Carlow Politics

Villain

Thread is for a few things, firstly a quick poll based on declared candidates for Carlow Kilkenny.

Secondly I want to get a Blog site going for the Election, is anyone interested in helping out by posting updates/articles?

Genghiz Cohen

If that's choice...
Spoil?

maccored

who's missing exactly? and how does a spoiled vote help anyone?

Villain

Thats the current list I have but I'm sure a few independents will try and make the ticket.

Dj

Just looking at the poll results i see the Sinn Feiners are out in full force .

I dunno why Carlow and Kilkenny are not separated for the General election at least Carlow would be guaranteed a TD.

Jacques Thelad

Well, I just looked up Pat Deering (FG) on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAtYZdT3Xtk&feature=player_embedded

From 4 minutes in.

What's the opposite of 'charisma'?

thetonynator

Dj wrote: »

Just looking at the poll results i see the Sinn Feiners are out in full force .

I dunno why Carlow and Kilkenny are not separated for the General election at least Carlow would be guaranteed a TD.

Would require an extra seat due to there being no 2 seat constituencies, so there would be two 3 seaters and over representation.

scallioneater

thetonynator wrote: »

Would require an extra seat due to there being no 2 seat constituencies, so there would be two 3 seaters and over representation.

I'd have to disagree Tonynator.....No extra seat required, just transfer a TD from Laois-Offaly along with the part of Laois that is in Carlow Town's economic area. Do the same for South Kildare and return the exiles from Rathvilly. Hey Presto, 3 seat constituency with no extra TDs. Carlow town is big enough and Carlow County deserves its own political sphere. Local people and politicians should be demanding that the Boundary Commission address Carlow's disgraceful treatment. The only thing stopping Carlow from having proper representation is a lack of will to fight for it.

thetonynator

Carlows population is 50349. Kilkennys is 87558.

Carlow is not under represented in the constituency in terms of population, yes it's smaller than Kilkenny, but there were two carlow TD's voted in last time, which means the county is well represented.

byhookorbycrook

two flyers through the door-no-one even rang the bell, they may have heard of me....

Thundercats Ho

scallioneater wrote: »

I'd have to disagree Tonynator.....No extra seat required, just transfer a TD from Laois-Offaly along with the part of Laois that is in Carlow Town's economic area. Do the same for South Kildare and return the exiles from Rathvilly. Hey Presto, 3 seat constituency with no extra TDs. Carlow town is big enough and Carlow County deserves its own political sphere. Local people and politicians should be demanding that the Boundary Commission address Carlow's disgraceful treatment. The only thing stopping Carlow from having proper representation is a lack of will to fight for it.

the process of setting electoral boundaries, rather than using uniform geographic standards is known as what?

Git101

Thundercats Ho wrote: »

the process of setting electoral boundaries, rather than using uniform geographic standards is known as what?

That would be gerrymandering......

Do I win a prize ..huh, huh, do I win a prize ??

road_high

scallioneater wrote: »

I'd have to disagree Tonynator.....No extra seat required, just transfer a TD from Laois-Offaly along with the part of Laois that is in Carlow Town's economic area. Do the same for South Kildare and return the exiles from Rathvilly. Hey Presto, 3 seat constituency with no extra TDs. Carlow town is big enough and Carlow County deserves its own political sphere. Local people and politicians should be demanding that the Boundary Commission address Carlow's disgraceful treatment. The only thing stopping Carlow from having proper representation is a lack of will to fight for it.

We already have far too many TD's and constituencies though. What I find far more absurd is how west of Ireland places like Kerry are divided into two and over represented. i.e. 6 seats when the population would dictate only 5 seats.

tommycahir

Hi guys
Let's try keep this on topic and associated with the Carlow region. There is a specific forum for political debate/comment (link) and an associated sub forum for the 2011 election (link)

Regards
Tommy

scallioneater

Thundercats Ho wrote: »

the process of setting electoral boundaries, rather than using uniform geographic standards is known as what?

There are many ways to construct electoral districts. One way is Gerrymandering,as you allude to, which requires an ulterior motive. I don't think creating an electoral district for the Carlow area is gerrymandering, because there is no ulterior motive in providing it. The only purpose of a Carlow constituency would be to provide political representation to a population center. I don't think that a Carlow 3 seater- Laois Offaly 4 seater would benefit any party more than the current situation, but it would provide a political base for Carlow to develop. That is my only point. What are the 'uniform geographic standards' that you think are being used? I think you will find the Boundary Commission has already crossed over most of them already.

scallioneater

thetonynator wrote: »

Carlows population is 50349. Kilkennys is 87558.

Carlow is not under represented in the constituency in terms of population, yes it's smaller than Kilkenny, but there were two carlow TD's voted in last time, which means the county is well represented.

Hi, Tony, those figures reflect County Populations. The population of County Carlow is 50K. Kilkenny city is located in the center of Kilkenny County with all of its catchment area within the Kilkenny County area. Significant sections of Laois and Kidare are within Carlow town's catchment area, but the population of those areas is not counted as being attached to Carlow county. Businesses and national chains recognise this and locate in Carlow because they claim that Carlow town has a catchment population of 100K. My point is that the Carlow area ought to be a political center because it is an economic and population center.

Dj

thetonynator wrote: »

Carlows population is 50349. Kilkennys is 87558.

Carlow is not under represented in the constituency in terms of population, yes it's smaller than Kilkenny, but there were two carlow TD's voted in last time, which means the county is well represented.

Carlow wasn't represented in 1997-2002 Government and it could easily happen again.

Dj

FF Bobby Aylward* KK
FF John McGuinness* KK
FG John Paul Phelan KK
FG Phil Hogan KK
SF Kathleen Funchion KK
Lab Ann Phelan KK
ULA Conor Mac Liam KK

FG Patrick Deering CW
Greens Mary White CW
FF Jennifer Murnane O'Connor CW
Lab Des Hurley CW
SF John Cassin CW

Just wanted to break it down between Carlow and Kilkenny candidates please correct me if any of them are wrong.
The way i see it Deering and Cassin probably have the best chance out of the Carlow candidates

Take Back Carlow Kilkenny

Dj wrote: »

Carlow wasn't represented in 1997-2002 Government and it could easily happen again.

If MJ Nolan and Mary White were considered to be people who represented Carlow, I give up now. Carlow hasn't had a proper representative for a seriously long time.Those two were only there in spirit and to serve self interest.

UDAWINNER

Take Back Carlow Kilkenny wrote: »

If MJ Nolan and Mary White were considered to be people who represented Carlow, I give up now. Carlow hasn't had a proper representative for a seriously long time.Those two were only there in spirit and to serve self interest.

Agree totally, but it would be nice to have a good TD from carlow.

Jacques Thelad

Agree. Great man for taking credit for things the bold MJ. Did **** all. When I asked here if anyone could name a single thing he had done for Carlow, tumbleweed blew across the Board. Carlow may as well have elected a fish tank. At least they look nice.

As for Mary White. I don't think the people of Carlow will every forgive her for supporting the old folks medical card fiasco.

testicle

I can't believe there's so many supporters of <snip> in Carlow.

Thundercats Ho

testicle wrote: »

I can't believe there's so many supporters of <snip> in Carlow.

Yawn

Nothingbetter2d

imo none of the carlow candidates deserve a vote.

ive never seen any of them doing anything good for carlow

Laois_Man

Dj wrote: »

FF Bobby Aylward* KK
FF John McGuinness* KK
FG John Paul Phelan KK
FG Phil Hogan KK
SF Kathleen Funchion KK
Lab Ann Phelan KK
ULA Conor Mac Liam KK

FG Patrick Deering CW
Greens Mary White CW
FF Jennifer Murnane O'Connor CW
Lab Des Hurley CW
SF John Cassin CW

Just wanted to break it down between Carlow and Kilkenny candidates please correct me if any of them are wrong.
The way i see it Deering and Cassin probably have the best chance out of the Carlow candidates

You have ommited Noel Walsh - Independent candidate based in Kikkenny!

Despite my username, I do now live in Carlow town and reguardless of the quality of candidates representing Carlow, I will vote for Carlow candidates and ONLY Carlow candidates (Not all of them though) and I would encourage others to do likewise - Even if you only vote on a Party level rather than an individual level....and many would say, voting on an individual local level is half of what's wrong with our political system anyway!

maynooth_rules

UDAWINNER wrote: »

Agree totally, but it would be nice to have a good TD from carlow.

Why, it should not matter. lets try and get away from this parish pump politics. We have had MJ Nolan as a Carlow representative for years and he has been a laughable disgrace. We are electing these people to deal with national issues so there is no reason for us to pick a Carlow candidate over a Kilkenny one.

byhookorbycrook

maynooth_rules wrote: »

Why, it should not matter. lets try and get away from this parish pump politics. We have had MJ Nolan as a Carlow representative for years and he has been a laughable disgrace. We are electing these people to deal with national issues so there is no reason for us to pick a Carlow candidate over a Kilkenny one.

In an ideal world, yes, but this is Ireland. See how Willie O Dea is so popular?It's a bit like taking a stand on health insurance as immoral (using it to skip the queue) but if everyone else does...

sonic85

any word on independant candidates for carlow/kilkenny. i dont think i can give any of the parties my vote - if theres no decent independants running ill have to go for sinn fein

testicle

sonic85 wrote: »

any word on independant candidates for carlow/kilkenny. i dont think i can give any of the parties my vote - if theres no decent independants running ill have to go for sinn fein

I don't believe that there are any Independent candidates declared in Carlow/Kilkenny.

Thundercats Ho

Conor MacLiam is running in the Carlow Kilkenny Constituency for the ULA /SP close as you'll get

sonic85

had a look around some local websites though and found these on KCLRs site:

Independent:


Noel Walsh (kk)
Ramie Leahy (kk)

my old man listens to KCLR most days and heard an independant candidate on sue nunns show last week that he reckons sounds like a good bet. hard to know