Patriotism?

BryanL

Why is it unpatriotic to shop in Northern Ireland, while in the Republic we shop in Tesco's,marks and spencers, Debenhams and read the dailymail,the sun etc without comment or concern re our patriotism?
Is every action that generates tax revenue patriotic?
Bryan

sceptre

You've got two extremes there and the rational answer to both questions is "it isn't".

I couldn't develop anything that I judged snappy enough around "south of the border", "getting screwed" and "lying back and thinking of England" but perhaps someone else can.

dresden8

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
-- Samuel Johnson

Enda should have used that one in his post-budget speech. Ah well, what can you expect a school-teacher to know.

dresden8

"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."
-- Oscar Wilde

Another one.

Biggins

Cowan says its unpatriotic yet he and his cronies refuses to enact measures that allows millions of euro every month to be exported out of the country by foreign nationals that have their children actually living abroad in their home country,having never set foot here! I call his lack of action in that area alone unpatriotic - when he gets his act together in a number of areas, then he can throw the first stone. Till then he and F.F. can get lost! Roll on the next election.

Fratton Fred

the government coffers may resemble a charity case at the moment, but charity begins at home and your first responsibility is to your family finances tbh.

Darragh29

Until we are rid of these c*nts, I'm not spending, I'm not thinking about spending, in fact I'm doing absolutely sweet FA until we have a new government... That's how I'm gonna protest...

I think a lot of people have decided to do the same, only haven't found the words to express it yet...

Dob74

Its unpatriotic to shop in the north but its ok to hire non-irish over irish! Irish empolyed is down 26k on the year, while non irish employed remained the same. A worrying trend. Nice to see the gov not give a Sh;t.

Latchy

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel

Oscar wilde .

todolist

We should go back into the UK and admit this independence experiment was a failure.Enough is enough.

Red Alert

latchyco wrote: »

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel

Oscar wilde .

They tell us they can't control prices and so to shop around, then when we do it's unpatriotic... These guys need to get real.

Latchy

Red Alert wrote: »

They tell us they can't control prices and so to shop around, then when we do it's unpatriotic... These guys need to get real.

That's the bit i never understood either and as i am sure you well know, ''' you can fool some of the people sometime '' .....sure you know the rest .

nesf

BryanL wrote: »

Why is it unpatriotic to shop in Northern Ireland, while in the Republic we shop in Tesco's,marks and spencers, Debenhams and read the dailymail,the sun etc without comment or concern re our patriotism

It isn't. The calls to patriotism that they've been doing have been silly really. So long as the currency situation stays as it is (i.e. a weak Pound versus a strong Euro) a fair number of people will shop in the North. To expect them to do otherwise is just unrealistic.

the_syco

Dob74 wrote: »

Its unpatriotic to shop in the north but its ok to hire non-irish over irish! Irish empolyed is down 26k on the year, while non irish employed remained the same. A worrying trend. Nice to see the gov not give a Sh;t.

Whilst the people on long term dole, since 2002, that think working in MacDonalds is "beneath them"...

As for the government, they'd rather spend €416 on a hairdresser in the States, than having it done here.

If anyone asks am I unpatriotic, I ask do they support an English football team, they'll always reply "yes", and I leave them at that.

My point: those that call you unpatriotic are usually the least unpatriotic people within 5 miles.

Biggins

I'd love to spend money south of the border but as a simple example, I had to buy a double buggy for the wife this very week.

Cheapest around was 350+ euro for what she was looking for.
I got one in England sent over to me in two days. It cost me 160 Euro in total including carriage.
I love my country but as nesf said, it would be unrealistic to not shop elsewhere (especialy when times are getting toughter).

AngryHippie

Is it unpatriotic to order all my books from amazon, because they work out nearly 25% cheaper, and get delivered to my door ? I suppose it is helping to fund An Post......

P. Breathnach

Biggins wrote: »

I had to buy a double buggy for the wife ...

There's a man's point of view!

Latchy

It might be a simplistic example and being done to death before, including this thread .But no good the guy/ womon at the top telling you or I to be patriotic and buy irish in ireland while jetting of someplace to have his hair ,and her nails done in paris or NYC .

Biggins

P. Breathnach wrote: »

There's a man's point of view!

