Fianna Fail's Top 100 Strokes - Add Yours

mikemac1

The whole of the mid west could see Dells plan years before they happened.
Now maybe there was nothing the government could do to be fair. But send two ministers to Texas after the decision was made?
Why weren't they out there lobbying three, two and one year before it happened?

cml387 wrote: »

Buying out the Talbot workers by giving them wages for life to do nothing.

What's this?

I have googled, couldn't find anything

cml387

mikemac1 wrote: »

The whole of the mid west could see Dells plan years before they happened.
Now maybe there was nothing the government could do to be fair. But send two ministers to Texas after the decision was made?
Why weren't they out there lobbying three, two and one year before it happened?




What's this?

I have googled, couldn't find anything

Here you are:

A typical example was the Talbot car workers dispute in 1981. Talbot wished to close its assembly plant in Santry, north Dublin. Haughey, desperate not to have a messy dispute on his constituency doorstep on the eve of an election, simply guaranteed the workers that the State - i.e. everyone else in Ireland - would pay their salaries!

lastlaugh

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Nothing funny or original about the repeated-ad-nauseum phrase "haters gonna hate".

If and when you come up with a post that's original and funny that we can have a laugh at, let us know!

Liam, what's this 'we' business?

I'm sure I've made some people laugh at some of my posts, and I like the thoughts of that to be honest.

Your posts are extremely boring and depressing. You seem like a bitter, judgemental individual and I actually kind of feel sorry for you a little bit.

squod

Blowing €1,000,000,000 on luas. No matter how many times I've heard this story it doesn't add up. Plenty of people around that project with heavy pockets.

Satts

Making us work untill we are 68 before getting the old age pension.
Day light robbers. :mad:

ilovesleep

We all partied

No we all fcuking hell did not party.

gsxr1

Putting a morbidly obese person in charge of the nations health.

squod

Inverse to the power of one! wrote: »

2 pages in and no mention of the bank guarantee!!! :O

Probably the biggest fúck-up in international financial history!

LABOUR LEADER Eamon Gilmore repeated his charge of “economic treason” against the Taoiseach.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0113/1224287413015.html

Never forget.

Xenophile

Western Rail Corridor.

mikemac1

One of the daftest schemes they ever dreamed up

Put housing estates in small villages where there is hardly any employment.

An overheated property market and they give tax breaks for all this

And for what? Many of these are empties now and will likely get knocked.

They had some succuss with Section 50 which built modern accomadation for students and that scheme did pretty well and served a purpose. Rented accomdation by third level institutes

But building estates in villages?

Xenophile

Not allowing Willie Walsh an opportunity to buy Aer Lingus.

Eric Cartman

wow, I love how boards holds a grudge , cant wait for this thred in a few years on sinn fein / ULA / Socialists...... ohh wait , not even the people of Ireland are stupid enough to vote them in.

Everybody makes mistakes, FF are still the best of a bad lot as a party , however cowan and harney are by far two of the worst politicians ever to have been seen anywhere in the world.

Xenophile

To even contemplate the idea of bringing water from the River Shannon to try and meet Dublin's requirements

cryano

BUT THEY FIXED THE ROAD!

jimmycrackcorm

Built the m1 and got rid of queueing for the toll bridge on the m50

cml387

Eric Cartman wrote: »

wow, I love how boards holds a grudge , cant wait for this thred in a few years on sinn fein / ULA / Socialists...... ohh wait , not even the people of Ireland are stupid enough to vote them in.

Everybody makes mistakes, FF are still the best of a bad lot as a party , however cowan and harney are by far two of the worst politicians ever to have been seen anywhere in the world.

Whereas Bertie and Charlie are political geniuses:rolleyes:

dinorebel

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Overseeing the greatest period of prosperity this country has ever seen.

And managing to f-ck it up big style.

Xenophile

So deluded thinking that they could extend the FF organisation to Northern Ireland, when what was needed was strong support for the SDLP when politics was being polarised there.

Liam Byrne

lastlaugh wrote: »

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Nothing funny or original about the repeated-ad-nauseum phrase "haters gonna hate".

If and when you come up with a post that's original and funny that we can have a laugh at, let us know!

Liam, what's this 'we' business?

I'm sure I've made some people laugh at some of my posts, and I like the thoughts of that to be honest.

Your posts are extremely boring and depressing. You seem like a bitter, judgemental individual and I actually kind of feel sorry for you a little bit.

