Why is Adams out canvassing and giving comments?
He has no mandate down here
[size=5]Here’s the man we need[/size]
[img width=240 height=320]http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m1/dmulley/TaytoLitterBugs.jpg
Are you serious?
Why is Mary McAleese down here all the time?
Presume that Adams comment from farmer was a joke.
That guy is a joker. Green Party me arse
It was partly an attempt to wind-up Raven. I do have a deep mistrust of them though
What a fool you are.
Mr Tayto is currently on the Cheese & Onion trail
Mr Tayto Tour
Mister Tayto is a mover and a shaker. And every time he moves or shakes we’ll tell you. Keep checking here for his latest itinerary details.
Wednesday 16th May
Longford, Athlone, Tullamore, Mullingar
1000 visit to Shannonside radio studios, Athlone Road
1020 visit to Longford News paper, 7 Dublin Street;
1035 visit to Longford Leader paper, Leader House, Dublin Road;
1135 arrive Athlone
1140 visit to Athlone Topic, Arcade Buildings, Barrack Street;
1150 short walkabout at bridge area
1220 visit to Westmeath Independent, 11 Sean Costello Street;
1315 arrive Tullamore
1325 visit to Midlands 103 radio studios,
1340 short walkabout
1400 visit to Tullamore Tribune, Church Street
1415 visit to Offaly Express, Bridge Street
1430 visit to Offaly Independent, The Mall
1445 depart for Mullingar
1620 visit to Westmeath Examiner, 19 Dominic Street
1635 visit to Topic newspaper, 6 Dominic Street
1650 depart Mullingar
Thursday 17th May
Dublin
1010 visit to Southside, Northside People newspapers, Omni Park
1115 visit to Gazette newspaper group (Lucan, Blanchardstown, Dundrum Gazette), Lucan
1200 visit to Echo newspaper, Village Green, Tallaght
1215 depart for Dun Laoghaire
1300 visit to Q102 radio, Glenageary Office Park
1315 drive through Dun Laoghaire town centre
1445 visit to 98 FM and Spin 103 , The Malt House, Grand Canal Quay
1500 visit to Independent Network News, 62 Lower Mount Street
1520 visit to Newstalk 106, Warrington House, Mount Street Crescent
1530 drive around city centre: Baggot Street, Leeson Street, St Stephens Green, Dawson Street, Kildare Street, Merrion Row, Merrion Square, Westland Row, College Green, Westmoreland Street, OConnell Street;
1600 depart city centre for Swords
1700 visit to Fingal Independent newspaper, 4 Main Street Swords
Friday 18th May
1000 visit to Leinster Leader paper, 19 South Main Street, Naas
1020 visit to Kfm radio, M7 Business Park, Naas
1035 depart for Newbridge
1110 visit to Kildare Nationalist newspaper, Edward Street
1125 depart for Portlaoise
1215 visit to Leinster Express paper, Dublin Road
1240 visit to Laois Nationalist paper, Coliseum Lane,
1300 short walkabout in Portlaoise town centre
1330 depart Portlaoise for Ashbourne via Dunboyne, Ratoath
1545 arrive Dunboyne short walkabout
1615 arrive Ratoath short walkabout
1630 arrive Ashbourne meet Guild of Agricultural journalists
Getting back to the real issues check out this candidate in the Belgian election offering 40,000 blow jobs for votes!
http://www.nowpublic.com/40k_blowjobs_candidate_offers_voters_perks_in_belgium
[img width=249 height=166]http://www.20min.ch/images/content/2/0/2/20258956/7/1.jpg
Thatsposter says 400,000 no?, wow, she should multitask that
No I wont be flying back. Will be following it though from an internet cafe in San Jose so I hope you bhoys will be keeping us freekickers who wont be in the country up to date.
As I drunkly said in my fae speech FF&Sinn Fein will be in government at the next election and I stick by it. I can see FF dropping seats and will need a party with a greater number of seats then the PDs.
Debate tonight between the small party leaders on Prime Time. Cracking viewing - chose it ahead of the UEFA Cup.
Anyway my summaries of their performances (in order of their appearances), not their policies if I can help it:
- Pat Rabbitte
- Spoke quite well in his setpiece at the start. He was all out to court the Green Party tonight. He spoke after Trevor every time and expressed his agreement with everything that had just been said. Small argument at the start with Gerry on the history of the health service but in th emain they were in agreement. I thought he did quite well against McDowell on the policy arguments. Main points were that - the streets aren’t safer, the health system isn’t better, so why return the government to power?
- Gerry Adams
- Probably the worst of the set piece speeches at the start and strangely seemed a bit nervous throughout, but that might just be his mannerisms. He struggled a bit for accurate factual responses to questions, but only because Mark Little seemed intent on pressing him on cost figures in his manifesto, something Little didn’t bother interrogating anyone else about. McDowell had a few cheap shots at him that he shrugged off and he retaliated well by highlighting McDowell’s opposition to all stages of the peace process. Spoke quite well on the issue of drugs (which he brought up as nobody else had spoken about it) and also made some compelling remarks on suicide as a serious problem that requires urgent attention which grabbed attention. Some weak points where he seemed a little timid but he certainly wasn’t getting any favours from Little.
