The fallout from the referendum continues and it is no surprise that the voters are getting what I’ve previously referred to as “The Treatment”.
The Treatment, if I can quote myself, “is twitter abuse, name calling and general public shaming. Nothing big mind you. Nothing to be feared if you don’t care about what people think about you, which I don’t.”
The Treatment can also be dished out by the media and political elite on either side of the Irish sea when they don’t get the result they want. If often includes the insult ‘far-right.’
Yes, the media will grab the label ‘far-right’ from the top drawer, give it a good polish and slap it on any vote that does not go their way. “The Treatment” is Standard Operating Procedure in the face of defeat, if you like that kind of lingo, which I don’t.
Kathy Sheridan in the Irish Times declared yesterday that, “No wonder the far-right regard the vote as a big breakthrough. They’ve broken through. The same groups who are amplifying racism and division, inciting mobs-on and offline, are taking energy from this. That surely should give pause to any responsible politicians.”
Perhaps, labelling an overwhelming defeat for the government in a referendum as a breakthrough for the far-right is what should give journalists ‘pause.’ Pause to get a grip and stop defaming the ordinary voters from Donegal (80.2% No) to Sligo (71.9% N0.)
And why does she think that the far-right have “broken through?” Because predictably some of them live-streamed from Dublin Castle celebrating the result. Some harassed TDs (didn’t see that reported) and even had ‘massive banners’ saying “woke is dead.” Some man called Hermann Kelly of the Irish Freedom Party, hailed it has a victory. That’s it, that’s the so-called ‘breakthrough.’
I don’t know about you but I don’t think a banner and live stream on social media counts as a “big breakthrough”. I could live stream myself making some spaghetti bolognese from my kitchen and it doesn’t mean I have broken through as celebrity chef up there with Delia and Jamie Oliver. Any fool can live stream these days and any fool can head down to Dublin Castle with their ‘massive banner’ claiming victory.
To make a breakthrough I think you must have political representation in the form of TDs, Senators, our councillors. To my knowledge there is not a single elected politician in Ireland who is ‘far-right.’ In fact, analysis from the Irish Independent revealed that the biggest No voters were Sinn Fein supporters who by any definition are far-left.
But then this is all a case of Déjà vu for those of us who lived in the UK for twenty years. I lived those two decades and watched with increasing panic as any reasonable concern by the electorate was labelled as ‘far-right’ or racist. Perhaps I should start a movement to twin Stoke-on-Trent (69.4% who voted leave on Brexit) with the folks of Kerry (71.3 % against erasing mothers from the constitution). They could all be racists together according to the ‘journalists’ at the Irish Times and the Guardian.
The big wonder is given that the Irish electoral system is a form of PR, where votes can be transferred, and not first past the post as in the UK, is how a far-right party has not broken through. Such electoral systems favour tiny parties as we have seen on the continent. Perhaps the reason for this is that in reality there are not so many far-right agitators out there, hiding under the bed, only to come out of the woodwork with their banners, to claim a win that is not theirs to claim.
This is a dangerous game to play by the media and political elite in Ireland; reasonable people with their reasonable concerns got labelled fascist in the UK and they ended up with Brexit.
Ireland is too small a country to leave the EU but politicians must represent their views of those who elect them. The media should call off their attack dogs, dishing out The Treatment. This kind of rhetoric only ever causes further division.