Irish Politics

christy87

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Thats the very phrase my brothers use.

So I said to one of them the other night - whats wrong with being one then? Look at your life - you have a nice house, a decent job, a couple of nice cars, you go on a nice few holidays every year!! Whats the problem I said.....Just silence comes back and then an eventual "ah you just dont want to understand" ...... they literally have no answer, but the second a politician makes a mistake or twitter tells them something they are all over it.
I think if this was 15 years ago when we all lived at home we'd kill each other. It would have no doubt ended in punch fights
The whole lot of these right wing nut jobs following Irish patriots like gran Torino on Facebook who happens to be an ex British soldier and other groups, I have recently fallen out with a friend over his isolationist thinking I then spotted him on a video last week at the midget Nazi Justin Barrett protest last week and guess what that friend of mine hasn’t worked in years but life is all the government’s fault.
 

sullydnl

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FF always seemed the most likely to be squeezed in a FF/FG coalition. They lack a clear identity, their traditional populism has been eaten into by SF and their supoort base is such that their voters can split in either direction.
 

McGrathsipan

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The whole lot of these right wing nut jobs following Irish patriots like gran Torino on Facebook who happens to be an ex British soldier and other groups, I have recently fallen out with a friend over his isolationist thinking I then spotted him on a video last week at the midget Nazi Justin Barrett protest last week and guess what that friend of mine hasn’t worked in years but life is all the government’s fault.
Drives me mad.
 

golden_blunder

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a revoloution will achieve what exactly? Im not government defender but come on tell me about the revolution and how it will make things ok?

Who will govern when the dust settles?

I am sick to the teeth of listening to social media warriors and quite frankly thick feckers ( not you ) that just sit there and throw stones when they wouldnt have the first clue about fecking anything that goes on. One of my neighbours is all about "feck the government they dont look after the people"....so I said to him you are living in a fecking HAP provide house and you and your whole family is on the dole, fecking 4 of you in there , but hey the government doesnt look after the people. Blank look back and he just went back into his HAP house and closed the door. Dick head. Back to Facebook with him.

My own brothers are the same - fecking moaning about everything the gov does but yet when even a remotely trick question is posed back to them about what they suggest should be done I just get the same shit that Bill Gates is trying to run the world and make everyone sheep. Honestly with people like that and the crowds on Grafton Street we are fecked. I'd get on a rocket to fecking Mars if there was one available.
Whats fecking the country is the generation of utter thick feckers using social media to get "educated".

We do need a revolution, one that brings a bit of fecking cop on back into society as at the minute we are going down the swanny because there are too many people that are indeed just like the sheep they complain about.
Well said, unfortunately I know too many of said people.
 

Pogue Mahone

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"like a man in silk pyjamas shooting pigeons
That'll be an easy storm to ride out. Not really a glamorous enough scandal to capture people's imagination and outrage.
More than likely. Although that would be ironic. Because what little details I can work out about this make it seem like he may actually have done something properly naughty this time. Arguably well intentioned but naughty (and fecking stupid) all the same.
 

cyberman

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That'll be an easy storm to ride out. Not really a glamorous enough scandal to capture people's imagination and outrage.
Its something to throw on the pile though. It could be excusable to the public if he wasn't leaking it to an old mate. The optics of that is terrible. Then that old mate, who is close enough to get confidential documents, says he doesn’t give a feck about immigrants will be used as ammunition down the line.
This is like the 3rd or 4th time hes been caught leaking or briefing as well.
I dont think this fiasco will get him but his reaction to it will. He hates Mary Lou and he'll erupt on Tuesday since he hates being questioned.
 

Eyepopper

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So the game shooting season usually starts today.

For thousands, that generally sees us get up before 7am, and go out walking the fields either alone or with 1 other person and a dog or two to hunt pheasant.

For me, and most other game hunters that can be done within 5km of home, a requirement of most clubs being that you live where you hunt.

But nope, 2 days ago they announce game hunting is banned due to covid.

I mean, I can still walk the fields with my dog, a mate can still come so long as we socially distance, hell I can even still bring a gun and shoot rabbits, crows, foxes, I just cant shoot a pheasant.... because covid.

Makes total sense, glad to have a government with their finger on the trigger, so to speak.
 

utdalltheway

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Good for them until they start starving to death due to overpopulation in about 6 weeks.... and next spring when cocks outnumber breeding hens so they start killing chicks.

Delicate balances to conservation.
Nature has a way to balance itself out, without guns.
Anyway, that ruling doesn’t make much sense.And I’m sure you’ll be nice and relaxed when you’ll hear the inevitable stories of rule breaches by the TDs etc.
 

jeff_goldblum

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Good for them until they start starving to death due to overpopulation in about 6 weeks.... and next spring when cocks outnumber breeding hens so they start killing chicks.

Delicate balances to conservation.
Killing grouse's natural predators and generally fecking the ecosystem to ensure there are a surfeit of them to shoot, and then claiming that shooting them is the only way to keep the numbers down and counts as 'conservation' is a magnificent grift.
 

Conor

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Good for them until they start starving to death due to overpopulation in about 6 weeks.... and next spring when cocks outnumber breeding hens so they start killing chicks.

Delicate balances to conservation.
I hope a pheasant pecks your cock off.
 

