RTE debate between leaders of the smaller parties

RalphCifaretto

Despite all this however, I fear we are looking at the inevitable decline of the PDs and the rise to power of a centre-left government who will destroy business confidence in the search of that fabled non-existent "equality".

There is absolutely no basis for this. Presenting any government dominated by FG as left wing is completely rediculous. It' baseless scaremongering by a desperate, doomed and completely insignificant party.

rollie

McDowell didnt win any swing votes over i think....he did defend his corner but he needed to do more then that.

I think i just dont like his agressiveness, it takes away from the issues (kinda like the Rabbitt yapping like a dog...)

Jonny Arson

No question that Rabbitte won that one. He generally stuck to the issues, was strong and put his point across clearly.

McDowell probably runner up. Yeah, he was full of baseless lies, spin and general crap but my god you can't knock that rottweiler down!

Adams strayed off topic way too much and if I hear anyone else say the word ''rights'' tonight they're getting a kick in the face! Got very uneasy at McD's Colombia allegation - that may make headlines.

Sargeant seemed pushed out but when he did speak, he made some very strong points.

Rabbitte the winner, McDowell 2nd and a tie for 3rd place between the other 2

and yes Mark Little was sh!t. Hopefully Miriam will be better tomorrow night

marco murphy

Poor Trevor, all those notes written down on his hand.
Rabitte done well there, Gerry could have been more direct.

_Kaiser_

Damn.. missed this. is it repeated/online?

ateam

I'm surrounded by the Left, the Hard Left and the Leftovers... Great quote.

Mark Little was a little out of his depth tonight.

Again I repeat the fact that Rabitte has made a serious error in concentrating his attacks on the PDs. He should have highlighted Sinn Fein's flawed manifesto and lack of costings.

McDowell will have impressed even his enemies standing up against 3 adversaries.

RalphCifaretto

By the way, the notes scribbled on the palm of Seargant's hand illustrate just how pathetic the man is.

upmeath

I missed the debate because I'm locked up in a library at the minute but is there any way of watching it back this evening, either on RTE's website or elsewhere? I can't seem to find a working link on their website!

yomchi

My thoughts;

I thought Rabbitte did well, remained calm and got his point across.

Sargent came over as a little terrier biting on the ankles of the larger hounds, I thought he did well, was very clear and put it up to McDowell at the start but lacked any real presence.

Adams,could have done much better. I'm a fan of the man but he wasn't great tonight. As was pointed out he was too general and is too laid back when the sh1t was being flung at him. He'll know he could have done better.

Looser, definately MacDowell, for all the obvious reasons. He got personal as I thought he would.

brianthebard

Kaiser2000 wrote:

Damn.. missed this. is it repeated/online?

It was streamed, I imagine it'll be there again, perhaps moved to the prime time section of the website.

Its funny that you could think that was the quote of the night Minister, I think a lot of people would've felt the "menopausal paris hilton" quip to be more entertaining. Although I did find McDowell quite capable of keeping at least two of the three other speakers at bay.

Jonny Arson

Kaiser2000 wrote:

Damn.. missed this. is it repeated/online?

im sure it will be up on rte.ie

rollie

Rabbitts slutting over the greens did annoy me as well....I just dont like that guy

nesf

Jon wrote:

Looser, definately MacDowell, for all the obvious reasons. He got personal as I thought he would.

I think McDowell was always going lose a debate in the minds of people who are against his politics. As I said earlier, he's not a populist he's simply not going to appeal to a lot of people same as the PDs in general.

brianthebard

ateam wrote:

I'm surrounded by the Left, the Hard Left and the Leftovers... Great quote.

Mark Little was a little out of his depth tonight.

Again I repeat the fact that Rabitte has made a serious error in concentrating his attacks on the PDs. He should have highlighted Sinn Fein's flawed manifesto and lack of costings.

McDowell will have impressed even his enemies standing up against 3 adversaries.

SF's faults were fairly apparent on their own, certainly with McDowell attacking Gerry. Pat doing it too would look like they were ganging up on SF, which would make Gerry the victim. And for the record I don't know anyone on the average industrial wage that has the suits or the houses that Adams has.

Pride Fighter

McDowell got pillaried from all sides and I am glad. He does nothing but help his rich cronies. He couldnt catch a cold in winter or a criminal in a jail. Tosser.

cm2000

nesf wrote:

I think McDowell was always going lose a debate in the minds of people who are against his politics. As I said earlier, he's not a populist he's simply not going to appeal to a lot of people same as the PDs in general.

do you think sticking to what you actually stand for and not bowing to what you feel might just win some cheap votes an admiral quality?

DeepBlue

The one liner of the night - "a menopausal Paris Hilton" .

Rabbitte certainly won it. He kept a cool head the whole way through and only briefly lost it when he barked back at Little for suggesting he was playing to the gallery on crime. Little could well have been right but that won't matter ;p.

Mc Dowell got roasted on health and crime - ironic considering the PDs hold both of those ministries in Government. He seemed more interested in protecting the banks from an extra levy than either of those issues which I suppose is understandable as the banks are only making many hundreds of millions of euro profit each year and need all the help they can get :rolleyes: .

