by Frank Schnittger
Fri Sep 18th, 2009 at 09:56:40 AM EST
 | | Nigel Farage, the Leader of the UKIP is in Ireland again today campaigning for a No vote. The UKIP are sending out 1.5 Million leaflets to all voters in Ireland which contains a number of untruths and which contains no reference to the UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) on the basis that it is funded by the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group in the European Parliament.
It selectively misquotes an Irish Labour Court decision to make the case that Irish workers pay rates will now be determined by the European Court in Luxembourg and uses a quote from Labour Finance spokesperson Joan Burton from the Nama debate as if it applied to the Lisbon debate. When Nigel Farage speaks on Irish radio he is bolstering the Yes vote because his hectoring tone and English ruling class accent is genetically programmed into Irish ears to remind them of 700 years of English domination. |
However the leaflet is a cleverly produced marketing effort which emphasises the pan European (not British) credentials of EFD group. It is racist, xenophobic and almost laughable in its use of cartoon representations of Barroso and an image of a turkey to make the point that the accession of Turkey would undermine agricultural and regional policies and and deluge Ireland with a potential 75 Million Turks. Its use of images, graphics, graphs, and short excerpts and quotes is much more effective than any pro-lisbon leaflet that I have seen.
The headlines push all the right No buttons:
Is your Job safe? - ECJ rulings allow contractors to displace Irish workers with workers from lower wage economies
A race to the bottom - Irish workers will be displaced by workers from lower wage economies
Would you like much more immigration? - Turkish accession will flood Ireland with low wage immigrants and dilute CAP payments to farmers
Do you want to pay for the EU? - Ireland is expected to become a net contributor
Lisbon undermines Ireland's economic future - the ECJ can order the harmonisation of taxes which cause market distortions
Lisbon makes the EU a state - and Ireland becomes but a province within it
Do we need an 'EU supreme court' to overrule our values
Will we get EUthanasia - over an image of a syringe.
Do we need more EU red tape
Do you wish to split up the family farm
Do we need worthless guarantees
If Nama is nuts, Lisbon is lethal
etc.
View the full leaflet here
It is a masterpiece of propaganda. The use of images is superb. No way was this funded by the 180K the UKIP claim.
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What the leaflet doesn't say is that the UKIP wants the UK to withdraw from the EU, and failing that, to render the EU as ineffective as possible.
The Irish are being invited to re-enact a subservient dominion status to a dominant UK.
