Irish politics discussion thread

the multimillion reports were then shitcanned or brought out as gospel depending on political convenience.
The knowledge economy how are ya

oh i don't claim any such knowledge obv xp

but for the desensitized, i can say that is a particularly terrible and stupid and unforgiveable example of corruption/stupidity/etc

mayo prediction, fwiw:

3 fg, 1 ff, last seat btwn fg, lab, ind

thats proporsh rep rite

wher do the fine fael ppl in mayo live

Not entirely informed Wicklow prediction: 3fg, 1lab, 1ind (ex-ff), "Jaws" Roche retires on a ministerial pension.

the ff ppl in mayo live all over the county, and will be enough to get their man home.

If i detest anything more than ff, it's cute hoor ex-ff defector inds

He has served since then as an independent TD, and has voted for and against the government, based on his assessment of where he believed the public interest was being served whether it would help his reelection prospects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Behan

To be fair, Michael Martin should be surreptitously encouraging his people to go "independent" and rejoin the party when they scrape into the Dail.

yep, a good ff stroke that would be.

Is there anything to prevent it, i wonder? Prob not.

have asked before, but is anyone aware of a site/resource that records td voting records.

Given that it's their actual function, it's really a hugely underreported aspect of their activities.

Course, party politics renders each vote in the dail pretty irrelevant anyway.

fuck, i meant to ask where do the fine gael ppl live, obv the ff ppl are everywhere like nitrogen or dogs

fine gael live around the ffailers, but in smaller houses and are envious of their good teeth

cant vote

THE PILL, I ASK YA. THE FECKIN PILL MIND

not all bad news on the economy front. hopefully a bit more of this in the next 12 months, tho a lot depends on how the new govt handle the property/mortgages question

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0217/breaking27.html

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/04eYfYVedW6Wg/610x.jpg

soooo

how ye votin ye cute hoors

kinda surprised to hear i have no right to vote...i guess a line would have to be drawn with ex pats somewhere but plenty people of my age might want to vote based on their chances of ever being able to live in ireland again or bring up kids there.

but sorry, that's a tangent...

is it feck a tangent, it's a fuckin disgrace tbh

disenfranchise those that are gone abroad, disenfranchise a significant proportion of those that are here so that they have to go abroad, what's the fuckin point/benefit of that?

i had thought people coming home to vote was a thing...has this always been the case? seems a bit fucking dense, as i say, i don't even know if i'd ever want to live back home except during all this at some point the thought struck me "fuck if i have kids the current state of ireland means it's massively unlikely they'll grow up in ireland," and despite the fact i take the piss out of the country i suppose i had some notion that i might be able to go back.

that plus, paid taxes there for 7/8 years.

WTF

http://www.finegael2011.com/game/

when are we gonna be able to vote with an internet password?

when that happens, we'll be able to bypass these killinascully motherfuckers altogether

lol wtf is that

what are they thinking...

lost my third life trying to jump joan burton btw

her nasal siren song saw me crash against the rocks of her craggy oratory

THA PEKKKKKKPLE OF DIIIIIIIIS CCCCCCCCOOOOOOOOOOUUUNTTTTTRYYYYYYYYYY

jesus.

i found some site that takes your answers to a couple stock questions and tells you what party you're closest in policy too. i am 'hardcore labour', but she terrifies me as part of any potential govt.

was also 'strongly sf' fwiw. news to me, prob based on a fiersh opposition to the IMF deal.

i fucking can't stand her. she can't speak, it really offends me when politicians are crap speakers. her post budget speech was horrendous, reading awful "jibes" off notes and pausing midway through in befuddlement at her own lines.

can only see her and ring scrapping it out for a social protection sub-ministry, tho i've a feeling that labour be looking for er to get a decent front bench position

labour's best performers really are quinn and rabbitte though, gilmore and burton always strike me as the league cup front two while the two stars watch from the sidelines, hoping they don't have to come on to recover a fuckup at halftime

loking more and more likely that FG get 4/5 in mayo, btw, tho it seems to me that the last seat could go any way really. FG (Mulherin)/IND (Kilcoyne)/LAB (Cowley) and maybe even the SF lead candidate (Conway-Walsh) could surprise on transfers.

