“It’s vitally important that those advocating a Yes vote should refrain from slagging off opponents and …should concentrate instead on setting out the detail of what is in the Treaty and how it will benefit the Irish people. Seeking to push the European Project down the throats of people is not the way to win hearts and minds,”

Inspired by these words from Fine Gael TD and foreign affairs spokesperson Billy Timmins reported in the Irish Times 27^th April, I culled over some of the comments of the Yes camp, to see how they were living up to the Timmins plea.

My analysis can be split into the bad things that will happen if we vote No, the Good things that are promised if we vote yes, and then there is the ugly!

So hats off to Mr Cowen, Ryan, Butler, Kenny, Gilmore, Lenihan, FitzGerald and De Rossa for their “clear” messages on Lisbon in recent days.

The Bad

If we vote No it would be, “very damaging to the interests of this country”, and “have a very negative effect for the EU”. No means taking “a step into isolation for Ireland” causing “chaos”. You would be “cutting off your nose to spite your face”. Rejection “could scare US boardrooms which have put €52 billion worth of investment into Ireland” and “create uncertainty and send a very worrying signal”. A No vote would be, “very damaging” and a “lunatic choice”.

Good

The treaty is “A document that protected Ireland’s interests and would allow the EU to tackle global crises”. It is in the “vital national interest” helping us to meet “21st century challenges such as globalisation, climate change and cross-border crime”. It “is the best means for securing Ireland’s interests in an internationalised economy and global village” and “brings the abolition of world poverty to the heart of EU policy”.

In fact our “future interests are best served by the country remaining at the heart of a dynamic, efficient and democratic European Union”.

“The truth is that the Union is the greatest enabler of national sovereignty in our history”. It is “the greatest protector that small countries have ever known” and we will be “far better able to deal with the consequences of the conclusion of the WTO, by having endorsed a stronger European platform” and “adds the objective of fair trade to its longstanding commitment to free trade”.

Voting ‘Yes’ “will ensure that Ireland remains at the centre of a more effective and efficient European Union”. Ireland will also “remain among one of the most attractive places in the world to invest”, as well as strengthening “individual rights and those of Irish citizens at home” and is the best way to advance and secure workers’ rights in Ireland and across Europe.

The Ugly

We will be a “pariah state”.

Other alleged holders of this title in recent years have included, Burma, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, North Korea, the apartheid South Africa, Sudan, Syria, and the USA.