There are a few signs that make me think they're mostly problematic ("party of common sense", "standing up for family", etc.), but they seem to do a decent job of hiding it.
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.
There are a few signs that make me think they're mostly problematic ("party of common sense", "standing up for family", etc.), but they seem to do a decent job of hiding it.
Aye, saw one of the Irish Freedom lads on a poster the other day when I was driving, it was just a picture of him with a yard brush and a garden fork.
They're proper loons. Some are certifiable.
I was reading one of their profiles the other day. A man who likes acupuncture and is big into karate. Why he thought the need to tell us that in his political bile is beyond me
So he has a non disgusting answer when his constituents ask him why he's travelling to Bangkok 3 times a year.
Somebody call Jowl Town, they've been robbed and I know who did it.
This bugs me every election. Should you vote all the way down your ballot slip?
Turns out the answer is hellishly complicated.
Turns out the answer is hellishly complicated.
Depends on your goal. If you just want to vote one person in who you like I don't see the point. On the other hand given the system we have it is almost a wasted vote in terms of other candidates that can pick up seats if you give them your second or even fifth preference. I just start left with the most viable left candidates and move down and include some possible but not as viable candidates from the left.
Yep.
I’m aware of how it works with candidates I’d like to give a vote to. The tricky bit - to me anyway - was about whether it’s worth ranking the ones you don’t want to get a seat ahead of those you really don’t want to get a seat.
I think in general elections there are probably only ever one or two seats in play, and only 2-3 viable options for those seats so it can be worked out simply?
We all know you're going to put Nick Delehanty down 1-10, don't worry.
Will Hazel Chu get Eamon's seat?
Not sure I can be arsed making predictions. Just want to know do I put Aontú at the very bottom of a long list or stop after ranking every candidate I could tolerate.
No fear I don't think. FF and Labour guaranteed. Green/FG and SF to get the other two?
Speaking of which. I do expect one or more alternative parties, and to the right/conservative, to make gains. If SF has gone from >33% in the polls to 20% in five months, and the other two are on the same figure, ish, and, to keep going for a minute, the independents are roughly where they were iirc five years ago, my instinct is it either breaks for SF tomorrow or else there will be a lot of that vote which gets redistributed to right wing candidates which are not either of FFG.
It's literally mental that SF can drop that in such a short time when they are in opposition. Who the feck is blaming SF for the state of things?
Hazel’s on my black list since she didn’t answer an email I sent her about EV charging.
The far right ran a campaign against them, calling them traitors on the issue of immigration. Something they didn't really do for FFG, oddly.
That's fairly shocking broad stroke racism there Pogue. The mask is slipping.
I’ve been called worse in this thread. Yesterday someone said I’d vote for FG.
Jesus. In light of that, I retract my joke.
Anyone able to vote for Twix McGahon?
Seems like a stand up guy.
Seems like a stand up guy.
I regret nothing.
That's the problem with your generation.
The press, British, Irish and American (some EU too) are always more comfortable going right and enabling something, which, if it happens, at scale, will completely destroy them (fascism). They enable it in tiny amounts for political capital in the here and now and never give a shit about the consequences ten years on. In the US it leads to right-wing liberal types being called "far left loons" which shifts the political window completely to the right. And it is done on purpose.
If SF were a left-wing party that was a long time ago. They are centre-left now because they made the concessions required to the establishment (people around the nation really) to be perceived as capable of governance. They aren't PBP which party will also get some of my vote.
The problem I have is that the nation's press ran a campaign against them. To be expected of the actual papers, because that is what they do regardless, but RTE has been so biased against them it hurts to listen. Considering the state of that organization, which is something I would have said if I were MLM in that debate (the finance scandal), they do deserve more than an audit.
One final issue: "how will this be paid for"?. feck off entirely. When it comes to costed budgets, and all parties can sort of complain here, it is easy to understand how most of the policies I've seen will be paid for. Irish in attempt to replicate the 2015/19 UK election landscape. But there is no equivalence. We have a 60 billion surplus which is apparently to be used as a buffer in case of a trade war when anyone with a brain would use a decent part of that, saving some, for mass infrastructural projects. If a trade-war comes it comes but so far it's mostly rhetoric and Trump is planning to put corporation tax to about 15% if the companies make (from start to finish) their products in America. Otherwise it'll be >22% or higher. It's a different model to the Irish one. A lot of fear-mongering regarding all of that.
