The debate around the Lisbon treaty is hotting up once again in Ireland and the ‘NO’ campaign have opted for this striking populist style for their campaign.
Whilst it may be striking, it is also very confused and confusing. The pink heart graphic tends to stimulate a positive emotion from people. Once one has opted for this illustrative style you’re left with two choices with the headline copy:
1) A negative rug-pull
2) A sickly sweet tug on the heart strings.
This schizophrenic campaign tries to use option 1) in some executions, 2) in others, and sometimes both 1) and 2) in the same execution. All this poster campaign will do is confuse an already complicated debate.
There are elements on both the yes and no sides that have done nothing but muddy the waters. Whereas the above posters are tugging on the heart strings, their textual content cannot be called a lie. We know the new Lisbon treaty removes power from Ireland, not least from its constitution, and gives more control to the european ECJ over the our national courts. We all know politicians love the gravy train, this is Ireland after all. So they are not misleading posters per say but factual enough.
However, I would say that the most misleading campaign posters are that of Fine Gael. The ‘Yes to Jobs’ poster. They have been described as ‘misleading’ by Judge Clarke of the high court. The provision of jobs is nowhere in the Lisbon Treaty. So it is the ‘Yes’ side that are misleading the Irish public and not in fact the ‘No’ side. But then this is obvious because the ‘No’ side are getting bullied by the ‘Yes’ side. I think the ‘No’ side will win because they have truth and facts on their side, and the ‘Yes’ side only have scare tactics. Latest polls shows the ‘No’ side are sweeping into a lead at a critical time.