Vincent Browne

Kelly has made a valuable contribution to the debate. There are few enough people who can say that in Ireland. But clearly he is not the oracle, because there isnā€™t one.

Joeā€™s idea that the unemployed should be put to work breaking stones and building rail lines to nowhere was a great one and should be acknowledged as such, Fagan.

An escalator to nowhere could come in very handy

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Politics/Images/the-simpsons-escalator-to-nowhere.jpg

Jim Power was on VB a few weeks ago saying that Ireland should default proactively now as the state wont have an option in 6 months or so. Gurdiev and himself were just agreeing with each others points. I think most economists, independent or not, are on the same page now from any comments Ive read. Kelly just put the boot more into Honohan. Kellyā€™s - The safe place to do business lark is bullshit and the rise of racism etc hopefully is too. In reality, noone really knows that will happen if we default, especially if we are the first country to, most seem to realise that the current path will only lead to a deepening long term recession.

Ireland has put too much faith in economists and continues to do so. An economics degree shouldnt be the deciding factor behind nationalising bank debts. A degree of common sense and the ability to diffentiate right from wrong would be more appropriate.

Pay cuts and cuts to public services are inevitable either way.

Ireland put all its faith in neo-liberalism. This si the result. We are now to bow down forever at the altar of the market, with our arse wiide open. We have entered an era where the overriding ideology demands the abolition of any social protection and public services and where people are expected to work for nothing and be happy to do so. All this will be brought in under the guise of ā€œreformā€. And you canā€™t be against reform, itā€™s such a positive word.

Racism is far stronger than you might think. If history is anything to go by itā€™s only a matter of time before anti-immigrant populism makes its way into the mainstream. I came across this charming YouTube channel a couple of weeks ago - http://www.youtube.com/user/jimmiwiththeash

Itā€™s consistently been one of the most popular Irish channels on Youtube. Here are a few of its stats -

#11 - Most Viewed (Today) - Reporters - Ireland
#26 - Most Viewed (This Week) - Ireland
#5 - Most Viewed (This Week) - Reporters - Ireland
#45 - Most Viewed (This Month) - Ireland
#7 - Most Viewed (This Month) - Reporters - Ireland
#35 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Reporters - Ireland

To put it into context it has four times more views than RTEā€™s Youtube channel this week. Some of the stuff on it is unbelievable, yet it is clearly very popular. As I said, itā€™s not mainstream. But with the political stability we are facing itā€™s far from a remote possibility.

Breaking rocks in the hot sunā€¦Iā€™m signing on next week, I wouldnā€™t mind doing it. Good exercise.

reform, transformation etc - great words for cutting costs

Im sure there are ways the public service can be ā€˜reformedā€™ to better serve the needs of the 4 million or so that inhabit the republic with the current budget. Im sure we could all come up with ten ways each but the most effective require some bit of investment first id be thinking. Overall for the amount of euros spent on public services, Ireland gets a good reward I reckon. The nordic countries pay more income tax so its natural they get better services.

it is easy to pick out isolated cases like teachers pay, then you have cunts like Pat Kenny 500k a year or whatever the cunt gets, hosting the biased debate against them. cut his pay to 100k, or better still tell him to fuck off and you could hire 40 to 50 Maths/Science subject matter experts at 50k a pop to go around to schools around the country to improve the teaching of these two critical subjects.

With all this public sector reform commentary, the real scandals are forgotten about anyway. What did NAMA and the zombie banks cost to run last year? Enough to build/refurbish a load of new schools, hospitals etc anyway I reckon.

This fearful of the market ideology is horsehit anyway. its like Alex Ferguson refusing to sell Ronaldo as the shareprice would drop (very simplistic). How about getting the country fixed and let the markets do their own thing. The markets might well take a positive view. Instead blindly sending off what % of GDP to former bondholders of bust banks on an annual basis is naturally sending investors running.

Im not sure quoting youtube hits is appropriate WTB, maybe it is. there was always be the taking our jobs and our women brigade but as long as Fingleton, Quinn, Fitzpatrick, Neary etc are walking the streets there should be far more appropriate targets for abuse.

Pearse Doherty lording it here. That correspondence course in high finance was worth every penny.

Which party does the dopey looking Clare man represent?

The foppish dude with the objectionable face?

Labour I think

Is his tie a genuine Jackson Pollock?

ye would want to see the other 3 gimps we have

Heā€™s a clown, getting tore to shreds here.

This ponce is a complete fuckwit. The kind of prick who automatically talks down to anyone with an inner city accent.

Heā€™s definitely the worst since that sneer Declan Power was on. He was a horrible specimen altogether.

If economic savvy was semtex, Pearse hasnā€™t enough to blow his own fucking noseā€¦

Next.

says the man who voted FF all his life- where has that got us

Awful analogy. Who blows their nose with Semtex?