yah p much all my friends have left by now and are royally pissed off to realise that they have no vote anywhere now

dont worry they'll get their own david mcfuckingwilliams subcategory out of it sher

great

I love how people are surprised to discover that you cannot vote if you are not resident in Ireland. It brings me back to the early 1990s when people were always going on about this. Next thing we will be having Larks in the Park and having remakes of the Commitments.

Who's on for Feile?

I happened to be home for the last election, didn't really consider it this time though.

we'll soon be back to the three bed semi for forty grand too, fwiw

strong zing

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0223/breaking36.html

Anyone willing to predict a result? Consensus seems to be FG not quite at a majority, but as in the last UK election it all depends on how close they can get. I expect the FF vote to be higher than the polls suggest.

Everyone is suspecting that the FF vote will be higher than polls suggest, but I have started wondering if this is just because people cannot get their heads around the idea of a once dominant party being completely flattened.

for what its worth I elsewhere posted this prediction yesterday*: http://westerneyes.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=22#p207
I am starting to think that FG will get more and FF less, but only because one of my brainy election obsessed friends has said so.

*note subtle plug for new internet message board

If Ming the Merciless does indeed get elected I'll laugh heartily.

maniacally would be more appropriate.

I'm in agreement abt FF- I've the gut feeling they'll be higher than all evidence suggests. But to estimate seats, impossible really.

Hoping FG need LAB. I think it's the likeliest outcome.

Also think FG/LAB is most likely but I think on balance I would actually prefer FG-only (with or without gene pool independents).

Don't think Labour in govt will make any significant difference in terms of policy - it's CON/DEM all over again except without so many clear manifesto promises to renege on (although mind you I'd put money on a reversal of the minimum wage cut as a pre-condition for Labour entering govt.) Plus Labour would be the biggest party in opposition and for the 1st time ever we'd have something like a right/left split in the Dail.

PLUS, presumably the next govt is going to oversee swingeing cuts, continued recession and eventual default on the deal and consequent humiliation. Why not let FG take those hits?

Ain't gonna happen but I'm just musing here.

d'you know, if we look at it from the point of view of who'll actually do what after the election, there's nothin to look fwd to in any outcome. As well to let ff stay in power, except that their priority continues to be the protection of the failed investor classes.

Sf getting in and vetoing the imf deal is the only vaguely interesting, if purely theoretical, govt manifesto.

xp - It's not quite CON/DEM redux in the sense that Labour are to the left of the Lib Dem leadership and presumably wouldn't be so happy to go along with FG's austerity mania.

not sure that austerity is negotiable, given the parameters.

Lucinda creighton, eh?

yah seems like labour as strong opposition leaders could really establish themselves instead of just being fgs scapegoats for a couple years

Exit poll:

According to the poll, Fine Gael is on 36.1 per cent, Labour is on 20.5 per cent, Fianna Fáil has slumped to 15.1 per cent, Sinn Féin is on 10.1 per cent, the Green Party were on 2.7 per cent and Independents and Others were on 15.5 per cent. The poll of 3,500 voters was carried out yesterday. The margin of error was 2.5 per cent.

Looks like FG/Lab coalition is the outcome.

Twitter is really struggling with this...

Ming is going to be elected!

Some classic posters from his pre-makeover heyday:

http://www.roscommonhistory.ie/Misc/PoliticalEphemera/mingflanagan/posters/ming12.jpg

http://www.roscommonhistory.ie/Misc/PoliticalEphemera/mingflanagan/posters/ming06.jpg

http://www.roscommonhistory.ie/Misc/PoliticalEphemera/mingflanagan/posters/mingposters.htm

A great political dynasty:

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6180/dv2ki.jpg

God bless all here