General election 2020 (2 Viewers)

[Cormcolash]

I thought everybody knew Michael Moore has been a joke for years

 

[Cormcolash]

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well blow me down.

That kind of thing is an easy one for any party. If anything backfires, then they just blame it on Dublin City Council, it's the standard operating procedure really. If it all goes well, then it's "We were instrumental in bringing this forward in the council".

 

[Lili Marlene]

I thought everybody knew Michael Moore has been a joke for years

He's usually pretty good. His films can be pretty cringe for sure but I usually like him in interviews. On the side of the people and that. For an American, like.

 

[Cormcolash]

Na he turned full on mentalist dickhead about 5 years ago or something

 

[magicbastarder]

"In reply, Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin agreed to ending direct provision and replacing it with own-door and self-catering accommodation. "

Focus on justice on fourth day of govt formation talks

Negotiators from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party are engaging in a fourth day of discussions on government formation.

www.rte.ie

well, that was a bit too fucking easy. not that i'm handing victory to the greens on this; i'm obviously bemused/outraged/write a letter to the irish times. if it was that easy, why didn't they do this years ago?

there are so many low hanging fruit FG just didn't even look at in government - it's the stuff they didn't get right which is as amazing as the stuff they got wrong.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Will it still be run by a private company on a for-profit basis?

 

[Space]

Will it still be run by a private company on a for-profit basis?

"provided by approved housing bodies" that's the million euro question there.

 

[Cormcolash]

if it was that easy, why didn't they do this years ago?

Cause they've spent years giving contracts on it to their mates. Easy one to get rid of too, they personally lose fuck all from it going and it might make them look good to idiots.

 

[ann post]

Do ye's reckon FF are trying to bail and leave the post-covid budget to FG in a last gasp attempt to save the party?

They polled on 14 recently, election now would be most likely a washout, getting into opposition and letting FG take the rap for Covid would probably give them some chance of survival.

(assuming ye are all up to speed on the weekend' scandal being pushed by front bench, but not leadershiip.

 

[magicbastarder]

not sure how that would work? to be honest, i've not had much insight into the spat, but if FF are bailing to let FG take the rap, how are they expecting FG to be in power to do so? if an election was run again, i don'f see either party in power.

 

[Cormcolash]

They could be trying to bail so that there is another election, on the presumption that Sinn Fein would then run enough candidates to win their own government this time round and then FF could try and out-opposition FG. From the perspective of trying to seem different to each other, FFG in opposition would be much more tenable than FFG in government.

 

[magicbastarder]

bit of a potted history of 'how did we get here' focussing on SF:

Slightly constitutional

Sinn Féin’s breakthrough in Ireland’s general election in February ended the century-long dominance of the ‘Civil War parties’ in the Republic. On the left, the victory was celebrated as providing a ‘mandate for change’. But Sinn Féin’s image problem remains an obstacle. Unjustly so?

www.eurozine.com

 

[Cormcolash]

I'd call SF more opportunist than populist, but effectively it does amount to the same thing, so fair enough. Like I'd generally reserve populism for the right-wing they took our jobs racists, and SF don't really go for that.
The best recent example of what I'm on about that comes to mind was that fuckin MMA mutant that was running for them last election, and sure he was all over the media for a rake of weeks before he came out with some outright Gemmaesque shite during the actual campaign, at which point SF dropped him as quickly and quietly as they could.
But the fact is they had him there and running in the first place, because they knew he'd go down well with the younger voters that would identify with him and shit. Obviously there was no vetting of him or any discussion of actual views with him, or they would have realised he was dope earlier and not run him in the first place.
Na, it was convenient for them to run him because he would have been an easy vote for the electorate they are aiming at, and they didn't really give a fuck about what he thought about stuff himself until it turned out he was a racist Father. And that's what I mean, they're pure opportunists, but on the surface at least they don't go for the right-wing crazy populist shit. (There are a million stories from West Belfast however that really indicate there are ongoing issues/conflicting ideas within the party when it comes to 'dem foreners' though)

The politician version of that MMA dope would be someone like Gary Gammon for the Soc Dems, who is good at presenting the whole "I'm a community fella here to look out for you" schtick before quietly doing the exact opposite as soon as he gets elected – subtle enough not to be jumped on by the media and disowned by his party (at least until Denis O'Brien has something against him)

 

[Cormcolash]

Oh the other thing re: the above, if Sinn Fein were active in like Serbia or something, i.e a country where they could get votes by doing the whole racist shite, I fully expect that they'd be all over it.

 

[ann post]

Oh the other thing re: the above, if Sinn Fein were active in like Serbia or something, i.e a country where they could get votes by doing the whole racist shite, I fully expect that they'd be all over it.

WElllllll How much does that apply across the board? Like UTM is forever saying 'imagine what bertie ahern woulda been like in NKorea' - There was an article about the level of pre-schmoozing that Leo did over the course of the 18mnths before he got the Taoiseach number and its all out sociopathic. Labour or FG i can't remember ran the local kickboxing instructor in LK a few years back. You could transplant A LOT of these people into another political realm and you'd get terrifying results. I think the main value one is to transfer anyone from FG/FF into the transitional era of nothern SF, put them dealing with a paisley for half a lifetime and see if they stand up, because a lot of the transitional era of SF did that, while still dealing with their gombeen antics at the same time. There is much more political experience in that.

The thing about it is though, its all bullshit outside of reality. Imagine if thumped had been made in dagestan, we'd all be russian orthodox, having set aside the primary faith of islam. This might make a comparison, but it doesn't mean thumped is actually just a community of closet russian orthodox's waiting for an excuse to express our faith.

I find the populism labelling a bit like - weellll I can't say that the other two major parties arent populist. FF to my mind being the primary populists - posing as the centrist irishmen while acting as the elite, for generations. At least Fg are outwardly posh. The mma lad was stupid for sure, OR WAS IT? FG would take one look at a guy like that and note his lack of blue blood and royal demeanour and select someone a little more eh, au fait with parliamentary language. The tactic was probably to dilute the youth vote enough to hurt the centre. SF - some candidates (like the few i know through work have been years in the making, like long game candidates) - i think they've a fair idea who they are actually running and who they are running to stilfe.

 

[Cormcolash]

Yeah I mean I am generalising a fair amount there alright, it does basically apply to all the big parties sure. It just seems like a point that has to be made more with SF because a lot of people are portraying them as 'the left' when they just fuckin aren't.

 

[Unicron]

FG would take one look at a guy like that and note his lack of blue blood and royal demeanour and select someone a little more eh, au fait with parliamentary language.

They tapped up Graham Geraghty without a clue what his politics were.

 

[magicbastarder]

to be fair, geraghty had some class.

Geraghty appeared in acclaimed 1998 Irish kung fu movie Fatal Deviation opposite Boyzone's Mikey Graham. He had no lines.

 

[magicbastarder]

FG have shown some missteps more recently too, getting into bed with the likes of verruca murphy.

 

[ann post]

That pandemic and the 5 unprecidented massive storms would nearly enough for you to forget about swinggate.