Vote No Campaign on O'Connell Street

Lollipops23

As i was walking through the city this afternoon i was absolutely horrified to see that the No side were camped outside the GPO, with a massive(and loud) tv screen depicting their lies and proaganda. Believe me when i say that you could not walk down the street without noticing it.
Myself and another young woman approached the people responsible to express our discontentment at their lies and twisting of facts-they were saying that Ireland is the only country that referemdum because other countries would reject the treaty- i set them straight by telling them it was because ours is the only constituation that would be altered, and therefore we need a referendum.

Now, i know every side has the right to a fair shout-i weighed up my own beliefs with each side before making my decision on how to vote. But this ramming of ideas down people's throats really got to me-they were lying to people outright. How did they get funding for this atrocity in the middle of our beautiful capital city??

FionnMatthew

Lollipops23 wrote: »

beautiful capital city

eh?

Lollipops23

i mean the noise was so loud and the campaigners so disruptive, you literally couldn't walk down the street!!

AtomicHorror

FionnMatthew wrote: »

eh?

Well it is looking better these days. The more I travel, the more I appreciate the big smoke.

Stark

Spreading mistruths during referendum campaigns should be made illegal imo.

Lollipops23

ah i quite like Dublin city!and even if it was a manky city i'd still be pissed off!

lisbon_lions

The same questions can be asked of the yes campaigners surely?

I for one am fed up with this now tbh.

FionnMatthew

Stark wrote: »

Spreading mistruths during referendum campaigns should be made illegal imo.

Listening to referendum campaigns during referenda ought to be made illegal imo.

craichoe

i mean the noise was so loud and the campaigners so disruptive, you literally couldn't walk down the street!!

No Worse than the scangers hanging around the luas stop or the scummers walking around in celtic jerseys

Dord

The Yes campaigners were out in force on Grafton street earlier. They seem to be taking on the same tactics as "chuggers". Honestly I felt like punching a few of them. :eek:

AtomicHorror

FionnMatthew wrote: »

Listening to referendum campaigns during referenda ought to be made illegal imo.

Referenda on complex international treaties should be made illegal imo.

Lollipops23

lisbon_lions wrote: »

The same questions can be asked of the yes campaigners surely?

I for one am fed up with this now tbh.

The yes campaigners were handing out leaflets on Henry St, they weren't bugging anyone, just giving them to those who want them!

AtomicHorror

craichoe wrote: »

No Worse than the scangers hanging around the luas stop or the scummers walking around in celtic jerseys

They don't have a giant skanger TV outside the GPO. Or megaphones.

Lollipops23

craichoe wrote: »

No Worse than the scangers hanging around the luas stop or the scummers walking around in celtic jerseys

Haha, one of the No crowd was actually wearing a Celtic Jersey!!

brianthebard

AtomicHorror wrote: »

They don't have a giant skanger TV outside the GPO. Or megaphones.

wtf is a skanger tv? Does every sound that comes out of it have a specific type of accent or something?

ShooterSF

See look at the positives if they weren't there scangers might have set up a screen with scanger tv on it and scanger accents ripping through mega phones! Anyway it's nothing people haven't heard , read, or can ignore if they choose already.

Rb

Joe Robot wrote: »

The Yes campaigners were out in force on Grafton street earlier. They seem to be taking on the same tactics as "chuggers". Honestly I felt like punching a few of them. :eek:

Indeed, they littered themselves through Dundrum Town Centre not so long ago too certainly adapting chugger tactics i.e standing at the main entrances and exits handing out their leaflets, even at the part of the escalators you get on and off! They were also giving "Vote Yes" balloons to children and a group of smarmy looking bastards in suits were standing around the food court shaking hands with eachother, whilst they had the Gardaí protecting them (lol). I wouldn't use their leaflets as toilet paper, let alone something to base my decision on, so despite their unbelievable presence in the centre I managed to not engage a single one of them.

lisbon_lions

Lollipops23 wrote: »

The yes campaigners were handing out leaflets on Henry St, they weren't bugging anyone, just giving them to those who want them!

...and misinformation is acceptable provided it is received in a silent and/or voluntary basis?

Don't make me laugh.

craichoe

AtomicHorror wrote: »

They don't have a giant skanger TV outside the GPO. Or megaphones.

No, but a megafone or Giant TV, won't smash up o'connell street and fire bricks at the gardai.

Anyways, its the City center, do you expect it to be peace and quiet ?

Rb

lisbon_lions wrote: »

The same questions can be asked of the yes campaigners surely?

I for one am fed up with this now tbh.

Likewise, am looking forward to getting this over with. It's getting very tiresome at this stage (as is the attitude of certain members of the Yes side on Boards) and hopefully we can put this to bed soon.

sink

To be honest I am dismayed that people are basing there votes on what a few campaigners do/don't do. Just because people are being obtrusive does not mean they have no argument to make. You should base your decisions on the facts not bull**** surrounding the facts.

Lollipops23

it's a fact that the Yes campaign has had less(but not no) misleading info than the No-ers.

But yeah, i much prefer their tactics to then No-ers!when i was telling one of them how wrong it all was she merey stood there shrugging. she didn't even have the decency to fight her case!

Lollipops23

sink wrote: »

To be honest I am dismayed that people are basing there votes on what a few campaigners do/don't do. Just because people are being obtrusive does not mean they have no argument to make. You should base your decisions on the facts not bull**** surrounding the facts.

Like i said, i have longsince made my decision to vote yes. the No-ers are just pissing me off now!

heyjude

Lollipops23 wrote: »

As i was walking through the city this afternoon i was absolutely horrified to see that the No side were camped outside the GPO, with a massive(and loud) tv screen depicting their lies and proaganda. Believe me when i say that you could not walk down the street without noticing it.
Myself and another young woman approached the people responsible to express our discontentment at their lies and twisting of facts-they were saying that Ireland is the only country that referemdum because other countries would reject the treaty- i set them straight by telling them it was because ours is the only constituation that would be altered, and therefore we need a referendum.

Now, i know every side has the right to a fair shout-i weighed up my own beliefs with each side before making my decision on how to vote. But this ramming of ideas down people's throats really got to me-they were lying to people outright. How did they get funding for this atrocity in the middle of our beautiful capital city??

Britain didn't need to hold a referendum, but Tony Blair did promise before the last British general election that if Labour were re-elected, that they would hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, but after their re-election and prior to his stepping down, the Labour government had decided to renege on this election promise. Why do you think they did this then ? Nobody knows how people in the other EU states would vote if they had the chance, so the No campaigners could be right or wrong.

As for the NO campaign being noisy or vociferous in seeking to present their arguments, they could claim that they need to act this way as much of the media, especially RTE have been very pro-Lisbon and therefore the YES campaign have had a disproportionate share of media time to present their case. If you aren't given an equal opportunity to present your case on the public airwaves, then you have to take your case to the streets in a very spirited way instead.

heyjude

Lollipops23 wrote: »

Like i said, i have longsince made my decision to vote yes. the No-ers are just pissing me off now!

Same in reverse here

lisbon_lions

heyjude wrote: »

Same in reverse here

ditto. Hey, at least we have the option (albeit for possibly the last time)

Hitman Actual

heyjude wrote: »

As for the NO campaign being noisy or vociferous in seeking to present their arguments, they could claim that they need to act this way as much of the media, especially RTE have been very pro-Lisbon and therefore the YES campaign have had a disproportionate share of media time to present their case. If you aren't given an equal opportunity to present your case on the public airwaves, then you have to take your case to the streets in a very spirited way instead.

I'd say that on balance it's about even in media-time granted to the camps. In fact, if anything, it's probable that the No camp has had more media-time than the Yes side, as they were campaigning about a month before the Yes side bothered to get off their collective a**es. If they had both started campaigning at the same time, then it's probable the Yes camp would have gotten more media time, but that's the advantage of power, I guess.

sink

heyjude wrote: »

RTE have been very pro-Lisbon and therefore the YES campaign have had a disproportionate share of media time to present their case.

