Could it be that Ireland has finally woken up and seen through the flim-flam merchants?
Could it be that, at long last, our people have recognised the bullshit for what it is? Have they finally understood that Fianna Fáil is nothing but a means of transferring dirty money from corrupt property developers to crooked politicians?
Who knows?
All I know is that Fianna Fáil's support has fallen to an all-time low, according to the latest Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll, which shows them at 22%, in third place behind Fine Gael and behind the Labour Party for the first time since polling began. This is not as encouraging as you might imagine, since Fine Gael is another utterly useless party, full of the same kind of self-serving fools as Fianna Fáil, and the Labour Party is entirely emasculated – in all but name just another watered-down centre-right party.
What are your other choices? Sinn Féin? Oh for fucksake let me alone. You might as well send your votes straight to Sicily.
What am I talking about with all this right-left shit anyway? Those days are over. What we need is a pragmatic party of ideas, and that's something we will never have as long as we cling to the failed electoral system we're so proud of. As long as we keep our present form of proportional representation, our parliament will always be dominated by the mediocracy: failed primary schoolteachers, pub owners and auctioneers. Gobshites.
Until we move to a European list system, we will never have a government capable of leading us through the sort of crisis we're currently experiencing. All we'll ever have is glorified county councillors, with their gobshite outlook and their gobshite ambitions.
The gobshites.
My friends, it's all fucked. The game is up.
We need to start again from scratch, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
could this be the beginning of "bockianna Robalai na H Eireann"
They'd win my fuckin vote, no mistake
You need an honest,outspoken 'man of the people' to lead a new party Bock.
…so what are your plans for next week?
So as is standard practice when people put up posts of this nature, I'd like to put myself forwards as your head of secret police. I'd be good at it :-)
Communications officer of The Bock Revolution, right here
The good thing about a List System is that it would potentially free ministers from the burden of having to deal with their constituents and leave them free to only deal with those who have the best intrests of the country at heart.
Of course the problem for us is that it would free ministers to only deal with those who have "the best intrests of the country" at heart.
So no change there then!
22% of people would still vote FF.
Never realised that many people have been so well looked after.
A list system has many more advantages than the hand-me-down-me-fathers-seat that PR has become. One of direct election and party lists popular on the Continent would be an ideal model. No harm either to reduce the number of TDs, I know Israel is hardly flavour of the month, but as they have a population of 7.5 million and have just had an election, it was interesting to note they send 120 members to the Knesset, while we, with 4.6m put 146 TDs to our Hot-air club.
I'd rather see Ed Walsh or David McWilliams for instance sitting at the Cabinet table rather than the awe-struck Mary Coughlan, any member of the Lenihan -O'Rourke dynasty or buffoons like O'Dea and Power who don't give a fuck about anything but the Party and themselves.
Yet I doubt if any of the former would demean themselves or have the neck to lie through their teeth while engaging in the canvass rituals of door-knocking and baby kissing which comes so naturally to the latter of the Crooks Party.
Bock, you can have the Ceann Comhairles job, with an extended whip.
So long as we have our public services being run by people wholy unqualified to run them then we will have no change.
Who in their right mind would give the country's health system over to a morbidly obese secondary school teacher?
Role: Minister with responsibility for health, Ireland
Salary: Neg DOE
Description: The oversight and administration of the country's national health care and provision service, including (but not limited to) the division of budget and delegation of responsibility amongst the various hospitals and health care facilities with a tight focus on provision of a satisfactory service for all regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, social status or membership of the traveling community.
The Person: The ideal candidate will be a suitably qualified person with a proven track record in large scale administration and budgeting. A strong background in the medical sector is essential, while strong preference will be given to persons with a masters degree or greater in medicine or a related dicipline.
Absolutely no fat teachers need apply.
Slom — I wouldn't lead a party of gobshites, that's for sure. No room for Bockanna na hÉireann here.
Mr Bastard — You wouldn't like the people I'm a man of.
Thrifty — We already have a secret police. They're never seen and nobody knows what they do.
Julio — I can only foment revolution, not lead it. I'm more your evil mastermind than your charismatic hero.
