Irish Politics
- Thread starter JakeC
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) are here to discuss Amad saving our blushes in a win against Southampton as well as our now annual loss at home to Brighton. They discuss Amorim's post-match comments, revisit how mid-table we may or may not be, and discuss some transfer news.
One thing Ireland should not be complaining about is a lack of income from tax. It’s tax receipts from those multinationals that give us these crazy high GDP figures.
And don’t get me started on the income tax rates that the rest of us Joe Shmoes have to pay…
Defending FG and low corporate tax in one day. You're teetering on the edge of your beloved centrism there!
City west is a prime example of poor urban planning. Loads and loads of houses with loads of social housing and people paying through the nose for new builds is just a bad combination. And no real reasonable public transport for them all.
It’s horrible. I stay in Swords sometimes when I go up for work and the swords express into town is so fecking slow sometimes, I don’t even go directly on the m50 but any incident has such a massive knock on effect. Also if I’m driving back to Sligo first thing the next morning I need to leave by 6.30 as any time after that the m50 is at a standstill.
We all knew Pogue liked fg already I thought?
Most countries dismantled their rail services once cars came along though, it’s far from unique to Ireland. I don’t like it used as an example, personally. I also don’t agree at all that the Brits built us good infrastructure. London had an underground in the 19th century, Dublin got nothing.
Well we definitely all knew he was just trying to impress the common folk on the mean streets of Sandymount with his Soc Dem chatter
I would like corporations to pay a lot more tax in general but if we’re talking about them in the context of the Irish economy there’s absolutely no doubt we’re better off as a nation, financially, because of corporate tax receipts.
I wasn’t really defending FG either. Just pointing out that the fact house prices have massively increased (which some people think is a good thing) isn’t purely because of anything they’ve done.
Ah yeah, I think you are right about what the Brits left us being overstated but we have to take the blame. The regional city that it was to the Brits was fit for purpose. We did have a lot on our hands as a nascent state but we definitely could have done better than we did.
The lack of industrial revolution cannot be overemphasised in my opinion. It skewed us towards an agricultural infrastructure and focus which has had a deep impact on modern Ireland.
Well personally I think the creation of a tax haven is vile. The communist in me doesn't like what it does to international tax structures.
And I still disagree that FG, the enthusiastic neoliberalists, and also FF are not responsible for the housing crisis. They stopped building social housing and thought the market would fix it. How is that not being responsible?
They are wholly responsible for the cluster feck that is the rental sector.
And nobody I know is happy with the insane price of houses.
I’ve had words.
I have farming questions.
Why do they who are sitting on 100 billion plus in assets and employ only 4% of the workforce get subsided to the tune of 2 billion every year.
We import over 85% of our food and they export over 80% of the produce.
Why do they who are sitting on 100 billion plus in assets and employ only 4% of the workforce get subsided to the tune of 2 billion every year.
We import over 85% of our food and they export over 80% of the produce.
I don't know him yet. Although I know loads of mad aul lads from drinking around Sligo, so maybe I do.
In contrast:
Pretty incredible really considering the population difference of the two nations. Anyway, I presume there is an immense tax reason for the subsidy.
You probably know him if you ever go to Foley’s
I do. But it's usually for sneaky ones in the middle of the day.
They are all coming across quite poorly but Harris is on another level. He’s the guy in the pub everyone hopes will stay away from them.
Watching the SF leader being harassed by the state broadcaster is a bit jarring. Love, like, or hate her, it's a bit mental that they've basically gone in for a hit job on several questions.
Also, the framing is hilarious. Put her in the middle because otherwise it'll be like the opposition against the government (which is exactly what it is).
Also, the framing is hilarious. Put her in the middle because otherwise it'll be like the opposition against the government (which is exactly what it is).
Lots were drawn for the 10 leader debate for location on the stage so I can only assume the same was done here.
I'd say those lots were rigged (in this instance).
Maybe not. I assumed it would be this. Maybe just coincidence.
I mean, Mary Lou nearly ended up off the stage at the 1st leaders debate. You really think she’d have accepted that without the process being clear?
Meant this debate. But hey, I'm sure it was a fairly run lot pick. RTE doesn't do tricks.
I know very little about farming, but would the 100 billion plus in assets not be things like land and equipment that is integral to the industry, rather than liquid assets they are "sitting on"?
Feels a bit like saying we don't need to subsidise education because of the value of the land every school in the country sits on.
Yeah, they went in a lot harder on MLM. Really poor.
He's the human embodiment of a limp handshake. Just an absolute Turkish Delight of a man.
