appears to be on a roll again this year, having placed a photograph of an indignant giraffe with the slogan "Vote again? They've got some neck" on a long, slim poster.
“Before the final designs are selected, Cóir volunteers take to the streets of Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick armed with clipboards and A4-sized poster samples to ask passersby which poster "speaks best to you".
“If that all sounds homespun, it is certainly the case that the increasing accessibility of high-end technology has meant DIY poster designers have as much chance of making an impact as slick advertising executives. The days when homemade meant hokey are over.”
The article also quoted Paul Moran of advertising agency Owens DDB who said “the poster war is being won by the No side”.
To see the Round 3 of Cóir’s posters dealing with the right to life and the economy go to http://www.coircampaign.org/index.php/materials-documents/posters (scroll down to Round 3).
Wall Street Journal
The widely-respected financial newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, has taken the Irish government to task for what it described as “peddling phantom terrors” on the Lisbon Treaty. The newspaper also advised that the Irish people had nothing to fear from voting No.
The article is well worth reading in its entirety.
http://www.coircampaign.org/index.php/news-articles/comment/216-fear-and-loathing-in-dublin