Michael — We can only try. That's what checks and balances are for.
Hoof — I'll take a job as torturer without portfolio.
DrOrgasm — That's why we need a list system.
I bet by the time there's another election the FF voters will crawl out of the woodwork again and make them the 1st party on the island.
cunts.
One thing that certainly must change is the system where one
crookpolitician, elected by a a few thousand people, can become leader of the country because he happens to be at the head of the party.The last time Ireland had the presidency of the EU, Bertie Ahern was at the head of Europe based on a few thousand votes in Drumcondra. It's almost as bad as the 'appointed' bureaucrats.
How about a president that does more than just shake hands?
Hard as it is to take we have to stop carping and give the government our backing on this. Having a general election now as some are suggesting would be the equivalent of re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Anyway, do you really think the Fine Girl party and Labour would do any better? We also have the nauesating sight of the Shinners lamenting the governments performance – and this from a party that nearly engulfed this island in a civil war in the not so distance past. The government has to restore confidence in the banking sector. No modern economy can exist without banks. It is a high brisk strategy. But if they are right with the bail out then the Irish taxpayers can make a lot of money out of this down the road. Meanwhile, I believe that Cowan is an honorable man, as is Lenihan. But they have an appalling public image. This can be rescued in two simple steps. An Taoiseach, if we are all in the trenches together on this one then you must lead from the top. Take a pay cut to €70,000 a year, no expenses. The heads of all state and semi state bodies and banks must not be paid over €100,000 a year with no bonus.If they turn up their noses at this, then fuck em, there are plenty of people out there that will take the job. It might also be a good idea to start prosecuting some of the people involved with Anglo Irish. Meanwhile, as for the fat cat Union bosses. How did they get so fat when Union membership has fallen? Reminds me of an old quip about Arthur Scargill, – when he started out he had a small house and a big Union and when he finished he had a big house and a small Union. The Unions must be hauled in and told that we are on the brink of financial Armageddon. Organizing one day strikes is not the answer to anything, because unless the public finances are brought under control then we could reach the nightmare scenario where there is no money for social welfare, schools, hospitals, pensions etc etc. There would be massive social unrest. We are looking into an abyss here folks.
These civil war lineages have to be finally got rid of. The wealth I see every day makes me fucking sick. I propose a night time raid on d4, south east dublin and north wicklow á la angry villagers with pitchforks.
"Organizing one day strikes is not the answer to anything"
I agree with you up to a point, Abdul.
BUT, I think it's necessary for the people to be able to demonstrate their anger — for two reasons. One, so the politicians can actually see it manifested on the streets. And two, so people can vent it, and then hopefully feel a small bit better.
Prosecuting those involved in obvious criminality is vital too, if we are to have any trust whatsoever in the system. God knows we have little or none as things stand.
[The poor sod who broke into my house one Christmas Eve (and got nothing) would probably have been turfed in jail if he'd been caught. But he wasn't.]
Just to be clear in what I said in an earlier comment (different thread) about attacking the British Embassy: I don't advocate violence against individuals, and it's important to note that the building had been evacuated earlier in the day, and we all knew this. The Gardaà stood back and let us at it. I heard afterwards that Jack Lynch had told them to leave us alone — he thought that stopping us could lead to more widespread riots all over the city.
In the same way, a national strike and/or major demonstration on the streets might well avoid further (disorganised, and worse) social unrest.
Perhaps it's just as well this banking/economic collapse happened. Otherwise, how much dirt would there be under the carpet that we'd never have known about?
Abdul – Thats a very honorable post. However the chances of Cowen and Lenihan standing up to the bankers are slim. The chances of them taking that sort of a paycut are just plain non existant.
I have nodoubt everyone involved in this farce see themselves as honorable men and women. However, they see nothing in the taxpayer to honor other than our ability to pay for their corruption. As far as they are concerned tax payers money is their treasure chest. We all know we cant exist without banks, but Anglo could have been allowed to sink. The government had already guaranteed the deposits. Were the government honorable Johnny Taxpayer would not have lost out.
This whole thing stinks like a winos fart. I'm not sure people realise yet how high this will probably go.