- Michael McDowell
- I thought he was poor tonight. He’s normally an effective debater, no matter what your opinions of his policies and he’s certainly knowledgable on the economy and the workings of governmnent - i.e. he’s experienced. For all that he seemed unable to make any positive points on the government’s performance to date, except for his set piece at the start which was reasonable. He concentrated instead on drawing attention to Gerry Adams’ republican past, which can hardly have been a surprise to potential SF voters, and on constantly trying to find areas where Greens and Labour had ideological differences, which is unlikely to be persuasive to any voters. He attempted one stunt where he highlighted the Green Party change in corporation tax policy over the past 2 years but he fumbled over the piece of paper and his words said it was from 2006, exactly 2 years ago to the day which made no sense. It was always going to be difficult in the face of three parties with huge differences to the PDs but instead of highlighting even one single positive policy of the PDs he kept trying to point out differences between the people sitting around him. That’s not going to persuade people to vote PD.
- Trevor Sargent
- His set piece was by far the best of the 4. He didn’t talk about broad economic policies, or visions for Ireland. He just spoke of one specific conversation with a woman in Lusk who drives to her train an hour early so she can get a parking spot. Then said that this is the Ireland that is badly managed with no investment in public services across the whole country etc. Did well to get some green issues on the table early on such as public transport in the major cities and the trebling of the price of oil in the past 5 years because these topics were clearly not on Mark Little’s agenda. Seemed fairly comfortbale in accepting the agreements from Labour across most issues, even though on topics such as justice and drugs what he was saying was far more aligned to Gerry’s comments than Rabbitte’s. McDowell had a number of efforts to undermine the Green’s economic policy but I felt Sargent resisted them well and pointed out some economic inconsistencies of the PD’s themselves.
Overall I’d say it was certainly a victory for the alternative parties, including both Greens and SF in that. I think Greens will be pleased with how it went, Labour will certainly feel that they got on top of the PD’s and that they have the Greens on side. SF will know that they’re more likely to gain votes from issues and individual candidates than national debates like this but won’t be displeased with how Gerry performed. I think PD’s will be disappointed. There wasn’t a single PD policy that emerged tonight. It was all about the alternatives.
Anyone know anywhere online where you can see this debate again?
Second last link at the bottom of this page:
Cheers rocko. I might exalt you for that even though it’s gone out of fashion around here.
Trevor should have washed his hands before the show - he was like the cheating student who had done no study !!!
Raven - try and stick to the facts. Gerry stumbled badly at the start, especially with his Irish which was surprising.
Rabbite will have been delighted with how that went yesterday. McDowell seeemed only interested in attacking Sargent and Rabbite just sat their smugly and concurred with Sargent once the debate had died down.
On the north - that’s not what actually happened. They were talking about justice, McDowell started talking about Colombia and Adams accused him of being against the peace process. McDowell responded with his “narco-terrorists” comment and Trevor said “Can we not get back to talking about Ireland?”
Adams picked him up on this and said “I am from Ireland, I’m talking about the whole of Ireland” but he had misinterpreted as Trevor explained. Sargent quickly said “I was referring to the remarks about Colombia, we should be talking about Ireland and what we need are drug treatment centres.” Adams was very quick to acknowledge that there had been a misunderstanding and proved that by immediately saying from off-camera “Exactly right - that’s what we need.”
It was a misunderstanding and both Adams and Sargent realised what happened and were quick to agree on the next point to illustrate that they weren’t in dispute.
Did you even watch it? There is no corporation tax for banks. It’s not true and Trevor explained that to McDowell. There is a proposed levy on the financial services sector. This was a levy introduced by the current government and subsequently scarapped and replaced by a “social fund” as an alternative. If you don’t understand the issues Raven you’re better off not commenting on them. Feel free to ask and I’ll explain them to you.
On the Colombian point you were wrong. Just accept it.
The media claimed Michael Noonan won the debates last time around - and look how that turned out.
I couldn’t care less what Stephen Collins thought the outcome was. When I looked at how Adams did I ignored McDowell’s comments about Columbia because I think they’re irrelevant to most people. I think you appreciate that and you recognise that SF aren’t competing with the PDs - they don’t really care what McDowell says.
Then look at his attacks on the Green Party: 1. they used to propose an increase in corporation tax but don’t any more. What’s that going to achieve? 2. they propose a levy on financial services. Who does that effect? Voters don’t care about anything like that. It’s not an important or decisive issue for the Greens.
The Green Party and Sinn Fin had similar problems going into the debate last night. Their most important topics (the environment and the unification of the island) were not going to be raised. They both tried to bring these topics up themselves under their own steam. Trevor did this well at the start by highlighting the problems with our transport system and with energy prices. During the debate section Adams brought up the peace process a number of times which helped his cause.
To that extent much of McDowell’s attacks against both parties were fruitless. There was nothing to put anybody off voting Green last night. If you were half thinking about voting green would you be discouraged because they have a different proposal on mandatory sentencing to Labour? No you wouldn’t care whether they were consistent with Labour or not. McDowell was trying to score points he can brag about in the Dil bar by highlighting that the rainbow coalition has different opinions on tax and justice etc. In reality nobody votes for a party because they’re consistent with another party. They vote for parties and policies that they like and the Greens got their ideas across very well.
This is a simple 2 minute survey. I came out as Sinn Fein overall which surprised me as I only exactly matched their position on 2 of the 8 or 9 catogories.