I'm not sure which lot will be more embarrassed by this, but here it goes: Sinn Fein and other left-wing members of the Irish parliament are shaping up as the natural allies of the eurosceptic Tory MPs. While at Westminster the Tories are trying to figure out how to keep their leader from going Clegg-like on EU issues, over in Dublin this week the republicans and other, ahem, unTory types are forming an alliance to force their EU-supine government into a referendum on this new intergovernmental treaty. The government led by Enda Kenny of Fine Gael is doing everything it can to stop a referendum, because the answer the voters would most probably give is a No (the Irish are fed up with the EU/ECB/IMF team known as 'the Germans' occupying their finance department). So sixteen left-wing members of the Dail, the Irish lower house, who oppose the treaty have called on other members of the parliament to support them in their efforts to get the president of the republic to use a little-known article of the Irish constitution to force a referendum. Certainly this awkward squad of the Irish left have momentum going for them: at the weekend, a poll showed 72 percent of the Irish want a referendum. The politician leading the arguments against the government's surrender of national economic and fiscal power to EU institutions is Pearse Doherty, the 34-year old Sinn Fein spokesman on finance. Doherty is disconcerting: you could take about 80 percent of what this Shinner says on eurozone and EU policy, put it into the mouth of any shire Tory eurosceptic and it would sound just about natural. Indeed, Sinn Fein is making such headway with the voters because of its euro-resisting policies that the former largest party, Fianna Fail, is having to row in with them on demanding a referendum. Micheal Martin, the Fianna Fail leader and one of the politicians who so disgracefully forced the Irish into voting a second time in the Lisbon Treaty referendum, is now joining in Sinn Fein's demands for a referendum. (Martin still remains disgraceful: he wants a referendum, but will campaign for a Yes vote). So, we have Sinn Fein (the ballot-box end of the IRA) coming over eurosceptic, and Fianna Fail (founded by the leader of the old IRA, Eamon De Valera) demanding a euro-referendum. Will the Westminster eurosceptic Tories have the stomach to take allies where they can find them? If it's any comfort, Fianna Fail were traditionally so socially conservative they were called 'The Tories without the toffs.' And among the independent members of the Dail who are opposing the government's embrace of this new intergovernmental treaty is Shane Ross. He is a Protestant, educated at Rugby. So he could pass as a Tory. Or as Lady Bracknell had it, Irishmen such as Ross 'count as Tories. They dine with us.' It is just a small news item -- and thanks to Eurointelligence for pointing it out -- but so satisfying: Reuters this morning is running a story that the finance ministers of the eurozone's four AAA-rated countries will meet in Berlin today, just days before they are to discuss a financing deal for Greece with the other 13 members of the single currency. Got that? Just the four AAA-rated countries. So that does not include recently-downgraded France. The German finance minister will be sealed up in a secret meeting on the eurozone's future, but Sakozy's man won't be there among the elite. The only countries with ministers at this confidential Berlin meeting -- the kind at which no details are given to outsiders, and no statement comes out afterwards -- will be Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg. So humiliating for the French. And so satisfying for the rest of us....
Long spoon time for Tory eurosceptics: guess who's coming to dinner?
Locked out of the eurozone inner sanctum: a pop in the chops for Sarko
Sunday, 5 February 2012
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