Nora, – The one day strike will give everyone an opportunity to vent their anger – but that's all it will do. All it will be is a safety valve to blow off some steam – but the problems will still remain.
Doc, – We need radical example at the top, and while it might seem outrageous to suggest that An Taoiseach take such a pay cut, I believe he needs to embark on this course of action to get us all on board. There is an appetite in this country to address our problems. There is an appetite for a leader who will not only tell us what to do but who will also take the hits himself. The problem with the present course of action being pursued to curtail public spending is that one section of the public are being asked to take the hits while the people that caused this mess are walking away with golden handshakes. If An Taoiseach leads then the majority of Irish people will follow. I believe he can best do this by taking a massive pay cut. It will send out a powerful message to every section of Irish society. If he wants to be our leader then he now has golden opportunity to become a man of the people, for the people. However, if he wants to be a mere politician then let him hang onto his salary at the expense of, dare I say, greatness. The choice is his. And whilst I'm at it, our President could also follow suite. We don't need flowery speeches from the occupant of the big house in the Phoenix Park. We need example from the top down, not from the bottom up, where people on meager incomes are being asked to take disproportionate hits.
The future looks interesting from here!
As bad as these figures are for the Soldiers of Dustiny, they're probably going to get a lot worse, as the economic unravelling has a long way to go.
We won't hit bottom this year, and probably not next year. FF may yet join the PDs in the trashcan of history.
It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of bogmen.
As an ex-pat (having left Ireland in 1994) it's amusing and sad to listen to RTE online – especially the Pat Kenny show. It's a window into the denial and delusion in Ireland about the scale of the meltdown. Pitiful attempts to save money by taking a 10% paycut? Public workers and private workers snarling at one another?
They just don't get it. This isn't about AIB, or the Irish real estate problem. It's a global systemic crisis – effectively an unwinding of the $1 QUADRILLION (that's ONE THOUSAND TRILLION) Derivatives bubble.
If the unwinding can't be stopped or stemmed, the result will be global bankruptcy, and chaos.
This isn't to say that FF/PDs shouldn't be held to blame for the fuckup. Their inane policies have made a catastrophic situation into an existential crisis.
The time really has come for some of the bastards responsible for this to hang from lamp-posts.
For Harney (still bearing her $400 haircut) to have the gall to tell people to tighten their belts just about sums it up, no?
One of the best blogs about the underlying economic news is "The Automatic Earth". It's been calling the future accurately for quite a while now, and things show no signs of improving. Here's the url:
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/
That's precisely why I said, "I agree with you up to a point, Abdul."
Given the 'culture' in whose ranks Cowen rose to the top, I can't see him (or any of the rest of them) taking such cuts. They'll gather what money they think they need from the easiest quarters possible. I can't think of one of them about whom I'd believe that they went into politics for purely altruistic reasons.
'Greatness' rarely arises in a time of peace and prosperity such as we've just experienced (or thought we did). We may see it ahead — but it won't be from FF.
I had to leave Ireland in the 80's as we were in the same economic mess. The fact was back then there was always the boat to England or illegally into the USA. Now there is no where to go the whole world is in this mess. Over the good years of the Celtic Tiger the idea that politics does not interest me was the usual reply, we are all doing fine. Now I see the first stirrings of people being forced to see that how they vote or not and for whom does matter. F. Fail were too long in power and that shows very plainly with events happening now. We need to get this shower out now and then take our political future seriously and we need young voices and ideas..
Get rid of the whole unholy alliance politicians, bankers,so-called developers,and not least the bureaucrats who sat back and let it all happen.
Its going to be a long hot summer!
nothing will change while ff have the support of the greens whose leader is to my mind power hungry and would go into government with anybody just to be in power. lenihan wont stand down while he has their support ,
The anglo irish chiefs will never ever be prosecuted, why ? same old same old reason, they know too much.
Cowan just has to be a "nice man" why ? because every single thought, fear and emotion shows in his face, he is so far out of his depth.
A nice man won't get us out of this mess.