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I thought her best line of the night, and she moved away from it too quickly, was when they were talking about putting money away for a rainy day and she said “but it’s raining now”.
Their putting money away as a safety net means in case they have to bail out their mates in the banks again. What clearer evidence could there be that they don’t consider housing and health as crises than them putting billions away for future emergencies rather than using it now to put people into homes and hospital beds?
Their putting money away as a safety net means in case they have to bail out their mates in the banks again. What clearer evidence could there be that they don’t consider housing and health as crises than them putting billions away for future emergencies rather than using it now to put people into homes and hospital beds?
Having a rainy day fund when you have a surplus like we do is a very sensible move, though. Sinn Fein putting less into it is actually something that massively puts me off them.
Trying to spend it all now would only fuel inflation further.
Nobody is suggesting to spend it all now.
But what on earth is the point of having a rainy day fund if you don’t use some of it when it’s raining?
People with houses and good health think the only thing that could be a crisis is their own houses and health being under threat. They don’t give one feck about anyone who isn’t in the same position as them.
What are you keeping it for if not to use it on the two issues that have the biggest negative impacts on people in Ireland today?
I see why they call him Twix.
Another one that looks AI created.
I think you should look at our current spending. Spending isn't our problem, we spend plenty, it's how we spend it that's the problem.
Trying to use loads of money to increase construction in housing is useless if there aren't enough actual construction workers or contractors to build those houses, it would just fuel inflation.
In fairness he only used 1 finger.
Think that picture is also him leaving court after his assault case.
How the feck anyone can vote for the likes of that is beyond me.
Tis.
Those workers would come though. I mean, yes, there is a shortfall but once you get really good construction jobs you see a labor flight to those jobs. It's FFG/RTE nonsense. It's always been like that. How much does the job pay? What are the incentives for the small builders and the large builders (large companies)? The labor isn't the issue, it really is the spending and the nuance of implementation. The workers will be found as soon as the landscape is such that it is profitable. That's basically what the celtic tiger was for building anyway. And many tradespeople made a killing during that era. It was the labor flight in 08 and after that changed the dynamics when shit went bust. But that can change. If you induce a similar style project, for building (during that era 130k houses a year were being built), you will see people return from laboring jobs abroad, too. Anecdotal but I know it's correct because it's just obvious.
It also has an effect on tradespeople hiring apprentices if they see that kind of future in the next five to ten years. They will retain their apprentices and hire more. And we need these people.
Ireland, for its economic diversity, seems to me to be highly leveraged if we shit ourselves when the mention of tariffs comes along with respect to US multinationals in Ireland (almost exclusively tech based). That's no model for a balanced economy. But that is the reaction FFG have had.
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Don't fully agree but you are right in one sense: it is raining like Noah is building an ark. The housing crisis is worse than ever covid was. And I'll stand by that. Healthcare wasn't too bad before covid (for me personally, but it was atrocious for many) and/but did require great investment prior to it all the same. And this has been known for decades.
SF are right to use that money (not all of it) rather immediately for critical issues. The buffer is hypothetical. Of course you'd keep billions back (it's common sense) but the nation is in crisis mode. Do you wait for it to sink completely? That's the counter argument by FFG types when you follow through.
With the same going for the other side of it, with respect to housing.
People who can't buy a home, or are struggling to pay €3k a month in rent, don't care enough about homeowners?
Why do so many politicians look like people who go to School reunions "for the networking opportunities!"
Another one that looks AI created.
That's why the majority of them go to third level education in the first place. For networking opportunities. Probably that.
In England, and I suppose even in Ireland in some cases, it begins with pre-school. And then private schools. Very much an English tradition which the Americans also embrace.
If you actually break it down, the people that this is a show-stopping problem for is not that big of a group(in relative terms). Everyone has a nightmare, people spend way too much on rent waiting, but eventually a lot of people sort it out, accepting some level of compromise or once in a blue moon getting lucky.
If you just want to blow everything up so you can get sorted, it's not really going to play out well in terms of support, given the above, is it? If the solution you want impacts a lot of people that have homes negatively, none of them are going to be in support of that. The solution that is actually going to work is one that has support from the vast majority, not some idealistic notion or a status quo thing that just appeases those with/without.