Who killed Cock Robin?

For those who missed it, the Irish Times has a full review of the aftermath of the Referendum vote on the Lisbon Treaty.

There are several articles which all deserve consideration.

When all is said and done, the two outstanding questions are (from the pro-Euro view):

• what went wrong?
• what next?

The "what next?" case was effectively dealt with by the cover-article in The Economist (from which the graphic above is shamelessly thieved). So, say no more.

The post-mortem "why?" argument is dealt with by a piece by the Irish Times's Jamie Smith:

No campaign convincing -- Yes voters

EVEN PEOPLE who voted in favour of the Lisbon Treaty thought the No campaign was more convincing than the Yes campaign, a survey shows.

Some 57 per cent of Yes voters said they thought the campaign against the treaty was more convincing than the Yes campaigns managed by the Government, the Opposition parties and other pro-European groups.

Overall, 68 per cent of voters felt the No campaign was more convincing, raising serious questions over the strategy and commitment of the Yes campaign.
Asked about the Government's lacklustre campaign yesterday, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he accepted responsibility for the result.

A post-referendum Eurobarometer survey published yesterday by the European Commission, also shows that 80 per cent of No voters say they support Irish membership of the EU. Some 98 per cent of Yes voters and 89 per cent of all voters said they supported EU membership. Despite the referendum defeat, 42 per cent of voters told pollsters they thought the treaty would be good for Ireland, compared to 41 per cent who said it would not.

The survey of 2,000 voters found that over half the people who did not vote in the referendum said this was due to a lack of understanding of the issues. Some 45 per cent of people who did not vote said they did not have time on the day of the referendum.

Young people were much less likely to participate than older people. They were also much more likely to vote against the treaty with 65 per cent of voters between the age of 18 and 24 rejecting the treaty. Older people were more likely to support the treaty, with 58 per cent of over 55s voting in favour of the treaty. One-fifth of No voters pinpointed a lack of information on the treaty as the primary reason why they rejected it. The second most popular reason for voting No was a desire to protect Irish identity. Other reasons for voting no were: a lack of trust in politicians in general; a wish to safeguard Irish neutrality, the desire to keep a commissioner in every commission and the need to protect the Irish tax system.

The survey found just 1 per cent of respondents said they rejected the treaty to avoid an influx of immigrants, despite anecdotal claims made by TDs in the wake of the referendum defeat that immigration was a factor.
Most Yes voters (32 per cent) supported the treaty because they felt it was in the best interests of Ireland or because the EU had benefited the State.
Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) of manual workers voted against the treaty, while 60 per cent self-employed people supported the treaty. Most people (57 per cent) who left education after tbe age of 20 voted for the treaty, while 58 per cent of people who left school at the age of 15 voted against it. But most (69 per cent) students rejected the treaty.

Just over three-quarters of No voters also thought it would be easy to renegotiate the treaty to accommodate their concerns.

Malcolm is instinctively suspicious of a piece like that: it seems to ignore the realities in favour of blaming the medium for the message.

Anyway, that article is accompanied by a "post-referendum survey in Ireland. Eurobarometer, preliminary results", which looks like this:


So, pick the bones out of that. Sphere: Related Content