Eyepopper

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Killing grouse's natural predators and generally fecking the ecosystem to ensure there are a surfeit of them to shoot, and then claiming that shooting them is the only way to keep the numbers down and counts as 'conservation' is a magnificent grift.
Wouldn't know, I don't hunt grouse.
 

jeff_goldblum

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Wouldn't know, I don't hunt grouse.
My apparently grouse-obsessed brain aside, same logic applies, minus the habit destruction. Pheasant numbers would sort themselves out if people stopped shooting their natural predators. The only animals you can reasonably claim to shoot for conservation reasons in Ireland are deer, because all their natural predators have already been shot and in the absence of their natural predators they're an ecological menace.
 

Eyepopper

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My apparently grouse-obsessed brain aside, same logic applies, minus the habit destruction. Pheasant numbers would sort themselves out if people stopped shooting their natural predators. The only animals you can reasonably claim to shoot for conservation reasons in Ireland are deer, because all their natural predators have already been shot and in the absence of their natural predators they're an ecological menace.
Whats a foxes natural predator in Ireland :confused:
 

cyberman

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Leo is being put on a spitroast as we speak. He has been rinsed by the Dail good and proper.

Just asked if he has leaked anything before..a long pause... Nothing of this nature, no.

That pause is telling. Its genuinely compelling television
 

spontaneus1

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Leo is being put on a spitroast as we speak. He has been rinsed by the Dail good and proper.

Just asked if he has leaked anything before..a long pause... Nothing of this nature, no.

That pause is telling. Its genuinely compelling television
Pearse Doherty ripped him apart earlier.
 

sullydnl

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No issue with them turning down the Oscar Traynor proposal but the attitude towards property tax in Ireland melts my head, especially from left-wing parties who should be in favour of it.
 

JakeC

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No issue with them turning down the Oscar Traynor proposal but the attitude towards property tax in Ireland melts my head, especially from left-wing parties who should be in favour of it.
As someone who's involved in the left in Ireland. It's a lot easier to just complain about any sort of proposals brought up by any of the establishment parties, than to critically examine them for their merits AND drawbacks.
 

Pogue Mahone

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No issue with them turning down the Oscar Traynor proposal but the attitude towards property tax in Ireland melts my head, especially from left-wing parties who should be in favour of it.
The objections to property tax is the same as the objections to the water tax. Populist, vote-winning bollox that makes no sense if you think it through properly. Which is classic Irish politics (from both ends of the political spectrum).
 

JakeC

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The objections to property tax is the same as the objections to the water tax. Populist, vote-winning bollox that makes no sense if you think it through properly. Which is classic Irish politics from both ends of the political spectrum.
When it comes to the water tax, I can understand it, it was potentially a clear pathway towards total privatization, like what was done with waste collection. As well as the argument that we already pay for it through council taxes etc.
 

Pogue Mahone

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When it comes to the water tax, I can understand it, it was potentially a clear pathway towards total privatization, like what was done with waste collection. As well as the argument that we already pay for it through council taxes etc.
The protests did my head in. Water is a utility. There’s nothing wrong with paying for utilities, whether they’re provided by the state or privately. It’s completely normal in pretty much every country on the planet. It’s also the only way to incentivise sensible use and penalise waste. And we lost our shit over it because water comes out of the sky. Ridiculous.
 

2cents

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Haven’t been following this, is it basically the same issue that came up with O’Devany Gardens a while back? But with a different outcome?
 

JakeC

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The protests did my head in. Water is a utility. There’s nothing wrong with paying for utilities, whether they’re provided by the state or privately. It’s completely normal in pretty much every country on the planet. It’s also the only way to incentivise sensible use and penalise waste. And we lost our shit over it because water comes out of the sky. Ridiculous.
Without a doubt, there was a populist undertone to the protests, the left are by no means blameless when it comes to dictating the tone in the political sphere, but when it comes to utilities I think it does matter whether it's provided by the state or not. Take my earlier example of refuse, there has been a marked increase in costs, and decrease in level of service since the privatization in 2012, and it did start with a slow introduction of extra charges and fees. I don't think it's unfair that many on the left would have similar hesitations over other charges, especially when Irish Water was found time and time again to be incompetent at the best of times with regards to oversight and organization.

Did elements of the left jump on it to increase activity in working class areas in a way that would make the average politically literate person uncomfortable? 100% yes, and elements of SF, and The Trots should hang their heads in shame (perpetually in my opinion), but there's definitely a cohesive argument against the stripping of state owned utilities at the best of times.
 

caid

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The protests did my head in. Water is a utility. There’s nothing wrong with paying for utilities, whether they’re provided by the state or privately. It’s completely normal in pretty much every country on the planet. It’s also the only way to incentivise sensible use and penalise waste. And we lost our shit over it because water comes out of the sky. Ridiculous.
It was the timing more than anything imo. If they introduced it a year ago people would grumble but ultimately get on with it.
 

sullydnl

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"Affordable" housing.

Still, if you're rejecting it there has to be an actual viable alternative and viable funding for that alternative. You can't just do nothing beyond continuing to cut property taxes.
 

Eyepopper

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Without a doubt, there was a populist undertone to the protests, the left are by no means blameless when it comes to dictating the tone in the political sphere, but when it comes to utilities I think it does matter whether it's provided by the state or not. Take my earlier example of refuse, there has been a marked increase in costs, and decrease in level of service since the privatization in 2012, and it did start with a slow introduction of extra charges and fees.
Huh? Pre 2012 my waste bill's were €40 a month with everything going in the waste bin, afterwards my monthly standing service charge went to €35 with excess charges costing me about €8 per month for waste (our household has doubled in that time, with 2 kids under 6 now part of our waste), I've a recycling collection every 2 weeks with no limit on what I can include.

It's a far better service that what went before.