Er - OK......I make a valid comment on how a single post of yours stating "haters gonna hate" is clichéd and unfunny, and you decide to spit out personal digs. :rolleyes:

woodoo

cml387 wrote: »

Abolishing rates on private homes, now having to be re-introduced at the worst possible time.

That one in particular had disastrous consequences. The boom may not have reached the levels it did if that property tax had been left in place.

Xenophile

Giving local politicians retirement handshakes

Jimoslimos

Obliterated the last two coalition partners they went into government with. (PDs and Greens)

The Scientician

Inverse to the power of one! wrote: »

Probably the biggest fúck-up in international financial history!

Intergalactic

cml387

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Obliterated the last two coalition partners they went into government with. (PDs and Greens)

Umm,well actually.......

dinorebel

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Obliterated the last two coalition partners they went into government with. (PDs and Greens)

That has a touch of retarded genius about it.

The Scientician

Decentralisation.

Xenophile

Breaking the fabric of rural Ireland, closing Post Offices, Garda Stations, the local pub........anyone over the age of 50 should be allowed to drive home after three pints on a deserted country road. Lazy laws one size fits all.

megafan

dilallio wrote: »

Iodine Tablets

There's a thought! Better check "best before date" on tablets..... Surely replacements due soon????:eek:

mikemac1

Xenophile wrote: »

the local pub........anyone over the age of 50 should be allowed to drive home after three pints on a deserted country road. Lazy laws one size fits all.

You're Tipp South so I guess
Did you vote for this guy?

A Fine Gael councillor has admitted that he drinks and drives and sees nothing wrong with 'seasoned drinkers' having a few pints and then getting behind the wheel of a car.

Tipperary South councillor, Michael Fitzgerald, who already has a previous drink driving conviction, made his comments during an interview on Tipp FM radio.

When asked if he drinks and drives, he said yes, he drives after drinking 'three or four pints'. He said that when it comes to this issue, the 'wrong people are being targeted' and that there are 'seasoned drinkers who can take four pints and you would hardly know it'

lastlaugh

Shryke wrote: »

Overseeing it in the worst fashion possible. Are you actually serious?

lastlaugh wrote: »

:rolleyes:
Haters gonna hate.

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Nothing funny or original about the repeated-ad-nauseum phrase "haters gonna hate".

If and when you come up with a post that's original and funny that we can have a laugh at, let us know!

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Er - OK......I make a valid comment on how a single post of yours stating "haters gonna hate" is clichéd and unfunny, and you decide to spit out personal digs. :rolleyes:

I give an absurd reply to a ridiculous question and you automatically jump on your high horse and throw an insult towards me.

Lighten up.

dinorebel

Xenophile wrote: »

Breaking the fabric of rural Ireland, closing Post Offices, Garda Stations, the local pub........anyone over the age of 50 should be allowed to drive home after three pints on a deserted country road. Lazy laws one size fits all.

The roads would only be deserted because of people terrified of the drunk drivers.

The Scientician

Xenophile wrote: »

Breaking the fabric of rural Ireland, closing Post Offices, Garda Stations, the local pub........anyone over the age of 50 should be allowed to drive home after three pints on a deserted country road. Lazy laws one size fits all.

Ageist!

SafeSurfer

gsxr1 wrote: »

Putting a morbidly obese person in charge of the nations health.

If she was a capable competent person then so what if she was obese. Nobody else in cabinet wanted the department that Brian Cowen described as Angola. She showed some courage in asking for the post.

Would you not like to see a wheelchair bound person as minister for sport? Or someone who does not own land as minister for agriculture?

If someone is competent to do a job does their appearance matter?

Liam Byrne

lastlaugh wrote:

I give an absurd reply to a ridiculous question and you automatically jump on your high horse and throw an insult towards me.

Why was it a "ridiculous question" ? Too many options to narrow down to 100 ? Or maybe it's too hard to distinguish between fvckups and strokes ?

Irish Steve

Giving themselves pensions that defy the imagination in terms of their cost and their scope, giving themselves allowances that if given to anyone else would have revenue on their necks so fast it would be funny, paying themselves all manner of strange bonuses and special payments just for doing the job, and not doing it very well, and worst of all, for being so damn complacent about the fact that they've done it

Destroying local politics so that local councillors can achieve very little real change for anyone, effectively protecting the parish pump concept.

Cutting more and more from local authority budgets so that they can't do much for anyone any more.

straightjacketing the present politicians by setting up the recovery program with the IMF before they were booted out, in the hope that long memories will subside, and the country will hate FG/Labour by the time the next election comes round.

Doing whatever it took to make sure that the bondholders got repaid so that they could keep their personal gravy trains going.