LOL she asked me to get her one specifically.
I do all the pushing and it don't bother me a bit. lol :P

Darragh29

Sure why would you buy anything in this country when you are only contributing to more waste and $410 hair jobs and 10K transatlantic flights and 8K dinners with 1K tips???

nesf

AngryHippie wrote: »

Is it unpatriotic to order all my books from amazon, because they work out nearly 25% cheaper, and get delivered to my door ? I suppose it is helping to fund An Post......

Sir, not only is it unpatriotic, it is foolish! The Book Depository is often cheaper than Amazon and has free delivery to Ireland...

RiverWilde

todolist wrote: »

We should go back into the UK and admit this independence experiment was a failure.Enough is enough.

Going back into the UK wouldn't bother me but I think there are too many people here in the south who'd have a conniption at the idea. I think that our independence from the UK was a mistake. The south doesn't seem to be run with the 'majority' in mind. When policy is being formulated the clique who run things look after themselves and the rest of us can go hang.

Politicians who whinge that we're being 'unpatriotic' for shopping in the north make me laugh. They'd rather we starved and our children suffered so that they can retain their overstuffed positions. When was the last time a southern politician voluntarily resigned for getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar?

Riv

turgon

Fratton Fred wrote: »

the government coffers may resemble a charity case at the moment, but charity begins at home and your first responsibility is to your family finances tbh.

Yeah but if you were getting abused and bullied by your family members, then you exactly wouldn't be eager to help them out.

The government want us to be patriotic and give them tax revenues? So they can spend it on what??? The fàs debacle comes to mind. If they werent wasting so much doe I would go as far as donate money to them. But there just screwing us so much of the time.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

antSionnach

How incredibly arrogant such a suggestion is, coming from Government.

It's their elected job to boost this economy right now, to encourage consumer spending and to put citizens in a position whereby they actually can spend comfortably... not increase the VAT and income tax rates that actually choke this process. The UK & NI administration can do that, why the hell can't Brian Cowen and co?

mumhaabu

Anybody here old enough to remember a certain Mr. Charles J. Haughey saying it was time to tighten our belts while her was busy having £1,000 dinners and dressing in Charvet shirts, while income taxes were at 65%.

Then today you have Jabba Harney getting Hairdo's of FAS, (which would be fine if it was a FAS trainee doing it, but was the FAS Visa that paid it). And they say lightning never strikes twice.

This generation of plebs never knew the wrongdoings that FF did before and are now just seeing Fianna Fails true colour which are not those of Patriots but those of Traitors.

dresden8

Where was the call to patriotism when the landowners, developers, bankers and builders were raping the ordinary working people of the state, the private sector and, yes indeed, even the public sector?

Silent as fuck, that's where it was, and now they're going for the classic divide and conquer of the working classes that our lords and masters have always gone for, Brits or not.

The worst thing is, half the working class have fallen for it, hating unions and public servants.

Grow the fuck up and open your eyes you morons.

the_syco

dresden8 wrote: »

The worst thing is, half the working class have fallen for it, hating unions and public servants.

Grow the fuck up and open your eyes you morons.

The eyes are open, and we see different sections of the public sector spending our money, and asking for more money, whilst people are being let off left, right, and centre in the private sector.

How they moaned at getting less than the private sector when times were good... but now that times are bad, do they still want to be paid "in line" with their private sector counterparts? NAY! They still want more money?

dresden8

the_syco wrote: »

The eyes are open, and we see different sections of the public sector spending our money, and asking for more money, whilst people are being let off left, right, and centre in the private sector.

How they moaned at getting less than the private sector when times were good... but now that times are bad, do they still want to be paid "in line" with their private sector counterparts? NAY! They still want more money?

Well done. You're right, we should fuck more employees out on the street, not bankers, developers, landowners and politicians.

How could I have been so shortsighted?

RichMc70

As Bertie, Charlie and anyone with half a brain would say....'it's every man for himself' in this current climate.

If you can get a better deal somewhere else then I say fair play.

Biffo and his cronies want us in the global market, so therefore why not pre-empty his wishes and getting buying abroad and be a super-eu-patriot. :pac:

Fratton Fred

turgon wrote: »

Yeah but if you were getting abused and bullied by your family members, then you exactly wouldn't be eager to help them out.

The government want us to be patriotic and give them tax revenues? So they can spend it on what??? The fàs debacle comes to mind. If they werent wasting so much doe I would go as far as donate money to them. But there just screwing us so much of the time.

you missed by (not very well made) point.

I am off to ASDA in Eniskillen to get our Christmas shopping, because my family finances (my first priority) can't afford to do it in Dublin.