The Mattie supporter giving it large about SF voters 
— Take the tin pot off your head there pal.
Well FFG would be as well letting it fall apart organically rather than being seen as the one’s to bring it down
Think the leaders in FF, FG and SF are all in tough spots. Do any of them really want to be in government?
Yes, I do.
It would be a disaster ---- FFG are more or less the same thing when it comes to policy… There’s too much variety and difference among those left parties. Labour are not left anyway for a start and PBP are headbangers
From a point of view of future electoral protection I think FF would be mad to abstain and let SF form a government. SF have well and truly learned the art of being teflon, of spinning whatever happens to their advantage, and FF have well and truly lost that art. Whether an SF led government was actually a success or not, the likelihood is it would be perceived as a success, barring a 2008 style world crash, which is not impossible over the next few years. If a SF/Green government was perceived as a success, it’s lights out for FF. In this situation, FF are squeezed by FG on their right and SF on their left. They lose an ideological basis for being.
Great stuff reading some of the stories here from posters who lived/suffered through the 70’s and 80’s. Makes you appreciate what genuinely tough times were like and grateful - relatively speaking - for the standard of living we have today.
My father never sat a driving test. He applied for it and got it in the post. More than 50 years driving and has never had a tip, miraculously enough.
My parents always tell a story of the first Christmas they were married back in the 70’s. One Christmas Eve they were in the house and they didn’t have a penny left. All the presents had been bought but they were waiting for my father to get paid the following week or whatever. Not even a few shillings to put petrol in the car to visit relations. “But, as they always say, “shur we knew no different and were happy.”
Also was there a Guinness strike sometime in the 70’s or 80’s, @Fagan_ODowd @balbec ? My auld fella worked up in Cavan or Monaghan for around 6 months at one stage and his most vivid recollection is a Guinness strike around then!
Different world back then. People definitely had more resolve and hardness. The current generation, myself included, have little to complain about when you hear about how tough things were back in the day.
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Yes mate, the SF manifesto is totally rationale. Looking forward to our €3bn plus budget surplus after all the spending and tax cuts!
Way to miss the point… there’s just way too much difference for it to happen and work.
TFK is the sideline pal. Stop taking yourself so seriously.
I’ll leave my Tin Pot on as long as you keep the Balaclava.
- not a Mattie supporter
I support AK47
Arithmetic is irrelevant in an abstention situation. It’s already been done once so it can be done again. The internal battles in each party are what will decide this. From a Fianna Fail point of view, they’re as well off trying to lead a government with the Greens/Soc Dems/Labour and remain relevant, and hope FG abstain. In the long run what could kill FF is irrelevance. If they stand back now and let SF in, there are no guarantees of ever getting back in, because SF are so good at strategy and spin.
I did a semester of study over there many many moons back, early 00s. Turned up to my first lecture, notepad and biro, wearing my best/cleanest tracksuit. Everyone in the class was on their own laptop and dressed for th office. The education differences ramped up from there.
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That’s politics Choco.
SF and the rest of them need to learn that.
And the electorate who have vote for an alphabet soup of various parties do as well.
If the Housing, Health & promised extra Dole money promises are not delivered the “ New SF Voter “ wont accept spin as an excuse.
They’ll be back to their Core Ra song singing support then unfortunately.
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They want less taxes too.
The carbon tax “betrayal” to the Greens will be just the start.
One of the overarching goals of Sweden’s higher education system is to sever the financial link between parents and children. Children on average move out of the family home a lot quicker there than in the rest of Europe. Swedish students do take on debt, but that debt is not for tuition, and it’s for cost of living while in college, and the repayments are spread out at low cost over decades.
I studied tertiary and post grad, here, Denmark and in Oz, and the lear distinction was the Danes aren’t just churning out numbers for the sake of it.
Here I think we throw anyone into 3rd level with a degree thought to be a golden ticket. That thinking is being eroded thankfully but not fully gone. In Oz for post level, they were punching people through all for the money. Poor return on investment with a piece of paper only end result. Majority of my class were foreign Asians sent to learn and go home. Many barely grasped English but went home with an MBA from a reputable university.
The Danes’s system genuinely felt like it was preparing for real end situations and careers and encouraged critical thinking and discourse as opposed to rote learning.
Wrong thread for all this but have typed so it’s going up!
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Strange about turn when a couple of days ago it was #votelefttransferleft
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