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If the Thailand riots are anything to go by, it’s looking likely that the good folk of county Meath will lead the revolution when it comes:
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=view&id=2033&Itemid=292&bandwidth=high
A Blueshirt majority government mightn’t be far away if the current opinion polls are anything to go by. The next ten days of the campaign will be very interesting. Can they keep Enda in hiding?
I think i may vote for the blueshirts. They have a real strong team.
Bruton
Coveney
Creighton
Veradkar
Hayes
the health guyand a few others. I cant vote for FF OR labour. Very little option left.
Coveney and Creighton are lightweights. Varadkar seems to know his stuff but he just comes across as a fierce dislikable chap.
Richard Bruton has always been an impressive operator but his stock has fallen after the unsuccessful heave last summer. The only good thing to come out of that episode was the return of Michael Noonan to the front bench.
I don’t think Fine Gael will get an overall majority. These polls don’t take the transfers into account. What happens post-election will be interesting. Will a Fine Gael/Labour coalition be able to operate together after the constant mud slinging of the last few weeks? There’s going to be a big increase in Independent TDs. Could the likes of Lowry be a king-maker?
Since everyone on this issue seems to think it is bad and the fault of the government what has hppened to the people of Ireland I wonder what is your take on Bahrain which is financed by the US and Saudi Arabia.The whole Suni empire(fron Saudi Arabia to Iraq) is run by those who race and trade in race horses and have laws that are draconian and very much against the rights of women?I only mention those two items since the readers I know love the racing world and their womenfolk/or husbands.
Dont have much faith in the present Fine Gael setup. You’d really have to wonder about them when an expert like George Lee feels he has to leave (frustrated), given the mandate he got from the people of South Dublin in the by-election. Also the fact that they put the talented Varadkar back in his box on the leadership issue last year doesn’t impress. True, who cares about personalities but Enda Kenny did his usual disappearing act when the loan sharks were in Dublin before Christmas, at the very time real leadership was required.
I like the look of Fine Gail…look we cant have a socialist pandering party like labour who stands with Public sector unions running are country now.
Joan Burton after her famous Vincent Brown episode cant be trusted. Gilmore is a good Mr angry but where are the specific policy plans.
I dont even know any other Labour People to critize.And FF are a disgrace…the Westmeath Mafia Lenihans and that disgusting creature Mary O Rourke. Guys like Dempsey and Ahern have walked away knowing their faith before a vote was cast.
The united left policy on burning bondholders is exactly what is needed. I wonder could they sacrifice further reductions in public sector pay for a trade on the bonds. Would be interesting to see joe higgins going head to head with the euro boys.
Don’t you find it ironic that while the middle east is fighting against dictators for the rights of the working class the US is supporting the same dictators and taking away the rights of public employees to organize and bargain in Wisconsin?Capitalism at it’s most ugly.Workers of the world unite!
PS I might have started a new site but whatever.The one conclusion I came to watching last night’s final debate is that we’re all doomed!
I really hope Fine Gael don’t achieve the overall majority now that their economic strategy has been exposed. Their plan is weighted far too heavily towards spending cuts rather than taxes. We cannot cut our way out of this mess and we are not a high tax economy compared to other nations what despite what some commentators have said.
Gilmore’s tax plans seemed to make a lot more sense to me. I would be leaning towards Labour at this stage with polling day fast approaching.
Can a counry not declare bankruptcy? I know that Argentina went into debt and refused to pay off the banks and is still there? Is the price ireland would have to pay if they refused to go along with the draconian measures demanded of them by germany worse than paying off the debt? We could still do business with the Uk and probably with anyone else on a cash basis.To expect the workers of the world to accept the debt of the wall streets of the world is just what led to Hitler in Germany some sixty years ago. Since Ireland does not have the natural resources of Germany they will have to live by their wits eg tourism, song and dance,food and drink, storytelling and suchlike.They could set up credit unions to finance the future.Just like the small loan banks do in third world countries.Why they could even lower the business tax further to invite businesses into the country.Instead of payong taxes they might have to contribute to our not for profit universities.As for education look at what Cuba has done with their doctors. They even accept students from the US who cannot afford to go to school at home.Many third world students would pay to get into irish medical schools.Now that I think of it could we not export education? Why we could have the cheapest and best medical schools in the world bar Cuba.It is still early and I am dreaming.
One of the major problems with unilaterally ‘burning the bondholders’ is that the a lot of Irish Credit Unions invested their excess deposits in bonds in Irish banks. If they were to go to the wall a lot of the savings of the lower and middle classes would go with it.
There has to be a reduction in the interest rate of the bailout deal (because we simply cannot afford it) and there has to be burden-sharing but it is not as simple as ‘burning the bondholders’.