We were a mess all through the joke that was termed the "celtic tiger" it was always a fake economy, the illusion has dissapated and the magician has gone home, it's now up to everyone seeking change and rescue to go find it, no old adages apply, falling governments, votes of no confidence, strikes, won't work, its a collective pooling of sound practice that has to surge forward, the government needs to be led by the people, and the people need to find their voice in a new medium.
Bollix to this, bring back the Rapparies I say! Or even Daniel Boone!!!!
The Bail out of the Banking system is exactly what Japan did in the 90's,everything stagnated in that country for 10 years.They call it the Lost Decade..
So thats what we have to look forward to under these mis-managers and crooks.
Cowen does not have a mandate from the people of this country as Bertie won them the election.
But he wont call one as he knows that the game will be well and truly up for them..
It will take Fianna Fail years to recover from it..
Therefore see you at the polls in 2012….
We can't afford to be distracted by an election. And if there was one FF would be on their hands and knees hoping that they would lose so Labour and the Fine Girl party would inherit this mess. They (FF) could then go to the back of the bus sneering and throwing bottles. Staggered at the board of Irish Life & Permanents refusal to accept the resignation of their CEO Declan Casey, who eventually insisted that he was resigning anyway. But the Boards attitude is indicative of Corporate Ireland. These people are living in a parallel universe, a state of mind exemplified by Brian Goggin, BOI chief, who said on RTE news d'other night that is salary would probably drop below 2 million this year………. There was a few seconds pause in the interview following that "tragic admission", – a surreal moment in Irish broadcasting. We could feel your pain Brian. How will you make ends meet on circa €60,000 a week? ….Meantime, back on planet earth, why is the government so craven when it comes to dealing with the banks they bailed out. The Minisister for Finance has conceded on every point to said banks after handing them billions of our money. His attitude should have been to boot the door of their CEO's offices off the hinges. "You, you and you are sacked, clear your desks and get the fuck out of here. Meantime, you, you and you are being prosecuted and the entire board is being replaced,". That should have been your approach, Brian. We need an entire change of culture here. Instead, and, despite the financial horrors of the last few weeks, the financial institutions gave you , and by extension us, the two fingers by their "refusal" to accept Caseys resignation. Since when did they have a choice in this matter Minister? – Unfortunately, MOC is not going to be a long hot summer. The Brits said about us in the 80s that we were a third world economy without the climate.
I think a big part of the problem with Irish politics is that it is clientist.
How many people go to TD's "Clinics" to seek preferential treatment over there fellow citezens.
They then vote for that party. Which party has been most effective at exploiting this. Well its Fianna Fail.
They use the state's resources to buy the votes of their constituents.
At a macro level they have used "Social Partnership" to buy the votes of the entire public service.
That's why I think we need a reformed electoral system.
Bock,
I disagree,
Proportional representation was introduced to ensure that no bunch of fuckheads could permanently gain power.
I agree, a bunch of fuckheads have permanently gained power. But they have gained that power by spending that which is not theirs. That is, your wealth, my wealth and the wealth of your children and your grandchildren.
Yes they were elected under Proportional Representation. I don’t think a list system would do any better. The Fianna Fail Filth would use the list system to rob the Irish People anyway. For fuck sake Bock, Berate Ahern has it on record that he is a Socialist. He might as well have said he is a member of the NAZI Party. (ok they were socialist)
Reforming the electoral system to a “List System†will do no good.
This is a Republic.
One and only one reform is necessary.
If 100,000 of the Citizens petition the President the President is obliged to put the proposal to the Citizens.
In short Bock,
Democracy is a fool, it can be bought for beads. The Constitution is all.
That’s why the Fianna Fail Fucks, the Fine Gale Fucks, the Labour Party Fucks, the Green Fucks and every Fuck on RTE wants Lisbon passed.
They don’t give a Fuck Bock. They will give us a vote as long as we vote for them.
Tell me Bock, what’s wrong with Ireland deciding for itself the Nature of its own Constituted Republic. Why do we need Germany to tell us when we get to vote. Why do we need the Fianna Fail Filth to determine the outcome of their imagined history.
We need reform of the Constitution Bock.
Not the electoral system.
Fuckin A – And now Bert is heading for the Aras on a tide of media goodwill……