Lisbon, Dustin & The Eurovision Theory of Politics

First things first, Sound Waves was against the Lisbon Treaty and viewed the YES lobby as attempting nothing less than selling out the Irish People and the Irish Constitution of 1937. In fact, Sound Waves took the view that either the YES lobby did not understand the true implications of ratifying the treaty or they were lying through their teeth. How against are we ? Lets put it this way, in the 2009 local elections we will be voting for Sinn Fein and to be honest Sound Waves would not be a Sinn Fein supporter. Let me qualify that, we are going to vote Sinn Fein but only as long as they do not strike a vote transfer deal with anyone, individual or organisation that supported a YES vote for Lisbon, or alter their position on Lisbon.

I'm not sure when or where the penny dropped that the EU, after enlargement, was not some big Pro-Paddy love in but I suspect, intimations of it came when Dustin was being booed at the Semi Finals of the Eurovision in the former stronghold of the genocidal mass murderer Slobodan Milosovic, Belgrade. Friendly people the Serbians, as long as you don't live beside them, or near them, or anywhere that they can reach by tank. I guess Dustin got off light, a little booing is certainly better then being raped, shot in the back of the head and then dumped in an unmarked, mass grave. But hey, that was back in the 1990s. Now I'm not anti the former Eastern Bloc, I'm just pro democracy and human rights, issues that EU member states such as Poland and Romania have an, at times, less than firm grasp as may be seen with regard to their role in rendition, something that the EU itself rebuked them over.

But I am digressing. You see, I didn't understand why we would send Dustin or even why some Irish people expected that he might do reasonably well. It appeared to me that Europe in general would not get the joke in the same way that Italian game shows would be incomprehensible to us in Ireland. I just didn't expect the booing and neither did all those Irish people tuning in to see Dustin roasted live on air. Perhaps, just perhaps the penny dropped that the EU was not that friendly a place to be and that we need to hold on to our existing assets, such as a Constitution so robust and vital that it ensured through the legal action of Raymond Crotty that we got to vote on Lisbon in the first place, for dear life.

In one sense Dustin's Serbian adventure was a failure, but on another level, I suspect we owe the bird a debt of thanks.

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