Imposing things like Carbon taxes on things like heating oil without putting viable and acceptable alternatives in place that are actually usable.

Failing to bring engineers and architects for project like Priory Hall that were "signed off" without proper inspections and certification to book, they should be in Mountjoy for their failure to do the job they were paid for,=.

Failing to tackle monopolies like legal, medical and accountancy, all of which rip the system off without any fear of comeback or examination.

Failure to tackle the major unions and allowing them to line their pockets without any fear of investigation or comeback.

Failure to look even a short distance beyond the next election, even when issues that needed long term planning were being discussed.

Failure to be honest at even a basic level.

Making the brown envelope and unvouched expenses cultures acceptable at the highest levels.

Doing it in such a way that they were admired when they got found out. I will always remember a Joe Duffy interview on the Gay Byrne show, where a local resident of Ballymun commented "wasn't he a cure hoor for getting away with it for as long as he did". The grudging admiration for a master stroke player was clear for all to see, and it sums up so much of what's wrong and flawed with Irish Politcics and Irish Political life.

If Taxi Drivers with certain convictions have to go before the courts to keep their licence, perhaps we should introduce licences for potential TD's with equally stringent restrictions. That way, some of the more blatant rule benders and breakers would not even be on the ballot paper, regardless of if they are standing for a party, or newly "independent".

The biggest stroke?
Somehow persuading the country that "the recession will only be a short one, and the property market will have a soft landing", and doing it in a way that they were believed by a lot of people and companies, who are now left with the damage from believing them, while the PS, semi states and politicians are still living in a lot more comfort than the majority of the people they are/were supposed to be serving.

The more I think about it, the more I despise them, and the system that allowed them to get away with it, and even worse, that has no means to make them pay in any way for what they've done to the country.

Every one of them can retire without a moments thought about their future security or finances, way before the official retiring age, they've more than gold plated their positions, to the detriment and suffering of just about the entire nation for the next 2 or 3 generations.

Guy:Incognito

jetsonx wrote: »

Please help get this list to 100, it should be very easy.

This is the Ultimate list of Fianna Fail's Top 100 Strokes.

Lets gets the list started then...

1) The decision to give excess Irish cheese to people on social welfare and
those "most in need". (Christmas 2010)

That was an EU thing thats been around donkeys years is it not?

lastlaugh

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Why was it a "ridiculous question" ? Too many options to narrow down to 100 ? Or maybe it's too hard to distinguish between fvckups and strokes ?

Maybe it's just me, but I find the question "Are you actually serious?" to be ridiculous. It sounds like a John McEnroe quote gone very wrong.

These political threads wear me down.

mikemac1

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

That was an EU thing thats been around donkeys years is it not?

Yes, was around for ages
The media put their spin on it and whipped up a good outrage

Máire Hoctor visited Nenagh hospital in her area when it was getting downgraded by Mary Harney and she got pelted with cheese by the protesters.
Minister downgrades the hospital and it's the local TD who gets the blame
Cost her the seat

One of those who kept their permanent teaching post, gone back to teaching now.

galwayrush

SafeSurfer wrote: »

If she was a capable competent person then so what if she was obese. Nobody else in cabinet wanted the department that Brian Cowen described as Angola. She showed some courage in asking for the post.

Would you not like to see a wheelchair bound person as minister for sport? Or someone who does not own land as minister for agriculture?

If someone is competent to do a job does their appearance matter?

She managed to make a disaster worse, you are right, appearances were not important, sadly her incompetence was.

Liam Byrne

lastlaugh wrote:

Maybe it's just me, but I find the question "Are you actually serious?" to be ridiculous. It sounds like a John McEnroe quote gone very wrong.

Well in fairness you did post that FF had "overseen" the bubble, which - given their mismanagement - is as ridiculous a comment as it gets.

McEnroe's comment was "you cannot be serious" and bears no resemblance.

And as I said "haters gonna hate" is as clichéd and unfunny as "blast them with piss" or "yore ma" - mildly funny 10 years ago when it was original, but yawn-inducing now.

mikeym

Imagine if the "Bertiebowl" got built :eek:

Inverse to the power of one!

Maybe we should change the title of this thread to shooting fish in a barrel!

Sadly, and I hate to be the one to piss on the parade, but these things were known then and not addressed at the time.

Just as the warts of FG/Labour are known now and not addressed.

This is the curse of the nation

aidan24326

You could fill a book with all that's wrong with FF. Ubnfortunately the crowd we replaced them with aren't that much different, and never really have been.

But it's fair to say that FF deserve to rot on the opposition benches for ever more after what they've done, even if we have to replace them with the cast of Sesame Street. So many hateful characters you just wouldn't know where to begin (in Fianna Fail, not Sesame Street).

Liam Byrne

Inverse to the power of one! wrote: »

Maybe we should change the title of this thread to shooting fish in a barrel!

On behalf of all casket-bound fish everywhere, I object......what have we ever done to you that's comparable to FF's riding of you ?

donegal_road

Irish Steve wrote: »

Giving themselves pensions that defy the imagination in terms of their cost and their scope, giving themselves allowances that if given to anyone else would have revenue on their necks so fast it would be funny, paying themselves all manner of strange bonuses and special payments just for doing the job, and not doing it very well, and worst of all, for being so damn complacent about the fact that they've done it

Destroying local politics so that local councillors can achieve very little real change for anyone, effectively protecting the parish pump concept.

Cutting more and more from local authority budgets so that they can't do much for anyone any more.

straightjacketing the present politicians by setting up the recovery program with the IMF before they were booted out, in the hope that long memories will subside, and the country will hate FG/Labour by the time the next election comes round.

Doing whatever it took to make sure that the bondholders got repaid so that they could keep their personal gravy trains going.

Imposing things like Carbon taxes on things like heating oil without putting viable and acceptable alternatives in place that are actually usable.

Failing to bring engineers and architects for project like Priory Hall that were "signed off" without proper inspections and certification to book, they should be in Mountjoy for their failure to do the job they were paid for,=.

Failing to tackle monopolies like legal, medical and accountancy, all of which rip the system off without any fear of comeback or examination.

Failure to tackle the major unions and allowing them to line their pockets without any fear of investigation or comeback.

Failure to look even a short distance beyond the next election, even when issues that needed long term planning were being discussed.

Failure to be honest at even a basic level.

Making the brown envelope and unvouched expenses cultures acceptable at the highest levels.

Doing it in such a way that they were admired when they got found out. I will always remember a Joe Duffy interview on the Gay Byrne show, where a local resident of Ballymun commented "wasn't he a cure hoor for getting away with it for as long as he did". The grudging admiration for a master stroke player was clear for all to see, and it sums up so much of what's wrong and flawed with Irish Politcics and Irish Political life.

If Taxi Drivers with certain convictions have to go before the courts to keep their licence, perhaps we should introduce licences for potential TD's with equally stringent restrictions. That way, some of the more blatant rule benders and breakers would not even be on the ballot paper, regardless of if they are standing for a party, or newly "independent".

The biggest stroke?
Somehow persuading the country that "the recession will only be a short one, and the property market will have a soft landing", and doing it in a way that they were believed by a lot of people and companies, who are now left with the damage from believing them, while the PS, semi states and politicians are still living in a lot more comfort than the majority of the people they are/were supposed to be serving.

The more I think about it, the more I despise them, and the system that allowed them to get away with it, and even worse, that has no means to make them pay in any way for what they've done to the country.

Every one of them can retire without a moments thought about their future security or finances, way before the official retiring age, they've more than gold plated their positions, to the detriment and suffering of just about the entire nation for the next 2 or 3 generations.

+1

The Volt

Privatisation of Eircom and allowing it to be asset stripped 3 times so that it's over 4bn in debt and our broadband infrastructure is a shambles.

StupidLikeAFox

Parachuting 182 cronies into state boards in their last days in office is a personal favourite

If you want to go old school you could talk about DeValera spending some months (years?) travelling around America to raise funds for the new state, only to come back home and set up a newspaper for himself and his family out of the proceeds. Also check these figures

• 38,300,000,000 – Ireland’s national debt in September 2004, in euro, when Cowen became Minister for Finance.
• 41,100,000,000 - Ireland’s national debt in May 2008, in euro, when Cowen became Taoiseach.
• 95,851,000,000 - Ireland’s national debt, in euro, when FF left government

What a cheery thread, a great bunch of lads!

DEFTLEFTHAND

What do you want in this country???? can't you see that all political parties on our isle run to the sane agenda. It's time for a change, many may not like it but its time, democracy in my mind should be similar to free speech not absolute.

Xenophile

This thread should come in useful to young journalists in advance of the next General Election, who are too young to remember the havoc caused by having FF in power well past their sell by date. Oh yes bye the way the money spent building the N9 was a vanity project pushed all the way by ex Minister Martin Cullen.

Pride Fighter

The giveaway manifesto of 1977 and the economic crisis it led to in the 1980's.