LoL at the latest opinion poll-some of you wont be happy...

Chakar

I think what we're seeing here is a backlash against the Opposition parties for going at Bertie Ahern the way he did.Everyone can see that he told the truth all through the controversy.

Essentially I think the Opposition have no one to blame but themselves.By the way I saw Enda Kenny on the Six One News giving his reaction to the polls and he looked awful all red and the eyes looked tired.Jaysus!

The_Minister

constitutionus wrote:

or when royston brady was meant to be a euro mp?:D

Everything said that he was going to win, then the taxi scandel hit. The poll could not have predicted that.

Glenbhoy

Chakar wrote:

I think what we're seeing here is a backlash against the Opposition parties for going at Bertie Ahern the way he did.Everyone can see that he told the truth all through the controversy.

Maybe we should just reserve judgement on that until he comes before the tribunal and we hear both sides of the controversy?

Chakar

Glenbhoy wrote:

Maybe we should just reserve judgement on that until he comes before the tribunal and we hear both sides of the controversy?

Yeah its true that the controversy is far from over as Bertie has gone to the High Court to stop the tribunal accessing his private files on the separation of him and his wife.

Also the tribunal will be applying sanctions against the Irish Times for not revealing their sources.Personally I don't think the Editor or the reporter will go to prison it'll most likely be a big fine.

Santa Claus

mike65 wrote:

The 'plain people' don't like to see a man being kicked when he's down.
Mike.

Who was kicking ?
FG & Labour deliberately avoided the whole issue of his seperation and instead focused on the source of his monies.

I suspect they took it easy on him as they hope a damaged bertie in the next election will be easier than a new stronger FF leader !

Dave!

Chakar wrote:

I think what we're seeing here is a backlash against the Opposition parties for going at Bertie Ahern the way he did.Everyone can see that he told the truth all through the controversy.

Whether or not he lied isn't even the issue (I personally think he did -- my arse that was a loan), so don't build a straw man -- he shouldn't have taken the money in the first place. And the opposition were right to go after him on it, they have a mandate to represent their constituants -- and the polls tell us that the majority of the Irish people think Bertie was wrong to take the money.

This new poll to me says that FF handled the controversy well, and left the opposition in the position whereby they couldn't attack Bertie or call for his resignation, as he is a hurt puppy, so all they could do is drag it out and keep asking questions. Maybe they shoulda just went for the kill and demanded his resignation at the start. Because everyone got sick of hearing them ask him questions most of which he could answer (albeit often dissatisfactorily).

They missed a great opportunity here.

Santa Claus wrote:

I suspect they took it easy on him as they hope a damaged bertie in the next election will be easier than a new stronger FF leader !

Good point!

Múinteoir

Greens are up again I see.

mike65

Who was kicking ?

The meeeja! The plain people actually have little time for the media elite in thier Dublin Towers so reacted to protect 'thier man'.

Mike.

fly_agaric

mike65 wrote:

The meeeja! The plain people actually have little time for the media elite in thier Dublin Towers so reacted to protect 'thier man'.

Mike.

Plausible, but who knows really?

Maybe the "plain people" (LOL) began to think seriously about Enda as Taoiseach, Pat Rabbitte as his Tainaiste, and maybe Trevor Sargent as the Justice minister or something and got a bad case of the heeby jeebies!

The polls up to this would suggest the "plain people" have been thinking about turfing FF/PD's out. I do loathe this govt. but I don't see the opposition doing any better really.

ISAW

Sand wrote:

We get the government we deserve.

Indeed we do.

what we dont get is opinionated claptrap telling people what is good for them. Most of the people already know what is important. whether "friends" gave 8,000 in Manchester eleven years ago and got nothing in return is not really important. Tax health education the welfare of the nation Irish achievement thats what most people see as directly important and as important for our vision. And Berties lot havent done a bad job on that. And when the opposition begin to cast doubt on important issues they suddenly get sidetracked into what they think is important. Just as what the media think is in the public interest and the actual public interest may be two different things.

Cronus333

Did you see the Tribune poll?

FF 42 (+5)
FG 20 (-6)
Lab 10 (-2)
SF 8 (-)
Greens 6 (+1)
PD 4 (-)
Ind 10 (+1)

thats the government on their 2002 percentage!

mike65

Ouch! Ah sure Bertie will be calling a snap election with a very snappy early budget if we're not careful.

Mike.

