Day of Action Shopping

seangal

bridgitt wrote: »

There was a reporter on one of the radio stations who stood at the traffic lights at one of the queues in to a northern border town , and said that 91 of 100 southern registered cars she counted had not children in the car. Given the huge extra volume of cars heading north last Tuesday, compared to a normal Tuesday, it does indeed point to many public servants going north that day to fill their cars with cheap drink, electronics etc. Not only does the private sector here in this country pay the public sector much more than themselves, with better pensions , sick days, hours worked , security etc , but the public servants then spend their money straight in to another jurisdiction. No wonder our governments vat and tax receipts - all submitted by the private sector here to the Revenue - are down so many billions. As one public servant said the other day, those public servants who went on strike and shopped elsewhere when they are paid so much more than the private sector ( or the public sector elsewhere in Europe ) is adding insult to injury.

are u trying to say that the public sector dont have kids?????????
and are you trying to say that private sector should go shopping north but public sector should be stopped??????
grow up dude

seangal

tigerlilyblue wrote: »

In the Independent today the headline stated that teachers took the day to shop up North. This annoys me so much!!

Not only do they assume that everyone up there is a public service worker with NO evidence but yet again they single out the teachers?! I am so tired of the attitude of the media and public towards teachers. It really disheartens me.

I can only speak from my own experience of the day (not guesses or assumptions) which are:

1) Everyone from my school attended the strikes and did NOT go shopping up North.

2) A parent told me today that the carpark in Newry yesterday was like the school car park. They met countless parents from our school with their kids shopping in Newry.

So yes I'm willing to say that it is quite likely that SOME public service workers went up North to shop (although there is no evidence of this) but as was confirmed by a parent many private sector workers headed up North with their kids for the day.

Well I have made a compliant to the Broadcasting Commission about RTE coverage and about the independent on the grounds that they are trying to cause hatred toward the working public sector and cause unrest in Ireland which I believe is there motive behind this as it would cause the government to fall
My complaint was made under the following grounds and I have being informed it is now being investigated under the following
· Objectivity & impartiality in news
· Fairness, objectivity & impartiality in current affairs
· anything which may reasonably be regarded as causing harm or offence , or anything being likely to promote, or incite to, crime, or as tending to undermine the authority of the State.

Sleipnir

Absurdum wrote: »

Will there be a witchunt at the weekend about the amount of cars heading north?

No; because it's a weekend.

peter_de_tool

seangal wrote: »

Well I have made a compliant to the Broadcasting Commission about RTE coverage and about the independent on the grounds that they are trying to cause hatred toward the working public sector and cause unrest in Ireland which I believe is there motive behind this as it would cause the government to fall
My complaint was made under the following grounds and I have being informed it is now being investigated under the following
· Objectivity & impartiality in news
· Fairness, objectivity & impartiality in current affairs
· anything which may reasonably be regarded as causing harm or offence , or anything being likely to promote, or incite to, crime, or as tending to undermine the authority of the State.

Here is a report from the Irish Times, A number of southerners interviewed in the Quays car-park Newry on the day of Action. Most seem to be public sector workers.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1125/1224259395216.html?via=rel

Do you think the reference to the Prison officer's BMW, is worthy of a complaint to.

seclachi

seangal wrote: »

Well I have made a compliant to the Broadcasting Commission about RTE coverage and about the independent on the grounds that they are trying to cause hatred toward the working public sector and cause unrest in Ireland which I believe is there motive behind this as it would cause the government to fall

The only people causing mass unrest at the minute are the people who are striking. The reporting could hardly be considered pro public service, but at the end of the day the media will go with the public mood for sales.

Some of the comments from that IT article are really telling about the view some people take of it. If the people who went up were really so hard up (I`m sure there are some public sector workers who are, who were striking )about paycuts do you think they would have skipped the lines ? Where's there sense of unity for there fellow worker then ? At the end of the day lots of people seem to feel the government is one big cash cow. Too bad for them considering there 20 Billion in debt.

bridgitt

peter_de_tool wrote: »

Here is a report from the Irish Times, A number of southerners interviewed in the Quays car-park Newry on the day of Action. Most seem to be public sector workers.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1125/1224259395216.html?via=rel

Good link. Certainly the reporter on the radio said 91 out of 100 cars observed did not have children , and anyone in the shops in Newry, Derry, Enniskillen etc did not see hordes of children, so that puts paid to the claim that most of the huge exodus that day were families put out by the strike. There were some families certainly, but it seems obvious that most of the huge extra volume of shoppers that day were those shopping without children, who had Tuesday off due to the strike. The difference in the price of spuds and bread and meat is not worth travelling miles for : these people were clearly filling their trolleys - and filling them they were - with drink, drink and more drink , ( because taxes are much less in the north ) and other luxury goods eg chocolate, cigarettes.
Why are our public servants, seemingly the highest paid in Europe, not supporting each other, but instead supporting the public servants ( through their taxes and spending ) in another state ?