I think what some no campaigner perceive as RTE showing bias, is actually RTE telling the straight factual truths about the treaty. Because the facts actually favour a yes vote, does not mean RTE is being biased when reporting them. If RTE stated Lisbon is good for Europe or Ireland, that would be clear bias, but so far they haven't.

ShooterSF

lenny_leonard wrote: »

I'd say that on balance it's about even in media-time granted to the camps. In fact, if anything, it's probable that the No camp has had more media-time than the Yes side, as they were campaigning about a month before the Yes side bothered to get off their collective a**es. If they had both started campaigning at the same time, then it's probable the Yes camp would have gotten more media time, but that's the advantage of power, I guess.

And would you say adds informing us on tv that were seemingly impartial but werent (As I've mentioned too many times now, stating "We keep some of our vetos" and leaving out the logical impartial statement "and loose others") didn't tip it towards the yes side?

Actually it doesn't matter, both sides are just as guilty of it. It just seems only one side's scare tactics get attacked here though because the other's are somehow "for the greater good".

heyjude

lenny_leonard wrote: »

I'd say that on balance it's about even in media-time granted to the camps. In fact, if anything, it's probable that the No camp has had more media-time than the Yes side, as they were campaigning about a month before the Yes side bothered to get off their collective a**es. If they had both started campaigning at the same time, then it's probable the Yes camp would have gotten more media time, but that's the advantage of power, I guess.

So an RTE discussion on the Lisbon Treaty that has a FF representative, a FG representative, a Labour representative and another guest who is undecided, is about even in terms of balance ???? Interesting, so 3 members of the YES campaign and one undecided is balanced!!!

Can you recall during the campaign, a single instance in which RTE held a televised discussion on the Treaty in which there wasn't a single guest/speaker who wanted a YES vote ? A balanced debate would have featured an equal number from each side. Even RTE would struggle to say their coverage was balanced, the best they could do is to claim that it was representative of political opinion within the main political parties, but how representative their opinions are of true public opinion will be seen tomorrow.

If our public representatives truly represent their public then logic suggests that with 160TDs supporting the Treaty and just 6 TDs against(according to newspaper reports), the YES vote should enjoy an overwhelming victory.

Rb

heyjude wrote: »

So an RTE discussion on the Lisbon Treaty that has a FF representative, a FG representative, a Labour representative and another guest who is undecided, is about even in terms of balance ???? Interesting, so 3 members of the YES campaign and one undecided is balanced!!!

Can you recall during the campaign, a single instance in which RTE held a televised discussion on the Treaty in which there wasn't a single guest/speaker who wanted a YES vote ? A balanced debate would have featured an equal number from each side. Even RTE would struggle to say their coverage was balanced, the best they could do is to claim that it was representative of political opinion within the main political parties, but how representative their opinions are of true public opinion will be seen tomorrow.

If our public representatives truly represent their public then logic suggests that with 160TDs supporting the Treaty and just 6 TDs against(according to newspaper reports), the YES vote should enjoy an overwhelming victory.

Indeed. It's pretty sickening that the Yes side have such control of the mass media, particularly considering that the Irish citizens are the ones paying for it.

The ability to have Yes campaigners turn up on some of the most viewed programmes of the week is admittedly a great tactic. But hey, just another reason to vote No for me

Hitman Actual

heyjude wrote: »

So an RTE discussion on the Lisbon Treaty that has a FF representative, a FG representative, a Labour representative and another guest who is undecided, is about even in terms of balance ???? Interesting, so 3 members of the YES campaign and one undecided is balanced!!!

What program are you talking about? This week on RTE there was a Q&A program on Monday night, and a Primetime special last night, both of which had equal numbers from each side. On Newstalk yesterday at lunchtime, Declan Ganly and Dermot Ahern were on together. Last week (Thursday, I think) on Matt Cooper, there was a debate between all the main players, with equal numbers on each side (4x4). On Monday morning, Pat Kenny had a debate with equal numbers form either side.