As I watched the capitalist countries of the world doing business with the middle east dictators and remaining silent while the people struggled to cast off ths shackles of oppression I realised there are worse things than being poor. There is no shame in poverty.Poverty is imposed by capitalism in order to get cheap oil. There is shame in what the western world is doing to get oil.The silence of the US during the Egyptian revolt was deafening.The silence during the Gadaffi slaughter tells us what they must think of all the ordinary people of the world. Maybe it is time for Ireland to stand up and throw off the shackles of the German bankers.
Declare Ireland the Island of Atonement. Welcome the failed dictators of the middle east with their money. Pay off the German Banks with the oil money that the dictators got from the US.Give the Sheiks citizenship in Ireland.Insist on a small remuneration paid by the US to provide a safe haven for their former friends.Any money they stole from their own country cannot be take in only money they got from GB and the US.
Well election day at last. Will be cathartic for most but make no mistake, the politics are a mere side show. The only issue is the bank debt. You simply cant load 105 billion euro worth of private gambling debt onto 95 billion euro of sovereign debt and expect 1.8 million workers to pay it back, not to mention cutting 15 billion euro out of the economy at the same time. When the economic historians come to write about this in 15 years time, Chapter 1 will be titled, "Ireland – What Not To Do."
As mentioned previously I’ve no issue with Kenny’s PR skills if he can get the job done, but watching him with Ursala Halligan the other night, my impression was of a bloke who’s genuinely sh*tting himself. A chump.
Its incredible that the political party that represents all that is bad about Ireland, who’s polices and compliance with Europe’s banking industry (that will break the country) still has the most popular leader on the island. Its incredible that after all has been said about the dire need for political reform, Ireland will still elect a school teacher as its leader. Its incredible that the parties with genuine solutions for the catastrophe coming down the line in 2012-2013 will get about 12% of the vote.
You’d almost want to give up on the place, but Ireland is a deeply conservative country going through massive change and patently isn’t ready yet to go from hard right to the left in such a short space of time. Breaking point has still not been reached. But it is coming. The great grass-roots pillar of the Catholic Church has crumbled, the great grass-roots political pillar of Fianna Fail is finished, only the GAA remain. Fine Gael or Labour haven’t the balls or the intelligence to tackle the real issue and save themselves in the process, which is incredible when you think about it, given they know what’s just happened to Fianna Fail.
Predictions
-Fine Gael – Labour Coalition.
-A small concession on the EFSF interest rate (but not nearly enough, Angela Merkel has elections to worry about.)
-A deeper fiscal deficit than expected at the end of the year.
-Horrendous, savage, austerity cuts for Budget 2012 (is this where Labour will cave in?)
-The welfare state collapsing under the massive pressure of debt repayments.
-The present slow-run on the banks, opening up (if there are any deposits left at that stage, another 35 billion withdrawn last December).
-A sovereign default at the end of 2012 – early 2013, when the debt repayment which will be 12 billion euro annually at that stage, is missed.At some stage along the way, increasing charges on everything, increasing taxes on everything, increasing interest rates, increasing negative equity, increasing injustice, increasing unemployment, increasing poverty, all brought about by debt the nation doesn’t owe, will explode
massively
as Irish people finally realise the schoolteacher, the social worker and the pint puller they elected, work for the banks and not for them.
Then its game on as Ireland moves towards the left and away from Europe, transforming the political landscape in the process. The civil war political buffoons dead and buried (or in jail) as Sinn Fein and a Democracy Now movement take over.
"Pearse and Joe were right all along", they’ll cry when they realise they cant afford the Sky+ Box for the X-Factor any more.
This may all happen earlier if the corporate tax issue which the Germans have firmly in their sights comes to the fore earlier, (incredible hypocrisy from our masters in Berlin) Its the only issue Ireland is ready for a fight on right now.
The next election will the big one.
God Save Ireland.
I guess we went from the British land lords with the rackrent to the German land lords with the debt payment in one hundred years. As usual we were betrayed by our own.Time for the second great hunger.Will Ireland or Iceland be the new Tibet?
We here in the USA are just waiting for the Arab oil crisis to find out how broke we are.Gapitalism outlasted Communism by twenty years.When does Realism kick in?Is the alternative called Humanism? Or the Barbarians at the gate? They are already roaming the high seas.
Here the Tea Baggers are turning the workers against each other, asserting that they ,the state employees, are the reason for the States debts and not Wall Street, the friends of the Baggers, who gutted the pension funds of the workers. How ingenius. Incidentally it seems like China is the only nation that is willing to punish those who are caught ripping off the state. Ironic, sadly.Must be very backward to adopt that attitude!
Off with all their heads.Fine Gael 1-2 for me.
Dont like any other parties. Pity i cant vote for Joe Higgins i would if i could despite being at polar opposites regarding the re-distribution of wealth
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