Also most of his attacks, especially early on were centred on the Green party which is a bit baffling unless it's more to do with the battle in his own constituency and it seems the PDs have stooped to dirty tricks by releasing disinformation designed to mislead voters. I guess it's standard practice in tight electoral contests but it seems odds for such an "ethical" party .

Sargent performed better than I think anyone expected and Adams seemed clueless. It was very un-Adams like to leave himself open by saying the Bank owned his holiday home - the only surprise was that the entire panel didn't reply "the Northern Bank" instead of just McDowell.

Roll on tomorrow night .

greyed

Trouble wrote:

McDowell is looking very flustered - Menopausal Paris Hilton is right

McDowell's expression was priceless:p

It was nice to get a break from pure slander for a while, found this very useful, edging towards green now.
Thought Adams would have been stronger... seemed slightly uninformed.

ateam

brianthebard wrote:

SF's faults were fairly apparent on their own, certainly with McDowell attacking Gerry. Pat doing it too would look like they were ganging up on SF, which would make Gerry the victim. And for the record I don't know anyone on the average industrial wage that has the suits or the houses that Adams has.

Yes total rubbish from Adams that will fool no one and well done to McDowell for pointing that out. His remark about the Northern Bank was apt also lol

Trouble

AlanOB wrote:

Despite being surrounded by "The Left, the Hard Left and the Leftovers" as he so brilliantly put it

Oh come on, thats 70's talk. Labour and SF are hardly trostkyites these days.

AlanOB wrote:

He underlined brilliantly that the alternative government is a centre-left option that is not pro-enterprise, is not pro business and holds ideological unrealistic views on life that are antithetic to the prosperity that we have enjoyed in this country over the last decade.

Prosperity and social justice and public services are not incompatible. In fact they should go hand in hand. Scandinavians do it, why not us? The green agenda is going to come in eventually its just a matter of whether we do it now or in a few years. Its a joke the way things have gone over the last 10 years. Loads of money and sh1tty dirty tracks as roads WOW. A few new motorways don't hide the fact that our public transport system is c*ap.

AlanOB wrote:

Not only that, but he also destroyed Gerry Adams, calling him out on the fact that he wouldn't answer any questions directly because he simply didn't have the necessary knowledge. He also brought up Adams use of drug derived monies in the past when he was involved in the IRA Army Council, beautifully destroying whatever credibility the man has left (IMO, none to begin with.)

The polls say SF = 10% and the PD's = 2% so thats 5 times more credibility than der Fuhrer.
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AlanOB wrote:

Despite all this however, I fear we are looking at the inevitable decline of the PDs and the rise to power of a centre-left government who will destroy business confidence in the search of that fabled non-existent "equality".

God help us all.

Would you please tell me why it would be in any governments interest to destroy business confidence? Nonce

yomchi

brianthebard wrote:

SF's faults were fairly apparent on their own, certainly with McDowell attacking Gerry. Pat doing it too would look like they were ganging up on SF, which would make Gerry the victim. And for the record I don't know anyone on the average industrial wage that has the suits or the houses that Adams has.

Oh come on, the suits? Thats really laughable and not a credible arguement is it now. As for his home in Donegal, as he said the bank owns it. Ihope this topic doesn't get dragged to silly levels about suits and houses.

RalphCifaretto

I thought the most effective soundbite of the night was Rabitte's.

Remember your last sting of the dying wasp quote Tánaiste, since then we've had 50 gangland murders

Herr McDowell's expression was class.

yomchi

he actually said gun related murders, which I though sounded better!

daveirl

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Rock Climber

Jon wrote:

Oh come on, the suits? Thats really laughable and not a credible arguement is it now. As for his home in Donegal, as he said the bank owns it. Ihope this topic doesn't get dragged to silly levels about suits and houses.

Lol at mcdowell asking whether it was the northern though.
In fairness too,No one on the average industrial wage could afford a mortgage on one house in Ireland today never mind two.
It was fair comment in reply to Adams protesting that he and mcguinness only take the average industrial wage.

Jonny Arson

One thing we can say for sure is we wont be seeing entertaining bitchslaps like ''menopausal Paris Hilton'' and ''the Northern Bank'' in tomorrow night's snoozefest of a debate!:D

RalphCifaretto

daveirl wrote:

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I don't see why people are surprised by how well McDoweel handled himself. The bloke is a barrister, it is quite obvious he can carry himself in a debate.

brianthebard

Jon wrote:

Oh come on, the suits? Thats really laughable and not a credible arguement is it now. As for his home in Donegal, as he said the bank owns it. Ihope this topic doesn't get dragged to silly levels about suits and houses.

Oh come on yourself, he can obviously afford things that others on the "average industrial wage" cannot, and I don't care if the banks do own his holiday home(s), that merely means he can afford a second mortgage, does it not? Again you'll be hard pushed to find people who can do that. Its obvious that he more than just comfortable financially, and pretending otherwise is pretty sad imo.

nesf

cm2000 wrote:

do you think sticking to what you actually stand for and not bowing to what you feel might just win some cheap votes an admiral quality?

An admiral quality? I'm not sure what that means tbh. I think McDowell has flip flopped over Bertie a few times but in fairness he's never tried to play the "everyman" which is a nice change in Irish politics.

Jonny Arson

daveirl wrote:

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How do you think he did that? I saw nothing credible from him tonight to suggest that will happen