I'll admit that on Monday and Tuesday of this week, Brian Cowan got a half-hour to himself on both Matt Cooper and George Hook. But hey, he's the taoiseach, so that's hardly a surprise (unfair, some might say, but unsurprising all the same). But on Monday, their was a London economics professor on Newstalk, all on his own, with his own weird interpretation of the treaty, which was very biased towards the 'No' camp. And a few weeks ago you had that wierdo Jim Corr on Matt Cooper, all on his own, with his crazy 'No' views.

And the 'No' camp were campaigning a month earlier than the 'Yes' camp, all on their own. Declan Ganly was on Newstalk around the middle of April with his all-out tax declarations (which he has since reduced down to a statement of enhanced co-operation). On his own, with no-one to rebut his comments. Coir were on a few weeks later, again with no-one against them.

Also, this week you had the three presenters of Morning AM announcing that they were voting No... that was hardly fair, now was it.

That's a bit rambly, but in my own listening/viewing experience of the last two months, I definitely haven't seen the bias that you're talking about. The media isn't just RTE.

jmayo

What gets me about this whole campaign is you have one side (NOs) that arguably contains hugely diverse ideologies and some shady groups/individuals, that normally toghether would not agree on night and day, who are now suddenly fighting for things that normally they would not agree with (SF and corpo tax), whilst on the other side you have a condscending and sanctimonious attitude from people (including our governent) who are telling us to vote YES because they of course know what is better for us.

Personally I wish their was a third option on the ballot paper, one which allowed us choose to use the Irish fishing fleet to trawl all of the above campaigners behind their boats, while they try to fish for the last few cod in the North Atlantic.

The_Minister

I was canvassing at the GPO earlier, and tbh I did not feel safe at first. They had Gardai wandering around keeping an eye on the No campaigners.

The megaphone didn't come till later though.

lostexpectation

to the op et all, when you say the no side who do you mean, who had the tv screen?

The_Minister

lostexpectation wrote: »

to the op et all, when you say the no side who do you mean, who had the tv?

I didn't notice a tv. I forgot to add that.

Lollipops23

The_Minister wrote: »

I didn't notice a tv. I forgot to add that.

were you looking at your shoes the whole time?it was facing the GPO, massive yoke that i could hear from Parnell St. The Gardai were there because there is supposed to be a moratorium on media 24hrs before a vote, although i'm not sure that it counts.

PrivateEye

Stark wrote: »

Spreading mistruths during referendum campaigns should be made illegal imo.

That would be the yes side ****ed then.

"At the heart of Europe" by halving your influence in it, nice one lads.

oscarBravo

PrivateEye wrote: »

"At the heart of Europe" by halving your influence in it, nice one lads.

Only if you believe that our influence is halved by the Lisbon treaty, which - from what I've seen - is one of the many "no" campaign lies.

Gu3rr1lla

There were great groups there yesterday. People from all walks of life and ideologies. Even people from all over the world travelled here to ask Irish People to vote No, people from Germany, Denmark and France. Was pretty cool!

The_Minister

Gu3rr1lla wrote: »

There were great groups there yesterday. People from all walks of life and ideologies. Even people from all over the world travelled here to ask Irish People to vote No, people from Germany, Denmark and France. Was pretty cool!

Actually the Dutch people were with the PDs and asking for a Yes.

Eru

The_Minister wrote: »

I was canvassing at the GPO earlier, and tbh I did not feel safe at first. They had Gardai wandering around keeping an eye on the No campaigners.
The megaphone didn't come till later though.

Its O'Connell Street. I think you will find theres Gardai wandering around all day and 1 permanently standing at the GPO!

The_Minister

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

Its O'Connell Street. I think you will find theres Gardai wandering around all day and 1 permanently standing at the GPO!

Five of them. At the same time (that I saw) All making sure that they never moved more than a few metres away. There was definately a heavier presence