Nigel Farage defends workers' rights on RTE news

[celticwarrior]

Nigel Farage and Blair Horan have just debated, on RTE's 'News at One' programme, workers' rights under Lisbon, Nigel's assertion that certain other EU workers can work here for less than the Irish minimum wage and other concerns:  http://www.rte.ie/news/6news/

Nigel, with the 'Europe of Freedom and Democracy' group, have published a leaflet that is being sent out to Irish households
some various views of this group are below:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthre ... 2055683358
http://www.politics.ie/lisbon-treaty/82 ... -ukip.html
http://www.euractiv.com/en/eu-elections ... cle-183712
http://www.agoravox.com/article.php3?id_article=10278

[sullivan]

It will be available as a podcast from tomorrow.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_newsatone.xml

[celticwarrior]

Nigel's UKIP increased its number of MEP's from 12 to 13 after the June election, beating Labour into third place; these 13 UKIP MEP's form the largest component of the 'Europe of Freedom and Democracy' group which has 30 MEP's from 8 countries; 'UKIP spokesman Gawain Towler said UKIP was the only group member calling for withdrawal from the EU, "but they are all sympathetic [to UKIP's position]".'   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8129312.stm

[celticwarrior]

Nigel Farage is stepping down as leader of UKIP but remains leader of the EDF group in Europe;
In Dublin to publicise the group's leaflet 'The Truth about the Treaty' subtitled 'Stop the EU bulldozer', being distributed to 1.5 million homes,
Farage advised Irish voters:

"Please don't listen to your politicians, they have told you lie after lie about this Treaty, it is the EU Constitution, the same document to which the French, the Dutch and you have already said no; don't be bullied into voting for something that you simply don't want". (from Friday's RTE TV's 9 O'Clock News report);

Sinn Fein also held a press call to launch its booklet entitled 'An alternative Guide to Lisbon 2' setting out its reasons to vote 'No';

both Farage and SF's Gerry Adams argue that Lisbon is really the same Treaty we rejected last June and that Lisbon is about creating a federal, economic and military superpower.

The 'Yes' lobby's bulldozer is moving into high gear: newly re-elected President of the European Commission Barroso is in Ireland to counter Farage's accusations; in the same RTE evening news bulletin, he called the 'No' campaign

"completely dishonest politically and intellectually, simply falsified in reality, it is saying things that are not true, that have nothing to do with the Lisbon Treaty that are trying to create fear instead of addressing the facts"

Barroso will be in Limerick today if Anthony Coughlan or anyone else wants to question his views;

let us look at Barroso's background to guage if he is likely to be speaking the truth:

according to his Wikipedia profile, in the turbulent '70's, Barroso was a leader of an anti-bourgeois, Maoist-Communist underground group;

seeing a more realistic opportunity for gaining political power, he soon changed sides and joined what was to become the right-of-centre Social Democrat
Party; rising up the ranks quickly, he became party leader in 1999 and Prime Minister in 2002;

'As Prime Minister, facing a growing budget deficit, he made a number of difficult decisions and adopted strict reforms. He vowed to reduced public expenditure, which made him unpopular among leftists and public servants. His purpose was to lower the the public budget deficit to a 3% target (according to EU rules' demands), and official data during the 2002-2004 period stated that the target was being attained. Barroso did not finish his term as he had been nominated as President of the European Commission on 5 July 2004. Barroso arranged with Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio to nominate Pedro Santana Lopes as a substitute Prime Minister of Portugal. Santana Lopes led the PSD / PP coalition for a few months until early 2005, when new elections were called. When the Portuguese Socialist Party won the elections it was revealed that the budget deficit was not 3%, but had actually spiralled to an all-time high of 6.1%, which led people to criticize Barroso's and Santana Lopes' fiscal policies.                                                  http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3208.htm#econ

In 2003, Barroso hosted U.S President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar in the Portuguese Island of Terceira, in the Azores, in which the four leaders met and finalised the controversial US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Under Barroso's leadership, Portugal became part of the "coalition of the willing" for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.'                        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Manuel_Barroso





Irish EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said voting 'No' could damage Ireland's image to international investors; in a heavily ironical reply to an RTE news reporter's question if he had read the Treaty this time, he replied "I've been doing nothing else for the last six months, I haven't even spoken a word to my wife, just staying up all night reading the Lisbon Treaty"

[celticwarrior]

another high-profile sell-out, former anti-Communist dissident and former Polish President, Lech Walesa, is also in Ireland this weekend to beat the 'Yes' drum
and just like Barroso, he doesn't seem to want to debate the issues in an open forum, just throw mud at the 'No' campaign calling all its arguements
"bordering on the ridiculous"  (RTE 9 O'Clock News, Friday 18 September 2009)      http://www.rte.ie/news/index.html