But has such a party ever existed anywhere in the last 50 years. Is that not a bit of an idealised view. I’m not really having a pop at you here as obviously most of us agree with that soundbite but you’d nearly have more respect for the fella who at least pick a real party and support them warts and all than some imaginary party who are never going to exist.
Aontu are closest to that imo but will never flourish nationally due to the presence of SF sadly
Aontu: “We’re not far right but…”
If FG are meat and FF are spuds, then Aontu are the cabbage.
You personally love cabbage but the WOKE mob wouldn’t allow you say it so you had to delete.
I don’t believe the current political system works. Professional politicians drawn from any walk of life who sit in a system that allows about 2 years to do anything but are curtailed at the same time by the civil service is a stupid system.
Ive already said in a previous post that the opposition are not serious politicians capable of running a country. That leaves us with FFG.
I don’t support any party and can’t see myself doing so moving forward.
When we needed houses in the 70/80s we went out and built them. Rightly or wrongly government’s implemented their policies and of course they had flaws. Now we have hands off politics so the cunts cant be held to account. The problem with that is when the government is hands off the legitimacy of the state gets questioned and a rise in the right/citizen journalist / headbanger grows. A good free healthy country actually has a strong government with strong policies and strong follow through. A society needs strong rules to be free. Otherwise you have chaos.
You’re correct that we dont have that party but we did have people and parties with such virtues. Society as a whole had. In the current therapeutic world we’ve removed a lot of checks and balances and outrage dictates…
I cant talk about politics without pointing out the flaws in the system. Traditional class politics and left v right seem dead. Merit based politics dead. It’s optics and the cult of the personality now.
I’m very apathetic about the whole thing but i think politics as we knew it is dead.
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I get the sense that just like with Kamala Harris in the US the honeymoon period or bounce is over for Simon Harris and Fine Gael. There seems to be a lot of blowback and deeper scrutiny of their policies that seem half baked and not well thought out. An example of one over last fortnight is the proposed 11% Vat rate on hospitality. It may make prices slighlty more competitive but conversely it would increase Vat on energy which is a considerable cost for the sector.
The Harris interview last night did not go well for him. As usual his schtick of being “irked” and “annoyed” and “I think about them everyday” gets wheeled out but it seems to lapse into faux sincerity after a while when it is overplayed. You’re in govt pal. Do something about it. He was skewered on govts record in housing. Colette Hayes cited average rents > €2,000 a month, record levels of homelessness, affordable housing. Harris didnt really have anything of substance to offer. I can only assume former FG TD Brian Hayes, now current CEO of Banking Federation furnished him with some data on mortgage drawdowns and first time buyers. It would be a bit like an unresponsive patient coming in to an emergency room. Instead of checking vital signs like pulse, breathing, pupil dilation the doctor uses opts for the reflex hammer to test the knee instead. Looking in all the wrong places.
His 4 month scoliosis promise made an appearance too. Again he looked and sounded hapless. Its hard to assign any credibility to manifesto promises when you say assertively and promise with confidence that a child wont be waiting longer than 4 months. Everyone knows you’re lying.
The bike shed debacle was thrown at him too. Again instead of owning it he plays the side of a disgruntled Joe Duffy contributor. Really annoyed that this happened. Some junior civil servant gets thrown under the bus by Harris. The bigger question that emanates is can all junior civil servants sign off on expenditures this big without any departmental oversight or checks and balances? What internal controls are in place. What are the approvals and sign offs? I’d have liked to have seen more follow up and probing here from Colette but she did very well.
Harris in short shows glaring lack of knowledge about his brief. He is as well all know a good communicator so he can get away with it to a point. But he seems to care more about a brand, social media and by extension spin. Even the “new energy” slogan is daft. His belief that deflation = prices coming down also highlights his propensity to show his lack of understanding of certain issues. Even Nuala, who he met in the Supervalu in Enniscorthy was good enough to educate him on the difference by which time Harris claims to have “misspoken”.
I will give some credit where its due and that he has not been afraid to denounce Israel on their crimes against humanity. You can see there is genuine sincerity and concern there when speaking of this issue. Ireland is only a mere dot in the middle of the Atlantic but our moral compass and lived experiences down through generations mean our stance here is important and noteworthy.
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Brian is a massive cunt. He owns Computer Doctor on Edge’s corner in Fairview. I only went in there there once and he had a couple of Chinese young lads working for him who he spoke to like they were dogs. He also charged me 65 euro for a laptop power cable that should have cost 20.
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He explained that he had it for his computer work because he often had to destroy hard drives and used the slash hook for that purpose
I’m a former drinking buddy of a local competitor to the Computer Doctor. Granted he may have had a bit of bias but his words about the Computer Doctor were always very short and very to the point. “He’s a fucking cunt. An unbelievable cunt.” This would have been well over 10 years ago. I did not know who the Computer Doctor was then, but I do now, and those words were very true.
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Where and who interviewed him?
Colette FitzPatrick. Virgin media.
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Not to get all Michael O’Leary on it but Labour to me have a more varied candidate list (based on the website) than the other left parties. I see small business owners, those from the legal profession, trade unionists etc in there.
The Soc Dems have a couple of interesting ones but mostly are what I’d expect from a fairly lazy party.
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He seems to be very much in the “Foreigner’s Out” camp; a quick scan of reviews of his business on Google suggests that a significant amount of his trade is from said foreigners,
His wife must be ok with his views:
In evidence, which was uncontradicted, Garrigan said the crew turned off his water on the Saturday evening. He said they were Romanian and did not speak English, but his wife was from Romania and spoke to them.
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He is looking for mass deportation in his twitter bio. He mustn’t have much time for the missus
Simon Harris and Paschal Donohue pulling pints in The Boars Head earlier.
Hughies backing carries serious weight.
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That’s a disastrous poll for Grainne. My feeling when I heard she was going to be a candidate was one of deep cynicism, that she isn’t in it for the right reasons at all and it seems a lot of people are feeling the same way.
If the poll is accurate a fascinating count awaits.
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You’re in the middle of it, the count will go on for 3-4 days I reckon
Any Wexford based posters care to offer thoughts on the 2 new constituencies? If bookies odds are correct then the 3 seats in the Wexford Wicklow constituency will go to the 3 Gorey candidates which I don’t believe would happen. And the Wexford constituency would have 3 Enniscorthy seats + Verona.
They were the only 2 constituencies not priced up yesterday so I’m assuming there’s a bit of guesswork going on here too