Questions and Answers

Enda Kenny can be some muppet. Going on about how as a family man he was concerned about some of the literature coming in his door from the no camp. Thought Mary Lou was persuasive and Kenny’s criticisms of SF’s private army came across as irrelevant and a little desparate. No side won overall I thought. Prime Time on the eve of the last election appears to show that theses debates do matter so will be interesting to see what others think.

Mary Lou was very good, some half wits in the crowd on both sides- that ibec cock is a dick, kenny is a dim wit

Thought it was a poor show overall. Too fragmented with too many different opinions.

Thought Mary Lou was decent in the main but she lost it a bit near the end when Bowman asked her about how we’d get a better deal next time and she just seemed to lose her train of thought completely and couldn’t answer for a couple of seconds. Bowman said “it’s a treaty that took seven years to negotiate and was concluded in Ireland so how could we get any better terms?” She should have staight away tied that back into the EU Constitution as that’s what was being negotiated in Dublin.

Pity Joe Higgins or Kieren Allen weren’t on the panel - the two most persuasive speakers for the No campaign that I’ve heard. That said Martin wasn’t very convincing and Kenny just came across as a gombeen. The SF stuff was particularly irrelevant and I thought it showed him up a bit. There’s a few FF heads who won’t be overly happy with his need to throw in anti-republicanism to the Lisbon debate.

Anyway if I was undecided before that programme I don’t think I’d be any more sure now.

Finally a special mention for the gobshite who asked the last question and made a point earlier on. Really fancied himself as a public speaker with his big eyes and looking across at the whole panel and making it obvious he was addressing each of them. Just ask the fucking question and shut the fuck up ya prick, it’s not an audition.

[quote=“therock67”]Thought it was a poor show overall. Too fragmented with too many different opinions.

Thought Mary Lou was decent in the main but she lost it a bit near the end when Bowman asked her about how we’d get a better deal next time and she just seemed to lose her train of thought completely and couldn’t answer for a couple of seconds. Bowman said “it’s a treaty that took seven years to negotiate and was concluded in Ireland so how could we get any better terms?” She should have staight away tied that back into the EU Constitution as that’s what was being negotiated in Dublin.

Pity Joe Higgins or Kieren Allen weren’t on the panel - the two most persuasive speakers for the No campaign that I’ve heard. That said Martin wasn’t very convincing and Kenny just came across as a gombeen. The SF stuff was particularly irrelevant and I thought it showed him up a bit. There’s a few FF heads who won’t be overly happy with his need to throw in anti-republicanism to the Lisbon debate.

Anyway if I was undecided before that programme I don’t think I’d be any more sure now.

Finally a special mention for the gobshite who asked the last question and made a point earlier on. Really fancied himself as a public speaker with his big eyes and looking across at the whole panel and making it obvious he was addressing each of them. Just ask the fucking question and shut the fuck up ya prick, it’s not an audition.[/quote]

he was loving that final question, thinking he was all that for asking a stupid question

That lad was a right arsehole. But then there were no shortage of arseholes there anyway. The middle-aged woman with the “rather refined” accent who spoke towards the end about the heartland of Europe etc was in my year in UCD as a mature student - fair play to her, she spoke very well ahen she got her chance.

I thought it was a good question and he was just being mannerly by addressing the whole panel, I can’t believe your seriously complaining about how a punter asks a question, for fooks sake!!

His behaviour up to that point also suggested he’s a twat.

Sledge is right. It wasn’t just that question, but that did confirm my earlier suspicions. Hope he dies in his sleep.

Mary Lou said to vote ‘no’ as it will give authority to the EU to eventually change our all important corporation tax rate…

Micheal Martin pointed out that Sinn Fein wanted to increase the rate in the last election…

That other ‘no’ tosspot said to stick to the Lisbon Treaty - it had nothing to do with him anyway…

Mary Lou got away without having to answer…

Somes up SF for me. No to everything but no alternatives (or ridiculous alternatives)…

[quote=“farmerinthecity”]Mary Lou said to vote ‘no’ as it will give authority to the EU to eventually change our all important corporation tax rate…

Micheal Martin pointed out that Sinn Fein wanted to increase the rate in the last election…

That other ‘no’ tosspot said to stick to the Lisbon Treaty - it had nothing to do with him anyway…

Mary Lou got away without having to answer…

Somes up SF for me. No to everything but no alternatives (or ridiculous alternatives)…[/quote]

I think the issue here is who decides our tax rates,Mary Lou believes the Irish government should have the right to higher or lower the tax rate,she is against europe deciding it for us. That was her point , SF bashing as usual by FF , dodging the question as usual , nearly as bad as kenny talking about private armies

No - she was using the fear of losing the ‘all important 12.5% tax rate’ (I took that as meaning increasing it) as a reason to vote No even though the party she represents wanted to increase it in the last election.

