The status Quo

monosharp

I'm not goint to rant, because reading about and listening to this crap for how many years, It just drains me physically to think about it.

I'm talking about the government and the whole political and economic situation in this country at the moment.

How can we put up with this ? How can any elected officials be so entirely and comprehensively incompetent and so corrupt to the point where it wouldn't even make a monty python sketch because it'd seem too far fetched.

The health service is a mess, the guards are a complete joke.

Scumbags run round the place free to do what they want, left alone by the guards the majority of the time. Our government are complete gangsters and .. now I'm drained from even thinking about it.

How can we put up with this ? Surely someone else is sick of this excuse for a country we have ?

NeverSayDie

Well, not sure what'll help your peace of mind, but personally, I avoid excessive frustration over that kind of thing by maintaining some perspective, objectivity and awareness of the wider world around me. For instance there are (depending on how you define them) around 190 countries in the world. It might be useful in terms of perspective to consider how Ireland ranks amongst them on various scales and measures re quality of life, economics, politics, etc. Likewise, for folks who think "things are getting worse all the time" or "people lived so much better 100 years ago", it can be instructive to put figures on such things, look at trends, compare snapshots of widely spaced decades, etc.

Hope some of that helps.

baztard

People who actually take the time to think about whats going on, realise all of what you said. The majority of people are just too busy too really take notice or they just don't care. So long as the money keeps on rolling in, most people will be oblivious to the walls crumbling around them, and keep on voting FF.

guinnessdrinker

A lot of people seem to be annoyed at the political situation recently. At the moment there is a lot of negativity about the current government. It baffles me how they were re-elected in the first place, but as has been pointed out many times before, we get the government we elect.

Bertie's various dig outs and the question as to should a politician holding such a high office be in a position where they owe money to businessmen has, I think been dealt with in other threads. But I agree, it is situations like these that get people wondering about corruption.

OP, you are right in what you are saying about the Health service and the guards for example, we need as a society to regain our confidence. We want to see value for money to justify public spending in all areas and we dont want to see massive overspending in areas such as infastructure.

With the economic situation, next year we will run a deficit. The economy is not growing at the same rate as it has been but we are not in a downturn yet. At the moment I'm wondering are we turning into a nation where the culture is becoming like 1980's America where "greed is good". Maybe we are already there, for example, owning one house is not enough for many these days. The people paying for this is the country's young population trying to purchase their first home. And the thing about it is the gov. are incouraging this because they have taken in billions in stamp duty revenue in the last few years. Although the construction industry is a vital component of our economy it is a massive mistake for the government to be so dependant on it. Putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea.

However, in saying all that, I personally don't belief that there that much corruption going on in politics anymore, at least I would like to believe that, I could be wrong.

Maybe we are all just focusing on the negatives too much when we should be looking at the positives.

ednwireland

guinnessdrinker wrote: »

. It baffles me how they were re-elected in the first place,

did you see the alternative ? enda and pat, i did vote for the alternative but it didnt feel good doing it, irish politics seems to be stuck in a rut maybe it has been since the 20's(only been here 10 years actually thought the last rainbow seemed to be doing a good job)

would like to see someone with real conviction running a party but that seems to get lost getting to the top

Boggle

However, in saying all that, I personally don't belief that there that much corruption going on in politics anymore

Like the councillor in a southern county who grants planning permission in exchange for the developer using his company (have been told this personally by him so not rumour - and being very careful not to give any details which could get me in trouble)....?
(He's not FF by the way)

Unfortunately, like many things, corruption is very hard to eliminate as people, and in particular those in politics, can be very devious.


By the way, if your talking about things that suck in this country I'd like to add the schooling system (unfair on the staff and unfunded) and the single mothers who get away with having their kids diagnosed with ADHD purely for the extra few quid...

Jackie laughlin

Ed,
May I ask you two questions?

Firstly, what do you mean by "run" a party? It sounds very authoritarian to me.
Secondly, you can't be serious in your desire for conviction per se. What kind of convictions do you have?