What will it take to get you out on the street protesting?

connundrum

There will be some/all sarcastic answers considering the forum, but in considering all of the events up to now which have caused disquiet, I was wondering what it would take to get a sizeable number of people out in the streets protesting.

My favourite phrase of recent weeks has been 'We can't take much more, someone will have to stand up'. If everyone trots out this phrase, who will stand up?

It would seem that interest groups i.e. the IFA, home carers are well able to organise and protest against specific injustices, but is it that we as a nation are just pissed off in general, and sure, how can you protest against being pissed off?

My real answer is: the new household charge (when it is announced), another interest hike by AIB, more judgements like the one seen here.

My AH answer: Angela Merkel visiting for 6 hours, if/when Jacobs cease production of Fig Rolls, atari jaguar.

summerskin

Sean Sherlock blocking youporn.com

Atlantic Dawn

Nothing can be done we are spending 20 billion more than we are taking in, only protest I would go to is one seeking cuts equatting to those savings.

Kensington

When the price of a pint goes over a €5er, by jaesus there'll be uproar.

Larbre34

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Nothing can be done we are spending 20 billion more than we are taking in, only protest I would go to is one seeking cuts equatting to those savings.[/QUOTE

What an idiotic comment, if the budget was balanced in one fell swoop it would close every school, hospital, clinic, advice centre, garda station, fire station, library, museum, park, leisure centre, tourist attraction, prison, army base, and end every community welfare, district nurse, home help and social worker service in the country

Some people seem to be brainwashed into thinking the 'public sector' is a sink hole of bureaucracy for every cent of taxes but don't equate that to the services and amenities they use and rely on every single day

Its not the public spending that bankrupted the country, it was the evaporation of a €20 billion tax stream built on a house of cards that caused massive inflation and profligacy, all traceable back to the reckless economic policies of Ahern and McCreevy. The bank debt is just an added millstone

We're back to year 1999 living standards not 1949 or even the stone age as some would have you believe.

As for a march to get me out? one against ignorance and red herrings

Lando Griffin

We are only bringing in 75000 PA now with all the cuts.
When you take out my mortgage of 1400 and other utility bills we have only 109 euro left for my unemployed wife, unemployed genius eldest son and two other poor starving children.
How can this be?
If Sky put up there prices anymore for HD + Multiroom the will have to eat unbranded products.
7 years ago when we moved into a modest well located semi d who would have thought it impossible to rent out our holiday apt in Bulgaria.
We cannot afford to put Calgon in the dishwasher every day now and it broke down.
My mother drove 40 miles to wash the dishes that day.
Who would have thought it would take nearly 120 euro a Week to fill my SUV.
Ihave started the tipping point all ready writing letters on ordinary paper since we ran out of the Belveder note paper.

Mr. CooL ICE

As long as a Starbucks is nearby

/adjusts scarf and oversized glasses

fishy fishy

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Nothing can be done we are spending 20 billion more than we are taking in, only protest I would go to is one seeking cuts equatting to those savings.

Thats the same as saying "oh let me lie down here for you, and you can trample all over me, with my full blessing sir"

:rolleyes:

the crock that run this country DEPEND on opinions like yours, while they laugh all the way to the bank.

bnt

It would take a clear description and a guarantee of what it would achieve. I'm not going to waste my time and energy on "sound and fury signifying nothing".

Protests are predictable. The establishment knows exactly how to handle them, thanks to experience in this and other countries. More subtle methods get better results, such as lobbying and blackmail.

seipeal1

A first class return air ticket from Australia. Oh, and hotel accommodation either side of the protest day, in a hotel that would not be burned down as part of the protest! Cannot wait. Ireland, here I come!

connundrum

bnt wrote: »

It would take a clear description and a guarantee of what it would achieve. I'm not going to waste my time and energy on "sound and fury signifying nothing".

Agreed.

Taking medical cards from some OPS = protest = