Carlow/Kilkenny Elections

ottostreet

This is a thread on behalf of KCLR.

Which of the local representatives will you be voting for in the elections, and why? It's simply to get an idea of who is viewed as popular and who isn't.

maccored

have elections been called?

When the time comes, I'll be voting for SF's John Cassin - or whoever the party put forward locally. Reasons why are SF have been correct in the assumptions for the past few years. They outlined how Lisbon 2 would give our budget independence to the EU, they warned the recession was on its way a long time back plus they are warning that 4 years is too short a time to pull 15billion out of the economy as it'll cause the country to collapse. No doubt they're right about that as well. As of yet, I havent seen SF involved in the bull****ting the other parties have been doing, so they get my vote for that.

tombull82

I second Maccord.

John Cassin

Parties does not concern me, its purely down to the Candidate, (something I think people really need to start looking at nowadays.(vote for the person not the party))

I fully back his ethics and beliefs,
This is his first year on the job and he is already making more noise than any of the rest of his peers.

(Outspoken candidates who are not afraid to Question the big boys and they're shameful policies will always get my vote)

muggyog

Dont forget that John is in a party. If you want to vote for a person and not a party you have to vote for independent candidate. What a brilliant situation it would be to have a Dail consisting of only independents!

tombull82

I know he is.
In my previous post I meant I would not vote for John purely because he is SF.
i.e it is the Person I would vote for.

A lot of people have always voted for candidates based on their Party which IMHO is Wrong.

I have heard some people say they would not vote for him purely because he is a SF candidate, But why ??

ottostreet

Cheers guys, we're just trying to get a feel for who's popular and who isn't.

mickos

+ 1 for me on John Cassin. SF are the only party to have shown there own solid view on what they want to happen in the best interest of the country and John Cassin would be an ideal candidate.
I'd be interested in campaigning for John when the time comes. Hopefully sooner rather than later. An alternative to the current set up has to be found and I just don't think Fine Gael or Labour are it.

Stained Class

tombull82 wrote: »

I have heard some people say they would not vote for him purely because he is a SF candidate, But why ??

Why?

Cos, in some people's opinion SF is a world populated by people who wear Celtic shirts, have tattoos,hijack any protest going, wear tracksuit bottoms (which they constantly put their hands down),smoke Johnny Blues,are not well educated,walk with a pigeon like gait,sometimes (allegedly)involved in crime,work themselves up into a frenzy at Wolfe Tones gigs & support Man U.

In short a world where everybody knows your name & your name is Bud.

mirror mirror

John Cassin will get our vote too......

foggy_lad

there is something wrong about voting for a party whose representatives come across as common thugs so i wont be giving sinn fein any consideration regardless of their candidates and the same will go for the green party after the antics of their mr.gogarty in the Dail

tombull82

Stained Class wrote: »

Why?

Cos, in some people's opinion SF is a world populated by people who wear Celtic shirts, have tattoos,hijack any protest going, wear tracksuit bottoms (which they constantly put their hands down),smoke Johnny Blues,are not well educated,walk with a pigeon like gait,sometimes (allegedly)involved in crime,work themselves up into a frenzy at Wolfe Tones gigs & support Man U.

In short a world where everybody knows your name & your name is Bud.

foggy_lad wrote: »

there is something wrong about voting for a party whose representatives come across as common thugs so i wont be giving sinn fein any consideration regardless of their candidates and the same will go for the green party after the antics of their mr.gogarty in the Dail

Harsh Generalization here IMO

Remember this thread was raised about Local level, in which I personally believe the person is more important than their affiliated Party.

But each to their own I suppose

91011

I'm not in the Carlow area, but in Kildare south, I'll be looking for those who don't look to maximise expenses and those who have the experience and education to understand how to get things moving again. - So in carlow, that would mena no vote whatsoever for MJ Nolan and his type. (no issue with any FF candidate that shows conviction to proper politics)

General party policies will come into the equation, but FF FG & Lab are all quite similar in ideology these days, so my vote is up for grans by all three parties and possibly independents.

It won't be SF as their policies just don't stack up for me and are very much to the left.

foggy_lad

Can KCLR not do their own research and pay people to do polls in the local area?

ottostreet wrote: »

This is a thread on behalf of KCLR.

Which of the local representatives will you be voting for in the elections, and why? It's simply to get an idea of who is viewed as popular and who isn't.

ottostreet

foggy_lad wrote: »

Can KCLR not do their own research and pay people to do polls in the local area?

This is part of our research. There's a lot more involved than just using Boards, but its handy to have also!

maccored

Stained Class wrote: »

Why?

Cos, in some people's opinion SF is a world populated by people who wear Celtic shirts, have tattoos,hijack any protest going, wear tracksuit bottoms (which they constantly put their hands down),smoke Johnny Blues,are not well educated,walk with a pigeon like gait,sometimes (allegedly)involved in crime,work themselves up into a frenzy at Wolfe Tones gigs & support Man U.

In short a world where everybody knows your name & your name is Bud.

Ive never, ever read such an uneducated view. no offense. If thats the impression you have of SF, you really need to get out more and actually meet people who are in SF.

maynooth_rules

tombull82 wrote: »

I have heard some people say they would not vote for him purely because he is a SF candidate, But why ??

Because they are the political wing of a terrorist organisation that has the blood of hundreds of innocent people on their hands. Take the example of Gerry McCabes murder. Sinn Fein struggle to condone that dreadful act. Martin Ferris, a SF TD went to meet one of the muderers when he was released from prison. The party has a bloody long long way to go before I even consider voting for them. However they went up in my estimate by bringing the by election case to court.
The only party I will never vote for is the disease that is FF. I am not one to buy into the Carlow bull****, as that is the reason we have been represented by a nothing politician like MJ Nolan for many years. I did vote for Mary White last time out, and I am disgusted that I did. I think I shall be voting for John Paul Phelan of FG

maccored

if we are going to live in the past, we can say much the same thing about FF and FG. still, theres the politics forum for that, not this one.

maynooth_rules

Very very recent history ties Sin Fein to the IRA. How you can compare that to FF and FG is beyond me. If an candidate in Carlow/Kilkenny is willing to stand for SF then they will not receive my vote. IRA atrocities are still evident in my mind. Some people may want to overlook them but many dont.

maccored

like the party that kickstarted the peacetalks with john humes in the 80s? I wonder who they were. as I say, start looking to the future - not the past. plus unless you understand why the ira existed, or lived in the north as a nationalist during those times and gained some understanding, then its best not to try to moralise on what went on.

Plenty bad was done on all sides - republican, unionist and government. there arent any innocent parties, so if you blame the ira, blame the rest of them while yer at it.

Stained Class

maccored wrote: »

like the party that kickstarted the peacetalks with john humes in the 80s? I wonder who they were. as I say, start looking to the future - not the past. plus unless you understand why the ira existed, or lived in the north as a nationalist during those times and gained some understanding, then its best not to try to moralise on what went on.

Plenty bad was done on all sides - republican, unionist and government. there arent any innocent parties, so if you blame the ira, blame the rest of them while yer at it.

Jeez! This type of attitude makes my blood boil!:mad:

This is Southern Ireland, the Republic Of Ireland, Not Northern Ireland.

This thread is supposed to be about local representatives.

Where's the DUP/UUP candidates in this area? Eh?

Nowhere, that's where they are! Nothing to do with us, whatsoever.

No matter though, the Shinner mindset is to stirr up all the old crap again, recycle it, rehash it a few more times yet again, simmer slowly, add a bit of spice to suit themselves & then feed the resulting bile to a new generation of impressoinable souls!

Apolagies for the rant, but it had to be said.

leincar

Unfortunately a lot of our problems stem from people voting in National elections for local candidates rather than looking at the National picture.

Healy-Rae and Lowry have received extra for their constituencies at the expense of other parts of the country purely with the express aim of getting re-elected. Effectively they are buying their respective electorates at our expense.

On the other hand you have people voted for because they are local or from one end of the constituency. Carlow/Kilkenny is a perfect example. M.J. Nolan and Mary White from the Carlow end and Bobby Aylward from the Kilkenny end. The one common denominator is their total and utter ineptitude and surely they will be shown the door.

In the days we are living in at the moment, surely we should be looking at people who can and are willing to legislate on the nations behalf and do their utmost for the nation rather then look after a local problem for Mr X or Mrs Y down the street. That is what we have councillors for.

As for Sinn Féin, not at the moment and maybe never. For a start and looking after Mé Féin, I am not willing to vote for a party who will levy me 1% annually on assets over one million euro. I don't mind paying a fair share and even with our present taxes, and future taxes and levies plus taxes I still pay in the U.S. I still have a great take home salary, but I have not travelled the world for twenty years spending lots of time away from my family, climbing the greasy corporate pole through hard work for these people to take a chunk of it away.

Then there is Sinn Féins links to criminality. It will take at least a full generation to rid themselves of Adams, McGuinness, Ferris and people of that ilk. On that basis I say no.

Unless a new dynamic party comes along in the morning my voting options will be either Fine Gael/Labour or Labour/Fine Gael depending on which combination I feel will do the best for the country. At the moment I feel the Labour/FineGael option might serve us best. However, for anyone out there who will say not Enda Kenny or not Eamon Gilmore, just look at what we have at the moment. I have become a junkie to all thats going on as its pure car crash politics.