Very hypocritical and would call into question if you would trust the opinion of such a person or party…

[quote=“farmerinthecity”]No - she was using the fear of losing the ‘all important 12.5% tax rate’ (I took that as meaning increasing it) as a reason to vote No even though the party she represents wanted to increase it in the last election.

Very hypocritical and would call into question if you would trust the opinion of such a person or party…[/quote]

What did you make of Kenny bringing in SF’s private army? Thought it was ridiculous. What way are you going to vote anyway farmer?
In fairness I thought Lou handled Martin and Kenny well. As she correctly pointed out and what stuck with me is the yes campaign love talking in generalties about Europe and how good it has been without actually talking about Lisbon. Two separate issues.

[quote=“farmerinthecity”]No - she was using the fear of losing the ‘all important 12.5% tax rate’ (I took that as meaning increasing it) as a reason to vote No even though the party she represents wanted to increase it in the last election.

Very hypocritical and would call into question if you would trust the opinion of such a person or party…[/quote]

it seems the scaremongering has got to you, mary Lou wanted to discuss the treaty , kenny & martin didnt, what you have taken out of the debate last night has nothing to do with the treaty at all

Wouldn’t be a huge Mary Lou fan but thought she did reasonably well last night. Better than Kenny anyway who I’d have ranked fourth at the table.

Also Farmer one key point - it’s not relevant to Lisbon but just to correct you on something: Sinn Fin did not want the 12.5% corporation tax raised at the last election. Martin engaged in semantics earlier referring to the last “strategic financial review” or something published by SF. That was well before the last election and the annual fiscal policy set in 2007 was to maintain CT at 12.5%.

Anyway as others have pointed out the point is who controls tax, not the rate it’s set at.

Another complete fool on again tonight.

Hand up to make a point and then:

“I think we’re in a crisis alright. The French minister said as much and the German leader Madame … eh … eh sorry Frau … eh … eh… well the German leader she said it too.”

Gobshite just wanted to show off and call her Frau Merkel but fucked it up utterly.

Rent a quote Jim Power suggesting the next step might be us leaving the EU. Where the fuck did he get that from?

That was muppet was funny alright, be he’d been waiting ages to say that, what an arse.

Pretty appaling show as usual but tonight I was seriosusly disturbed by what was apparently an editorial policy of the show that seemed to fully endorse the entitlement of the remaining countries to undermine our vote.

Boyd Barrett got disgraceful treatment from Bowman, particularly at the end there. That was funny stuff from Power aswell, he was only saying last week that nothing would change if we voted no and the Yes side were scaremongering and now he’s talking about having to leave the EU and guns being put to the head of the electorate. Following on from the result that debacle seems to reinforce the idea of the political establishment being hugely out of touch with the voters.

There has been a definite RT bias towards the pro Lisbon side of things. Obviously newspapers and the likes have had similar notions but RT are publically funded and should be representative of public opinion - not government opinion.

I heard a discussion on 5-7 Live on my way home the day of the results where the whole panel were in agreement that Ganley et al had gotten far too much air time and they shouldn’t have had anything like the same exposure that government ministers were entitled to. Obviously this ignores the fact that RT is supposed to be a reflection of Ireland as a whole, not the narrowminded sheep in the Dil who are told how to vote and oblige accordingly. The rest of us do like to make our own minds up.

They’re now rejoicing in the idea that the No camp have gotten us into an awful mess and they should be compelled to provide a solution to that problem. The reality of course is that we are in the exact same position today as we were this time last week. Nothing changed.

In some way, I actually admire those of you who can bear to watch this programme in its entirety. I had it on at the start and that gobshite Noel Whelan was coming out with stuff like, ‘We can’t emphasise how serious this is. We’re on a plane without a flightpath.’ Eh, things are no different than they were a week or two weeks ago Noel you clown (except the price a’ deysel’s rocketed even higher). Threw a Sopranos on instead and it was much more enjoyable.

Pretty boring as usual but now an auld wan has gone off on one.

Leo has some tan up. Chartbusters or Lanzarote?