Pre election promises - are you going to fall for them?

egan007

It occurred to me while reading another thread that the pre election promises seem to be starting nice and early this time around.
I for one am not going to be handed rosy glasses. They can promise me the world - sorry bertie and crew i ain't gona be sucker punched this time...

so far...

M50 Upgrade (isnt that new anyway?)
New Stadium (always a classic)
Metro (rofl - hahahahahahahahaha)
Broadband (exagerated dialup)
Waste plan (get the green vote - admirable)

Have you heard of any more.....watch them they sneak them in without you even realising it - you may even find yourself thinking - wow - great!!

vorbis

in fairness now, the broadband is starting to get widespread. ADSL is a lot more than an exaggerated dial-up. The stadium is probable Lansdowne which stands an average to good chance of getting rebuilt. A metro plan is pretty ridiculous though.

seamus

Originally posted by vorbis
in fairness now, the broadband is starting to get widespread. ADSL is a lot more than an exaggerated dial-up.

Yes but only for those lucky enough to have a decent line in an already deteriorating infrastructure. The situation is better now than it was before the last election, but this is only in spite of no-one in power making any kind of effort on it. If IrelandOffline didn't exist, I'm quite convinced that DSL would only be available in selected parts of South Dublin and Cork.

daveirl

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alleepally

Was anyone REALLY unaware before the last general election that FF were lying?

Lets not forget that once in power all parties are the same.

Can't see most of what you've mentioned being vote winners really. Most people are more concerned with things like health, the economy, law and order etc etc.

sceptre

Originally posted by vorbis
in fairness now, the broadband is starting to get widespread. ADSL is a lot more than an exaggerated dial-up

They promised universal 5Mps speeds by 2005 three times (including in the manifesto) though. Now it's 2006 and I'm still laughing at the promise (actually as the date gets closer bit by bit I get to laugh harder. In a sorrowful way of course)

By the way egan you forgot one of the biggies

Eliminate waiting lists within 2 years

star gazer

oringinally posted by egan007
Have you heard of any more.....

Decentralisation
One-off housing free for all
wasn't there a cash family payment coming from McCreevy soon?
End hospital waiting lists

Victor

You take them with a big grain of salt. Better to judge them on their record of actually implementing things and their ability to think outside the box on future proposals.

egan007

Originally posted by daveirl
You'd prefer them to have spent a billion on a stadium? How is that preferable to the 125 million they are spending on the new Landsdowne Road?

I never said that -

I think a new stadium could be build for a fraction of the cost -
arsenals in Central London is going to cost 300m sterling and be build in 2 years

Why can't we match this - the reason is the gov don't shop around they use the same contractors for everything - so the contractors just name any price - look at the luas.

fora billion - they should be able to build 2 stadiums
they never heard of agreeing a price with a contractor and sticking to it

daveirl

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egan007

Originally posted by daveirl
Well the Bertie Bowl was going to be far more substantial than Arsenals new stadium. They were looking at the works, Athletic track, retractable roof, and the consultants said it would be a billion.

Now the government at giving the IRFU 125 million to build a new stadium which is going to be brilliant. So why would we need a 'national stadium' when we already have 2!

ther point here is that land in central london is 20times the price of lands in abbotstown - and they are still building it on a much lesser budget

anyway - my point is whether it be a bertie bowl or a lansdowne road it's convenient that these promises are at the fore front now - comming up to election time

gandalf

Well the thing is this. Unless we get an opposition quickly then we will be stuck with the same crowd no matter what they promise. Fine Gael are dead in the water, Labour while gaining support are still years away from becoming the 2nd party in the state. The Chuckies will not get popular support until they ditch the private army.

Also bear in mind that the SSIA's will mature for the majority of people just before the next election. Nothing like a bribe to get people to vote the right way now is there.

Gandalf.

pork99

Originally posted by gandalf

Also bear in mind that the SSIA's will mature for the majority of people just before the next election. Nothing like a bribe to get people to vote the right way now is there.

Gandalf.

I've had to cash in my SSIA due to a sharp fall in my income

Certainly ain't gonna bribe me

(wasn't going to vote for the c*nts anyway)

spanner

face it this government has been terrible in the last few years everyone (especially people on this board) have given out about them. this is not anti finna fail talk i will say that in its history finna fail governments have done many good things however i will not include this one with them.

i personally am going to vote for labour or greens in the next election, but what i find completely mind boggling is that most of these people who keep giving out to me all the time about the government not representing the youth of our society or just generally doing a bad job dont vote with the excuse that they are all the same.

even some of the worst government critics vote for finna fail again because they are a finna fail family. i find this absoultely to hard to bare. i think if voter apathy continues like it is i really feel we dont deserve democracy. look at burma were even were voting for the wrong person can put your life in danger.

monument

Originally posted by gandalf
Well the thing is this. Unless we get an opposition quickly then we will be stuck with the same crowd no matter what they promise. Fine Gael are dead in the water, Labour while gaining support are still years away from becoming the 2nd party in the state. The Chuckies will not get popular support until they ditch the private army.

I totally agree with you there, are you up for starting a new party? - if for nothing else just to mess things up more.

Originally posted by gandalf
Also bear in mind that the SSIA's will mature for the majority of people just before the next election. Nothing like a bribe to get people to vote the right way now is there.

For that bribe I'm just going to take the money and run with it.

pork99

I'm feeling an urge to actually join Fine Gael at the moment because:

Sinn Fein = gangsters & criminals (so just like Fianna Fail then )

Labour = well meaning but wrong

Greens = well meaning but wrong also a single issue party

Fine Gael, to my mind, are the only ones with any potential if they could just wake up, elect a leader with a pulse and show some intestinal fortitude on issues such as "Social Partnership" and the corruption tribunals.

For example if they could market themselves strongly as the party which would stand up to the unions and was prepared to scrape all that "Partnership for Prosperity & Fairness" nonsense I think they would get a lot of support.

I think there is a strong centre right constituancy in this country who feel completely shat on at the moment.

(there that should stir things up a bit - heh heh heh)

monument

Originally posted by pork99
I think there is a strong centre right constituancy in this country who feel completely shat on at the moment.

I think we're more so lacking a (half decent) centre left party.

AngelofFire

1 billion for a stadium:eek: it must be bigger than camp nou if it costs that much. tho i suspect that much of that sum of money goes towards the developers and consultants-bertie likes to keep his friends in cushy jobs. he can sort out the lack of funding for the hospitals and people with special needs before he thinks about football. we dont really need a stadium considering we have an 80,000 seater in croke park. all it takes is to persuade a minority of bigots in the gaa to allow it to be used for soccer and rugby

I had a feeling fianna fail would not deliver on all the promises in their pre 2002 election manifesto. in the forthcoming european and local elections i think ill vote for labour and greens

sceptre

Originally posted by pork99
I think there is a strong centre right constituancy in this country who feel completely shat on at the moment.

Isn't that what the PDs are for? Their justice and economic policies obviously fit the category.

pork99

Originally posted by sceptre
Isn't that what the PDs are for? Their justice and economic policies obviously fit the category.

yeah but look what they've crawled into bed with :dunno:

sceptre

Originally posted by pork99
yeah but look what they've crawled into bed with :dunno:

The funny thing is that half of Bertie's cabinet apparently think that the PDs have been "punching above their weight" (that's their phrase as I heard it from a few people in the wings (the up and coming cronies just outside the inner circle)[1], not mine) and are getting far too many of their policies through to the expense of whatever rubbish the real effeffers think they should run with. The local FF representatives are doing their best to blame all the current ills on the PDs (especially social welfare cuts, though in this case at least they're pointing the finger at the originators of the policies) to avoid vote losses at all costs. Bertie obviously thinks the PDs have something to offer over helping to keep him in power. Realistically he's intimidated by the aura the PDs cultivate of actually knowing what they're talking about (although in an economic sense they're grounded somewhere around 1978). The current heads in the DoF don't help - they're part of the driving force behind the PDs being taken seriously in cabinet. McCreevy's afraid of the peedees because his own civil servants tend to agree with them. A few economics refresher courses with emphasis on what we've learned since about 1986 wouldn't go amiss to be honest.

It's true to say that as a general rule you can be evaluated by the friends you keep. No points there then for either of the bedfellows.


[1]I'm sure Sun Tzu probably said something about knowing the enemy well before voting for anybody else you can think of. People have this silly habit of telling me things, especially when I go to political party meetings of various colours and pretend to be brainwashed as well

AngelofFire

I never liked the PDs they are just a party for the upper class and those who send their children to fee paying schools. they are akin to george bush`s republican party in america

daveirl

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ciderandhavoc

they are akin to george bush`s republican party in america

I'd actually suggest they're closer to the Tories in the UK. It would be a more accurate comparison.

To Compare the PDs & Republicans may be a little far fetched.

monument

Originally posted by daveirl
I think you'll find there are an awful lot of D4 Socialists in the Labour party and even more so the Greens.

I think his point was the PDs are just a party for "the upper class and those who send their children to fee paying schools", and not that no other party contained "the upper class and those who send their children to fee paying schools".

daveirl

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