Covert2007

leincar wrote: »

Unfortunately a lot of our problems stem from people voting in National elections for local candidates rather than looking at the National picture.

Healy-Rae and Lowry have received extra for their constituencies at the expense of other parts of the country purely with the express aim of getting re-elected. Effectively they are buying their respective electorates at our expense.

On the other hand you have people voted for because they are local or from one end of the constituency. Carlow/Kilkenny is a perfect example. M.J. Nolan and Mary White from the Carlow end and Bobby Aylward from the Kilkenny end. The one common denominator is their total and utter ineptitude and surely they will be shown the door.

In the days we are living in at the moment, surely we should be looking at people who can and are willing to legislate on the nations behalf and do their utmost for the nation rather then look after a local problem for Mr X or Mrs Y down the street. That is what we have councillors for.

As for Sinn Féin, not at the moment and maybe never. For a start and looking after Mé Féin, I am not willing to vote for a party who will levy me 1% annually on assets over one million euro. I don't mind paying a fair share and even with our present taxes, and future taxes and levies plus taxes I still pay in the U.S. I still have a great take home salary, but I have not travelled the world for twenty years spending lots of time away from my family, climbing the greasy corporate pole through hard work for these people to take a chunk of it away.

Then there is Sinn Féins links to criminality. It will take at least a full generation to rid themselves of Adams, McGuinness, Ferris and people of that ilk. On that basis I say no.

Unless a new dynamic party comes along in the morning my voting options will be either Fine Gael/Labour or Labour/Fine Gael depending on which combination I feel will do the best for the country. At the moment I feel the Labour/FineGael option might serve us best. However, for anyone out there who will say not Enda Kenny or not Eamon Gilmore, just look at what we have at the moment. I have become a junkie to all thats going on as its pure car crash politics.

I for one will be voting for John (SF) if he decides to run, he is a great worker on the ground, challenging the establishment and speaking out about government waste (HSE spending €1000 a day to rent an office in the Shamrock Plaza) and doing something about it (getting the Comptroller and Auditor General to investigate the value for money of the lease).

He has also attempted to raise the issue of restoring the beet industry to recreate some employment in the county.

Re people's posts about SF, John is 28 and was not involved in any of the issues ye harp on about, i suspect many of the people who are on this board are politicos attached to some political party trying to discredit John by dragging up the past.

FG and FF fought a brutal civil war in the last Century - more people died in that Civil War over 18 months in 1922-23 that in the 30 years of conflict in the North. Lets face it those who fought the Civil War weren't blowing kisses at one another. It think it is time to get over it, if people in the North can share power in a community power sharing arrangement - and get on and work the institutions for everyones' benefit - then it is time for people in the rest of Ireland to do the same - or be constantly stuck in the past - but then again it might suit some people to be stuck back in the past, in their golden circle.

For me Sinn Féin have shown that they are capable of great local, national and international leadership, and have delivered on massive change in Ireland.

If Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness ring the White House, the person on the other side of the phone will know who they are, if Enda Kenny or Eamon Gilmore ring, they will say Enda who? or Eamonn who?

Re the above comment on the 1% levy on assets above €1m - this type of wealth tax is widespread throughout Europe and if this country is to survive we will need to introduce it - no one wants to pay taxes that's why their is such a huge whole in the public finances. Alot of high earners probably avail of all the legal ways of avoiding taxes that FF have brought in. Its time that someone in Government had the backbone to end the reliefs and make tax system more fair.

We need more Sinn Feiners not Me Féiners.

leincar

I wonder if KCLR will be publishing information in the near future regarding who may or may not get elected. One thing I forgot to write was what is the general feeling in the constituency regarding John McGuinness. As you know he has recently published a book called 'The House Always Wins' about the trials and tribulations in Dáil Eireann.

This is what gets me and annoys me about John McGuinness. This is a government TD who has criticised heavily the performance of his party leader and senior people within his party. They just happen to be the senior party in government and if John McGuinness feels so strongly why does he not join the opposition in opposing what is going on right now. While he has put distance between Bobby Aylward and MJ Nolan and himself I am beginning to wonder will it be enough to be re-elected. I'm beginning to think probably but shouldn't be.

leincar

Covert2007 wrote: »

I for one will be voting for John (SF) if he decides to run, he is a great worker on the ground, challenging the establishment and speaking out about government waste (HSE spending €1000 a day to rent an office in the Shamrock Plaza) and doing something about it (getting the Comptroller and Auditor General to investigate the value for money of the lease).

