BNP writes article on the state of the Irish Economy

Iwasfrozen

I don't often find myself agreeing the Far-Right, Anti European, Pompous controversial machine that is the British Nationalist Party. But allot of this article is hard to argue with.
http://bnp.org.uk/2009/04/the-european-union-has-poisoned-the-celtic-tiger/
What are your thoughts on the BNP's summary and more importantly their suggestion to leave the EU.
Personally I think leaving the EU would be economic sucide but reclaiming the Punt ? That may just be what we need right now.

Benedict XVI

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

I don't often find myself agreeing the Far-Right, Anti European, Pompous controversial machine that is the British Nationalist Party. But allot of this article is hard to argue with.
http://bnp.org.uk/2009/04/the-european-union-has-poisoned-the-celtic-tiger/
What are your thoughts on the BNP's summary and more importantly their suggestion to leave the EU.
Personally I think leaving the EU would be economic sucide but reclaiming the Punt ? That may just be what we need right now.

Read it, what a load of bo**ix

I can't remember Britain devaluing the Pound

The answer would be to devalue the currency as Britain has done, by a third against the Euro and the dollar in six months.

Oh and interest rates are actually being cut, has the author not noticed

Nor can the Irish Government, unlike ours, bring down interest rates. Or even print money

Alun

Benedict XVI wrote: »

I can't remember Britain devaluing the Pound

Harold Wilson did it in 1967. They got pretty close in 1992 too on Black Wednesday.

r0nanf

I could argue with a lot of it, but I'll just highlight this one piece:

BNP rag report wrote:

Ireland needs to get out of the Euro and out of the European Union. It needs to provide Irish jobs for Irish workers in an economy run by Irish people for Irish people.

Thats the solution from the BNP. Quote a whole load of stats, couple them with hearsay borrowed from Irish rag newspapers (single cigarettes, like they ever went away) and the solution is leave the EU and and EMU, and stop foreign nationals working here. Read it again, they don't actually back up their solution with any reasoning bar devaluing the currency. It's rubbish. I know you aren't advocating joining the BNP but it is total sh*te.

The comments below the article are hilarious by the way:

wrote:

Not to mention the "Act to Prohibit Incitement to Hatred on Account of Sexual Orientation" that has given rise to the shocking statistic of a 10% homosexual population in Ireland.

Written by f*cktards for f*cktards

Benedict XVI

Alun wrote: »

Harold Wilson did it in 1967. They got pretty close in 1992 too on Black Wednesday.

Yea I was aware of that but the article implies it was done in the last few months, which is not correct.

The answer would be to devalue the currency as Britain has done, by a third against the Euro and the dollar in six months

r0nanf

Exactly they didn't devalue it, it devalued. Investors pulled their money out due to lowering interest rates and lack of confidence.

SeanW

That article is way off the mark. The Sterling has fallen not so much because the government actually devalued the GBP, but because the markets have little faith in the U.K. economy.

See this video, of Conservative MEP Daniel Hannon talking about the UK economy and government spending with American pundit Glenn Beck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL39wuM-Eng
particularly from 4:00

"Printing money" as the BNP suggests, is not the way create wealth.

Furthermore, the setup for our economic collapse were paved not by the European Central Bank, although their interest rate cuts during our boom were dangerously pro-cyclical for us, so too were Charlie McCreevy's and later Finance ministers pro cyclical budgets, which drove inflation upward and imperiled the public finances.

We let these muppets create this mess, and we reelected them to do more in 2002 and 2007.

ECB rules at least require us to maintain some semblence of fiscal responsibility, which is absent in the U.K and the U.S, where the same socialist nonsense, of borrowing too much, spending too much, inflating too much, printing money too much, regulating too much, all this crap that caused the boom and bust and the worldwide economic freefall, is now being seen as the wonderful solution to all the problems the same policies created.

A bit like trying to cure a hangover by drinking more beer.

Mad Finn

Benedict XVI wrote: »

Yea I was aware of that but the article implies it was done in the last few months, which is not correct.

Sterling has fallen hugely against the euro over the last few months. Remember, it was British banks and building societies (eg Northern Rock) that had to be baled out before Irish ones.

IT has recovered a litle in recent weeks but it is still way down compared to about a year ago. This is not a deliberate action on the part of the government. They can't set the exchange rate. They can influence it, by adjusting interest rates, for example, which we can't do anymore because we don't have our own currency.

In general the article is a pile of disingenuous nonsense. Like where it implies that it was Eastern European immigrants are responsible for our drug abuse culture. Yeah, right!

The fact is that we live in an increasinly small world. Communications and transport technology means that interaction between various countries is much more readily achieved than before. That is something we have to live with. Autarky is not an option for us.

Fratton Fred

Didn't read it. I don't care if the BNP comes up with the ultimate plan to end the redession, they are scum.

mike65

The final solution for the recession?