Dave!

Jayzis, apparantly the public just can't get enough of corruption and cronyism! What a country!

Cronus333

It also has FG and Labour down from 2002. I didn't even think that was possible!

ANXIOUS

what can i say teflon taoiseach pure magi couldnt be happier. The reason this is because the ordinary voter didnt agree with the way the opposition (lets hope its for at least another 5yrs lol) attacked bertie they are us to old school ff. and compared to what they are use to they couldnt really be bothered getting all caught up in something as silly as a loan lol.

Also the opposition went about getting him out of office all the wrong way, the second joe higgns (:p ) got up and started questining him, i got up and cracked open a bottle of champers of yet another maical performance by an taoiseach (still lol) Bertie Ahern

cast_iron

I think the real reason Bertie's popularity didn't drop is because deep down, they know they would have done exactly the same as he did - if they in the same circumstances he was in.

It's great how people jump up on the moral high ground all of a sudden when there is a hint of a politician doing wrong.

How many people could here could honestly say they wouldn't have taken the money Bertie recieved if in his place, considering all the circumstances at the time?
(Remembering that no rule/law/ethic was broken at the time.)

I can honestly say i almost certainly would have taken it.

gandalf

The question is how accurate are these polls. I for one would lie if I was asked who I would vote for. I would say FF/PD's.

I'm delighted with the findings of these polls, there results should make the current Government complacent and give the opposition parties a kick in the arse at just the right moment. Remember the only use these polls have is to fill a few newspaper columns with ink, the one that matters is a long time away and I fully expect it will paint a whole different picture.

This government will reap what they have sown. Their disregard for any kind of ethics, their seemingly wilful waste of taxpayers funds, their pigheaded perusal of doomed favoured projects, allowing developers build without any investment in infrastructure and the biggies the continuing mess that is the health service and the totally inept handling of infrastructure projects and needs.

We'll see how things go for the Government next year with a tainted leader running it and a watchdog that’s been neutered to become a poodle as his number 2.

Dave!

That's optimistic gandalf, but I profesy that we will unfortunately be stuck with this lot once again.

Someone start a new political party to usurp the useless Opposition!

mike65

There is undoubtely a "Bertie Bounce" factor in these polls, nothing like free publicity after all.

The issue is not FF though its FG, Kenny and Co had an open goal but could'nt (would'nt?) shoot. Are they incapable of a swift cutting attack or did they reckon it was better to have a damaged Taoisigh in the hope that something else might blow-up under him nearer the election date and so render him a liability for certain?

Mike.

Rock Climber

DaveMcG wrote:

That's optimistic gandalf, but I profesy that we will unfortunately be stuck with this lot once again.

Someone start a new political party to usurp the useless Opposition!

I'd agree.
This is a democracy that we live in and there aren't enough disgruntled ones in it for to feed support to the opposition at the moment and I dont think there will be this time either unless something big happens like Intel move to poland and theres massive job losses.

Theres a give away budget coming up soon and I see the price of petrol and home heating oil has dropped 30% just in time for winter.The poor old opposition can harp on at this government and rightly for its mistakes,its ineptitude in tackling the health service(I dont personally believe FG/LAb would grapple it either) but untill something is seriously biting into the pockets of the voters then the opposition have an uphill battle.

The major thing biting at the moment is rising mortgage rates and childcare/long commutes/expensive housing.
The interest rates they can do nothing about but they will probably try to mitigate the other factors with a give away budget, their coffers are certainly full enough.

MontgomeryClift

Yes, a 3 billion giveaway budget seems to be expected. It's odd how people forget the hangover from the last giveaway budgets. They seem to forget that there was a mini-depression in 2002-2003, when the jobs market shrank suddenly. And then there was the little matter of Ireland becoming one of the most expensive countries in the world.

Complacent? FF? Not a chance in hell of FF becoming complacent. As has been suggested before, I think people thought Bertie was in real trouble, looked at their 4x4 SUV and second houses, looked at the North and what has happened, and thought for all the Eddie Hobbs style ramblings about a leak in a tunnel or roads getting pricier around Kildare, do they really want a change of all that? Still think hitching themselves to the political corpse that is Labour is only a potential vote loser for FG. Think this could well give FF the shot in the arm they needed when a lot of rank and file had all but written off the next election. For the first time in a year I think FF could win the next one. The only bad news is that it means Bertie will retain his iron grip.