He has also attempted to raise the issue of restoring the beet industry to recreate some employment in the county.

Re people's posts about SF, John is 28 and was not involved in any of the issues ye harp on about, i suspect many of the people who are on this board are politicos attached to some political party trying to discredit John by dragging up the past.

FG and FF fought a brutal civil war in the last Century - more people died in that Civil War over 18 months in 1922-23 that in the 30 years of conflict in the North. Lets face it those who fought the Civil War weren't blowing kisses at one another. It think it is time to get over it, if people in the North can share power in a community power sharing arrangement - and get on and work the institutions for everyones' benefit - then it is time for people in the rest of Ireland to do the same - or be constantly stuck in the past - but then again it might suit some people to be stuck back in the past, in their golden circle.

For me Sinn Féin have shown that they are capable of great local, national and international leadership, and have delivered on massive change in Ireland.

If Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness ring the White House, the person on the other side of the phone will know who they are, if Enda Kenny or Eamon Gilmore ring, they will say Enda who? or Eamonn who?

Re the above comment on the 1% levy on assets above €1m - this type of wealth tax is widespread throughout Europe and if this country is to survive we will need to introduce it - no one wants to pay taxes that's why their is such a huge whole in the public finances. Alot of high earners probably avail of all the legal ways of avoiding taxes that FF have brought in. Its time that someone in Government had the backbone to end the reliefs and make tax system more fair.

We need more Sinn Feiners not Me Féiners.

Just a couple of things and this is probably the wrong thread as it was started just to get a feel for voting patterns in the constituency.

I am in rural Carlow and have never heard of John Cassin. I am sure he is an honourable guy and as you rightly pointed out at 28 will not have any taint, real or otherwise attached to him.

However, as I previously wrote it will take a generation for Sinn Féin to make real inroads into the Irish electorate, and only if a lot of policies change. For a start, I think he needs to fight the right battle. With the best will in the world the sugar beet industry will not return to Carlow, or Mallow. I think we could possibly agree that that is another mess caused by Fianna Fáil.

Before I continue I should also say that I am not affiliated to any political party, although I have a healthy dislike for Fianna Fáil. I would also admit I have no affection for Sinn Féin, and yes mainly for past events that while they have left it behind, some of us of a certain age will well remember. I know I'm a forty five year old curmudgeon.

The 1% annual levy on assets over one million is a wealth tax that has been dismantled in most countries in Europe. France, Holland and Switzerland are I think and I stand to be corrected the only ones who still have it. This alone has caused a major flight of wealth from the France and has further narrowed their tax base as a lot of the super rich are gone and the middle class further squeezed.

I pay a lot of tax, a hell of a lot. By years end my tax alone will have gone into six figures. On my salary I have no problem or objection to paying tax. I made a concious decision to return to this country and live here so, so be it. My wife and kids love living here and at the end of the summer we had a discussion on staying or leaving and we are staying. We get childrens allowance. I stated on a previous thread last year that we don't need it, it should be means tested and capped at a certain amount no matter how many children are in the household.(My wife donates it to charity).

My main objection to a 1% levy is it would be a tax on assets I have bought and accumulated on net income. My tax has already been paid and if I decide to sell some of my assets I will then pay capital gains. Again no problem with that, but to dip into my wallet every year for a levy on assets I may never sell or realise a profit on, is pure theft. Nothing more, nothing less. If it does come in with any administration I will be out of this country quicker than you can say "They haven't gone away you know."

godanicus

A.B.F.F Anyone but fine fail.

lucylu

godanicus wrote: »

A.B.F.F Anyone but fine fail.

you mean
Anyone But Fianna Failure

maccored

boiling blood eh! I already give my opinion on the local side of things. the response that was making your 'blood boil', was to something completely different.

Please do try and keep up and try to move forward. 'Shinner mindset' indeed. at least I read complete threads before boiling my blood. It didnt have to be said btw. If you'd been following the thread you might have understood what I was responding to.

Stained Class wrote: »

Jeez! This type of attitude makes my blood boil!:mad:

This is Southern Ireland, the Republic Of Ireland, Not Northern Ireland.

This thread is supposed to be about local representatives.

Where's the DUP/UUP candidates in this area? Eh?

Nowhere, that's where they are! Nothing to do with us, whatsoever.

No matter though, the Shinner mindset is to stirr up all the old crap again, recycle it, rehash it a few more times yet again, simmer slowly, add a bit of spice to suit themselves & then feed the resulting bile to a new generation of impressoinable souls!

Apolagies for the rant, but it had to be said.

godanicus

lucylu wrote: »

you mean
Anyone But Fianna Failure

well said