Absurdum

bridgitt wrote: »

Good link. Certainly the reporter on the radio said 91 out of 100 cars observed did not have children , and anyone in the shops in Newry, Derry, Enniskillen etc did not see hordes of children, so that puts paid to the claim that most of the huge exodus that day were families put out by the strike. There were some families certainly, but it seems obvious that most of the huge extra volume of shoppers that day were those shopping without children, who had Tuesday off due to the strike. The difference in the price of spuds and bread and meat is not worth travelling miles for : these people were clearly filling their trolleys - and filling them they were - with drink, drink and more drink , ( because taxes are much less in the north ) and other luxury goods eg chocolate, cigarettes.
Why are our public servants, seemingly the highest paid in Europe, not supporting each other, but instead supporting the public servants ( through their taxes and spending ) in another state ?

You're very selective in which claims you dismiss and which you believe, based on the word of some reporter, jimmmy!

bridgitt

Anyone can go and see the shops, car parks etc in N. Ireland for themselves. They can compare the price of spuds and bread and meat, and conclude it is not worth travelling miles for. You can see for yourself people were and are clearly filling their boots with drink, drink and more drink , and luxury foodstuffs, and cigarettes etc.

Dozen Wicked Words

peter_de_tool wrote: »

Here is a report from the Irish Times, A number of southerners interviewed in the Quays car-park Newry on the day of Action. Most seem to be public sector workers.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1125/1224259395216.html?via=rel

Do you think the reference to the Prison officer's BMW, is worthy of a complaint to.

Scientific sampling wasn't it.:rolleyes:

Think the reporters bias is obvious when he mentions the PO's car, didn't see him describe anyone elses, just another little cheap point scoring exercise. Could have been a rust bucket BMW, he doesn't choose to say.

old boy

i happen to know quite a few p.s. workers, none of them would drive a rust bucket, never mind owning one

Absurdum

bridgitt wrote: »

Anyone can go and see the shops, car parks etc in N. Ireland for themselves. They can compare the price of spuds and bread and meat, and conclude it is not worth travelling miles for. You can see for yourself people were and are clearly filling their boots with drink, drink and more drink , and luxury foodstuffs, and cigarettes etc.

This is true jimmmy. Perhaps people need to examine their drinking habits rather than where they are shopping.

pondasher

Irish teachers are the best paid in Europe
Clerical Officers are among the best paid in the EU and 25% better off than their counterparts in the Private Sector
Of course they can afford to go to Newry

Dozen Wicked Words

old boy wrote: »

i happen to know quite a few p.s. workers, none of them would drive a rust bucket, never mind owning one

They must fill, prime and paint.

Mayo Exile

Nice little piece from Diarmuid Doyle from yesterday's Sunday Tribune. The serial public public sector bashers should enjoy it. RTE engaged in a standard of journalistic endeavour more commonly found in the The Sun newspaper on last Tuesday's "exodus" (I believe a pillar of fire was also seen parting the floodwaters to enable shoppers to get there quicker ) to Newry.

Link: http://www.tribune.ie/news/editorial-opinion/article/2009/nov/29/diarmuid-doyle-the-journey-of-the-public-service-e/

Diarmuid Doyle - "The journey of the public service employee from unambitious, unimaginative workhorse to shopaholic destroyer of an entire economy has been a sight to behold"

As RTÉ viewers and readers of Irish newspapers will know by now, public sector workers are the most evil, self-centred, lazy, opportunistic, stupid, dishonest and vile group of individuals Ireland has ever known. Their thievery knows no bounds and goes back generations. DNA tests on a nurse from Enfield recently discovered she is a direct descendant of a family of cruel kitten killers from the 1890s. Investigations into the background of a teacher in Kilkenny revealed that wealthy ancestors on his mother's side used to stand outside the homes of starving people during the famine, munching potato salad sandwiches and feeding the leftovers to the local bird population. What else would he do with that kind of history but look for a job in the public service?

But of all the insults perpetrated by public sector workers over the years, perhaps the worst was their mass Christmas shopping outing to Newry last Tuesday. Luckily, the media was around to uncover the crime. The day of action, RTÉ confidently reported at lunchtime on Tuesday, had led to an influx of public sector workers who had abandoned their picket lines in search of cheap whiskey (they didn't quite put it like that, but it was clear what they were getting at). It was an arresting image, no doubt, and one backed up by no evidence whatsoever. I tuned into the Six-One News later in the day to see if they were able to put any more meat on their story. Sadly, they were not, although that didn't stop them pushing an angle that was too attractive to abandon.

Three witnesses to the madness were interviewed. An Englishman who didn't work in the public sector thought the busier-than-usual shopping day might have had something to do with the work stoppage, although he didn't seem sure. A shopper from Dublin who didn't work in the public sector thought a fellow over there might be in the public sector, although there was no interview with the fellow over there to confirm that suspicion. An elderly woman who didn't work in the public sector was sure she was surrounded by public sector workers, their horns and pointy tails having completely given the game away.

RTÉ at least acknowledged that many of the people who arrived in Newry on Tuesday might have been the parents of children who had the day off (which, of course, was always the most likely explanation for the long queue of southern-registered cars meandering towards the town). Nevertheless the impression created, and amplified in the following day's newspapers, was that thousands of strikers had used their day off – taken ostensibly on a point of principle – as an excuse to boost the economy of a foreign nation. The unstated analysis: what would you expect from the people who ruined the country?

The journey of the public service employee from unambitious, unimaginative workhorse to shopaholic destroyer of an entire economy has been a sight to behold. During the boom years, nobody worth their salt would be caught dead working in the public service. Our thrusting, creative, adaptable workforce demanded the freedom and excitement offered by the private sector to express themselves (whatever that means), win attention, secure promotion and earn lots of money. By contrast, the public sector was looked on as a kind of fusty fallback position for Denis and Denise Dullknickers, where they could toil away unrecognised by anybody. Judged by the rules and morality of the Celtic Badger, these people were unambitious, and therefore slightly weird, losers.

Now that the boom is over – wrecked mainly, let us not forget, by the private sector – the public service has been reimagined as the modern equivalent of Nero's Rome. Denis and Denise have been tried and found guilty of excesses likely to lead to a visit by the International Monetary Fund. A country's future depends on them being chastised for reckless behaviour they were never aware of.

To those people in the private sector who insist on the demonisation of public service workers, I would quote the great Roy Keane: Get Over It. If the public sector was the fantastic land of opportunity you say it is now, you could have joined at any point in your working past. But you made a choice to go the private route, as I did, and as did many of my colleagues who now so boldly lead the charge against the public service. Try as I might, I can't think of a single reason why public sector workers should be held responsible for that choice.

thebman

The next strike day will be very telling. If the North is packed with shoppers again will it still be a coincidence?

jetfiremuck

Mayo Exile wrote: »

Nice little piece from Diarmuid Doyle from yesterday's Sunday Tribune. The serial public public sector bashers should enjoy it. RTE engaged in a standard of journalistic endeavour more commonly found in the The Sun newspaper on last Tuesday's "exodus" (I believe a pillar of fire was also seen parting the floodwaters to enable shoppers to get there quicker ) to Newry.

Link: http://www.tribune.ie/news/editorial-opinion/article/2009/nov/29/diarmuid-doyle-the-journey-of-the-public-service-e/

The argument is not about the job or description. There are slackers and misfits in the private sector as well. The main issue is 'Are public sector workers who have the benefits associated with those jobs entitled due to their employment to be considered immune from the reduction in salaries and benefits that the rest of the country are? Its that simple really.

Bruce2008

thebman wrote: »

The next strike day will be very telling. If the North is packed with shoppers again will it still be a coincidence?

A coincidence??
that some people in the private sector forced to take a day off due to school closures decide to do a bit of xmas shopping up the north...

that some people in the public sector on strike for the day decide to do a bit of xmas shopping up the north...

thats the only coincidence I see... but then my head is not stuck in a biased newspaper claiming its only public sector going shopping....

Bruce2008

Mayo Exile wrote: »

Nice little piece from Diarmuid Doyle from yesterday's Sunday Tribune. The serial public public sector bashers should enjoy it. RTE engaged in a standard of journalistic endeavour more commonly found in the The Sun newspaper on last Tuesday's "exodus" (I believe a pillar of fire was also seen parting the floodwaters to enable shoppers to get there quicker ) to Newry.

Link: http://www.tribune.ie/news/editorial-opinion/article/2009/nov/29/diarmuid-doyle-the-journey-of-the-public-service-e/

Brilliant.... feckin' brilliant....
Ahhhh.... a bit of humour lightens the situation.... thanks for that posting....
Altough I did hear something about the floods last week were due to overuse of public service toilets... they are always being accused of taking the piss.... wonder if there is any truth in it?:rolleyes: