Let's Have A Mature Debate About Europe
Another European referendum will inevitably result in a great deal of heated discussion about topics that have absolutely nothing to do with what we’ll actually be voting on. Isn’t it time we grew up?
The Hot Press Newsdesk, 13 Mar 2012
Those who argue that we should go it alone need to be challenged with the fundamental question: if we vote no, how are we to raise money on the financial markets? Their response may well be that they don’t want the EU in running our affairs.
Okay, let’s make it even simpler: who do you prefer to borrow from, the financial markets or the European Central Bank? Is our future in Europe or in isolation (or, even, back in the Commonwealth?) These are reltively simple choices. There are no others. Not even fracking the whole of Leitrim would bring in enough to keep the hospitals and schools running, capiche?
The ECB we know and can understand. The markets are far, far beyond our capacity to influence. Only a madman would suggest that we might be better off borrowing from the markets for the foreseeable future.
None of which is to say that bondholders shouldn’t share – or have been left with – the burden of debt. Of course they should. But that doesn’t mean burning down the house now, just to show that we can.
No, right now the major worry is that we will get sucked into one of those really stupid Irish black holes, where the referendum is used as an opportunity to talk about everything that gives us a pain in the ass – everything, that is, except what the referendum is about.
In this, there’s another complication. It’s to do with balance. Media coverage of issues, and this includes referenda, is supposed to be fair and balanced. But what’s fair? And what’s balance?
Well, mostly, the media interprets balance as opponent Vs. opponent. You’re for, she or he’s agin, that’s balance. You’re in the news for some reason, they find someone who disagrees with you, put ‘em together, that’s a thousand words or four minutes, job done.
But that is far too reductive. In the context of referenda, where quite often the vast majority of political parties and Dáil deputies are in agreement, it can distort the shape of the debate. What happens is that the media allocate coverage according to whether people and parties are for or against the proposal, that is to say, 50/50 for/against rather than on a representational basis.
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