The Republic of Ireland held two referenda on Friday March 8th (International Womens Day) to amend two parts of their Consittution (it has to be done by referendum).
The two proposals were (and all this appeared on the Ballot papers and accompanying notes):-
THE FAMILY AMENDMENT
(white notes & ballot paper)
In Article 41.1.1° “The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.”
In Article 41.3.1° “The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack.”
The Proposal
The Constitution currently recognises the centrality of the family unit in society and protects the Family founded on marriage.
In this amendment there is one vote for two proposed changes. The Proposal involves the insertion of additional text to Article 41.1.1° and the deletion of text in Article 41.3.1°. These proposed changes are shown below:
Proposed to change Article 41.3.1° by deleting text shown with line through it:
“The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage,on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack.
“The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage,
Proposed to change Article 41.1.1° text in bold to: Article 41.1.1° “The State recognises the Family, whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships, as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.”
(There then follows an extremely long-winded and tiresome explanation of the legal impacts of a Yes vote or a No vote)
THE CARE AMENDMENT
(green notes & ballot paper)
(green notes & ballot paper)
Article 41.2.1° “In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.”
Article 41.2.2° “The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.”
The Constitution currently, by Article 41.2, refers to the importance to the common good of the life of women within the home and that the State should endeavour to ensure that mothers should not have to go out to work to the neglect of their “duties in the home”.
The Proposal
In this amendment there is one vote for two proposed changes. The proposal involves deleting Article 41.2.1° and Article 41.2.2° and inserting a new Article 42B, as shown below:
“The State recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to Society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved, and shall strive to support such provision.”
(There then follows an extremely long-winded and tiresome explanation of the legal impacts of a Yes vote or a No Vote)
All the main parties supported YES/YES, which on the face of it seems fair enough and a 'nailed-on' dead cert - it is after all, when all said and done merely a tidying-up exercise to get the Constitution to reflect 21st Century reality. However the turn-out was shockingly poor for such a Consitutional matter, the campaigning by the main parties was lack-lustre and generally dreadful as they believed it was a foregone conclusion they'd win, and the wording of the questions and the explanations was way too complicated.
3.5m people were registered to vote however most couldn't be bothered with it in the main because it was too difficult to understand or it didn't concern or affect them in their daily lives whether it changed or not. The results were a shock overwhelming NO/NO with the politicians immediately all blaming each other and blaming the voters.
These were the worst and third worst turn-outs of any referenda in Irish history.
The Irish Labour Party surpassed themselves in summary and managed to use the word 'Government' five times in just one sentence - "It was a very lacklustre Government campaign with very little evidence of canvassing from Government members, Government TDs and Senators and very few voices from Government on the airwaves supporting their call for Yes-Yes, and I think that is where Government failed" . Truly outstanding.
Sinn Fein have already pledged - in that time-honoured Irish tradition, to run the referenda again until they get the result they want.
AFTERMATH
If you word something poorly or make it way to complicated to be understood in mere seconds, over issues the parts of the electorate at large has very very deep reservations about, then the electorate will either not bother with it or vote against it. But they certainly will not accept it.
The 'Family Amendment' was seen by a highly sceptical electorate as a move away from the heterosexual nuclear family towards the vacuous 'durable relationship', with the added worry that immigrants could use the change to bring in just about anybody, claiming there was some form of relationship between them. Given the major social problems on-going at street-level in Ireland over immigration, this just added fuel to the fire.
The ‘The Care Amendment‘ was presented as rejecting the old-fashioned thinking of a woman’s place being in the home, but widely seen, again by a highly sceptical electorate (who are sick and tired of the Liberal-Left's obsession with Gender Politics and associated drivel and their attempts at forcing it's acceptance on a largely-hostile or disinterested people) as rejecting motherhood altogether, and opening the door to other interpretations of ‘woman’ and it's meaning, interpretation and usage.
Sinn Fein have already pledged - in that time-honoured Irish tradition, to run the referenda again until they get the result they want.
AFTERMATH
If you word something poorly or make it way to complicated to be understood in mere seconds, over issues the parts of the electorate at large has very very deep reservations about, then the electorate will either not bother with it or vote against it. But they certainly will not accept it.
The 'Family Amendment' was seen by a highly sceptical electorate as a move away from the heterosexual nuclear family towards the vacuous 'durable relationship', with the added worry that immigrants could use the change to bring in just about anybody, claiming there was some form of relationship between them. Given the major social problems on-going at street-level in Ireland over immigration, this just added fuel to the fire.
The ‘The Care Amendment‘ was presented as rejecting the old-fashioned thinking of a woman’s place being in the home, but widely seen, again by a highly sceptical electorate (who are sick and tired of the Liberal-Left's obsession with Gender Politics and associated drivel and their attempts at forcing it's acceptance on a largely-hostile or disinterested people) as rejecting motherhood altogether, and opening the door to other interpretations of ‘woman’ and it's meaning, interpretation and usage.
This will place a significant strain on an already beleaguered Leo Varadkar-led Coalition government as this was his idea and he supported it and campaigned for it.
*****UPDATE****
20 March 2024. Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach - Ireland's version of the Prime Minister, announced his resignation and will step down as soon as a replacement is announced. Ireland is currently ruled by an extraordinarily fragile Coalition and unless the Coalition can come up with a candidate acceptable to all coalition members, the end result may be an early General Election; something Sinn Fein and other parties are already demanding.
An early General Election would cause significant worry for whoever is in power in Westminster as currently Sinn Fein have a clear lead over the other two main parties and on current polling, would be able to cobble together a like-minded Coalition with a working majority. Coupled wiith Sinn Fein now being 'top dog' in the north, calls for a Border Poll from Sinn Fein in such a scenario would increase greatly.
5 comments:
Great article it’s John P Reid here
So Lee anderson probably would’ve won if he’d stayed as a Tory his seat will he keep it now or does it depend on if The Tories don’t put up much of a contest there
Lee Anderson's seat will be a straight fight beween Labour and Reform I think. Lee Anderson has a massive personal following there and is extrordinarily p[opular with ordinaru voters who stop him in the street for selfies etc. He drinks in normal pubs alongside ordinary people, gets chips and kebabs from takeaways waiting in the queue with everyone else and is normally met with cheers and table thumping whenever he walks in a pub or a 'grerasy-spoon' cafe in his seat. He is very much a 'man of the people'.
Be a very interesting seat to watch once the election starts.
As I reply to you, quite serious media is reporting that 9 tory MPs (including 2 front-benchers) and 6 Labour MPs are in advance talks about switching to Reform as well..
Thank you I thought you’d know sound right
I didn’t know about the others thinking of defecting I wonder if in thecase of a fee Tories like priti patel or labour Graham someone )( John Reid)
Reform wouldn’t out a candidate up against
If you look at the results for Anderson's seat, when he won it in 2019, an independent came second.
Anderson only switched to the Tories a year or so before, havibng been Labour his whole life. people say he is opportunist switching yet again but the reality is he is firm over his beliefs and convictions - it's nit him that has shifted posirtion, it's the parties that have shifted.
He gave a very good interview to Patrick Christy (an outstanding presenter and always worth a watch) on GB News on Monday night. Another good interview they had was George Galloway the day before being interviewed by historian Neil Oliver.
Thanks ( John)
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