Fratton Fred

Quick, buy shares in anyone who makes zyklon B

Woger

Ireland leave the EU, are people so stupid they don't realise that the EU more or less paid for most of our new roads? And wasn't the low interest rates due to rates being dictated by the ECB?
The sooner people realise that Ireland is very small fry the better.

nuac

The BNP article is one of series of pieces running down our economy, not to be taken seriously.

We would be like Iceland if we had had a separate currency - economic madness.

segaBOY

Absolute rubbish.

Where to begin?

motorways joining nowhere to nowhere else but adorned with huge “built with EU Regional Aid Funds” signs, etc.

Dublin to Belfast? Dublin to Cork (which will be completed soon)-nowhere to nowhere?

Unemployment has risen to over 12%, the highest for generations.

AFAIK it's currently 11% and 1996 was generations ago?? I'm 24 and I remember then, I must be a great grandfather at this stage if it is the highest for "generations".

All the Irish Government can do is make matters worse by cutting public spending and wages and raising taxes, desperately trying to plug a €20 billion hole in the public purse.

Well anyone who has a bit of sense would have seen how public spending was out of control even back in boom times, needs to be cut imo.

Unemployment in estates around Dublin and other larger Irish towns is soaring past 70% and shops are being reduced to selling single cigarettes and teabags.
120,000 people marched through Dublin recently demanding action and the reversing of public sector wage cuts of 10%

May be true with estates in Dublin but unaware as of yet many larger towns that have such levels of unemployment.
Wasn't aware of any shop selling single teabags (such a stereotype, may be true but look at them playing on our stereotype) or cigarettes apart from those ran by 70 year old men? Thought selling single cigarettes was illegal no?

Also I wasn't aware the pension levy was 10%? Nice bit of sensationalism.

Ireland needs to get out of the Euro and out of the European Union.

Yes and make the punt so valueless that we become a mini Iceland?

This is just rubbish.

O'Coonassa

The BNP think we're just a type of white monkey. I wouldn't pay any mind to them, somebody should DDOS them off the face of the web.

eoinbn

Devaluing might help save a few jobs but it would also drive the price of goods that we import up. It is no silver bullet, if it was then why are britain in the mess that they are in?

futurehope

r0nanf said:

The comments below the article are hilarious by the way:

Not to mention the "Act to Prohibit Incitement to Hatred on Account of Sexual Orientation" that has given rise to the shocking statistic of a 10% homosexual population in Ireland.

Ye, I always thought the figure was much higher...

trailerparkboy

Very good read, thanks for posting.

MikeC101

O'Coonassa wrote: »

The BNP think we're just a type of white monkey. I wouldn't pay any mind to them, somebody should DDOS them off the face of the web.

I'd think it much better to let them air their views in public, and point out the inaccuracies and make fun of the rubbish they spout than give them any kind of basis to complain about opression.

pablomakaveli

The BNP are an absolute joke of an organization. Not too long ago they despised the Irish and now they are calling us (to quote one of the posters below the article) "our Irish cousins".

I despise the BNP and the fact they are using us to push their own agendas is a disgrace.

That article is just pure tripe.

Lizzykins

Ethnic minorities 12% of the population? Wouldn't have thought so but maybe someone would have the figures offhand? It's too late for me to trawl through the last census figures to check.
I hate the BNP.

deadhead13

The BNP may have undergone a PR facelift in recent times, but they are still the same knuckle dragging fascist thugs they have always been.

Op you claim "alot of this article is hard to argue with" - your right. Pure unadultrated bulls**t is, in fact, hard to argue with due to the utter pointlessness of doing so.

jank

Stupid threads make baby jesus cry

deadhead13

jank wrote: »

Stupid threads make baby jesus cry

How does he feel about stupid posts?

CSC

In the same line about immigration from Nigeria and Eastern Europe they talk about soaring crime rates. The BNP never change and that article is way off the mark.

CiaranC

Its uncomfortably close to the stuff you hear trotted out on Boards day after day though.

turgon

To the OP: what parts of this article were hard to argue with?

Was it the part where both Dublin, Galway and Cork were described as "nowhere"?

Or where it suggested we put yet another dent in our competitiveness by withdrawing fro the single currency?

The part where is suggested fags are being sold in 1's? Thats illegal, not that the BNP takes much heed to law and order.

Please clarify OP.

jank

deadhead13 wrote: »

How does he feel about stupid posts?

If you want to waste your time discussing this thread fine but I tend to ignore stuff that was written by a party that prides itself on much the same mantra as the Nazi's.

Boston

Then ignore it. This is politics not after hours, you don't get to decide which threads should be derailed and which shouldn't.

r0nanf

CiaranC wrote: »

Its uncomfortably close to the stuff you hear trotted out on Boards day after day though.

+1 Sadly I can't disagree with you

deadhead13

jank wrote: »

If you want to waste your time discussing this thread fine but I tend to ignore stuff that was written by a party that prides itself on much the same mantra as the Nazi's.

It is my time to waste.......

I have no problem with this thread. By linking the article, all the OP has done is to expose the BNP for what they really are, ie. idiotic to the extreme.

And there isn't much discussion going on, since the OP seems to have disappeared.