Anti-democrats strike again

In yet another desperate move to shift the media in their favour for the next referendum, the  joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution has urged the Irish Government to remove the requirement for broadcasters to provide equal air time for both sides during a referendum debate, the Irish Times has revealed:

Mr Regan said: “It is the view of the committee, and it would be my view, that the 50/50 rule as it is presently applied, and was applied in the Lisbon Treaty referendum, actually distorts the debate.

Ensuring that both sides get equal coverage 'distorts' the debate? But giving more air time to one side rather than the other will ensure that it is fairer? Is there a secret Peter Mandelson clone army being used for committees in Ireland that we don't know about?

“I think the view is it would be very difficult to get any referendum through on any subject under the rules where you have to find in all occasions a 50/50 split between the yes and no arguments."

Isn't that the whole point of the democratic process of a referendum? It's not supposed to be easy; the Government is supposed to have to convince the electorate to vote in favour. If your arguments aren't strong enough, you lose the debate. If you have to give more air time to one side to win, then your proposals simply aren't good enough!

Is democracy now so foreign to our politicians that they actually don't understand it?

What the article in the Times doesn't mention is that every single member of the Committee also campaigned for a Yes vote last time around and was embarrassed by the No result. One might suspect that they had a conflict of interests, but that's just detail.