Education is not a business though. I'm genuinely asking. Why are some businesses allowed to sink and others not. If they are generating billions in exports as pointed out above why are the taxpayers subsidising them?
Yes it's the land, but that's an asset. And lots of it idle too.
I’ll be using both of thoseHave SF put up more candidates? They made a mess of that in the last election if I'm not misremembering.
I'm really surprised that John Brady is still the only SF candidate in my constituency. I don't have my finger on the pulse with this stuff but I would have thought that they could have put another one up.
I'm really surprised that John Brady is still the only SF candidate in my constituency. I don't have my finger on the pulse with this stuff but I would have thought that they could have put another one up.
You remember correctly. They underestimated how strong they were just at that moment because of the discontent with the government.
Because even without the exports, we rely on those businesses to survive.
I don’t think it’s the farmers who are selling directly to purchasers abroad. The issue is the massive Agri-businesses who are posting huge profits while lobbying the government to prop up the farming industry they exploit. 70% gets exported because it’s in the self interest of these huge corporations to keep increasing supply for sale abroad so the total number keeps going up. Easy to say let them fail, but we need the 30% for here.
This Reddit post explains things well:
What we should be doing is ensuring the farmers get a greater slice of the export business, so they can export less, get paid properly for what they produce and rely less on government subsidies. As with so much in Ireland, it is the greedy middleman at the heart of the problem.
Not that I don't agree with some of what you're saying, but I supposed farming/produce production is quite an important thing for a country to be able to do, regardless of the profits involved. It's probably worth some sort of extra incentivisation vs. other industries.
I surprised me to see MM coming out of that debate on top last night, not by much of course. Then I hear that one of the moderators is the sister of a Fianna Fail TD and it started to make sense. MM is an absolute snake of a man, nobody should ever vote for him, I'm familiar with him, his voters and his constituency, he's another quid pro quo politician and has no place in a modern democracy.
MLM failed to get across a number of her points, especially on housing, where their policy is comfortably the strongest. It felt like she was getting additional criticism and was being cut off as soon as she started getting anywhere. Par for course with RTE really but pretty disappointing regardless.
The less said about SH the better. Even when he makes good points they sound horrible because he's horrible. He could also do with stopping his expectations of gratitude for running this country into the floor.
I think it's all too predictable that we'll get MM and SH again, probably with Labour and it's going to continue to empower the far right. Unfortunately the 2 main parties will not solve any of the crises we're currently experiencing because in their minds, everything is going swimmingly.
MLM failed to get across a number of her points, especially on housing, where their policy is comfortably the strongest. It felt like she was getting additional criticism and was being cut off as soon as she started getting anywhere. Par for course with RTE really but pretty disappointing regardless.
The less said about SH the better. Even when he makes good points they sound horrible because he's horrible. He could also do with stopping his expectations of gratitude for running this country into the floor.
I think it's all too predictable that we'll get MM and SH again, probably with Labour and it's going to continue to empower the far right. Unfortunately the 2 main parties will not solve any of the crises we're currently experiencing because in their minds, everything is going swimmingly.
When I was last clued-in on Irish politics Sinn Fein were basically the Government in waiting.
I haven't really been in a position to keep an eye over the last while but I'm surprised now to find that they've seemingly blown it somewhere along the way.
What actually happened? Is it related to immigration?
Absolutely. But all of the arguments about food security and food sovereignty are undermined by the fact we import almost all of our food. Irish farming can't compete.
Now I am all in favour of government subsided industry but the agricultural sector is not fit for purpose and I feel is hugely disproportionately represented and all the while sitting on 112 billion euros of the country's means of production.
It's related to the fact they missed that opportunity and alerted the establishment what a threat they were.
Their shady history also plays a part in reality and in terms of optics.
The same tropes that apply to every left wing government in every country apply too, in that only arch capitalists can run an economy.
The rise of the knuckle dragging right played a part as they focused their ire on the Marxist woke lefty Shinners as much as on the people who are in power.
There is no non-nutcase party that will empower the far right more than others, that is a silly suggestion. SF aren't going to do anything that will appease those scrotes anymore than anyone else.
Are they really? The fact that we currently export a lot doesn't really mean anything in terms of maintaining our ability to produce for a worst case scenario. That was my point, at least.
A SF government will see an uptick in the activism and popularity on the right. I think that's inevitable.
The only hope is that they visibly help the lot of the struggling working classes to get them onside.
Miriam O’Callaghan being the moderator was pure recklessness by RTE. I thought she was clearly biased.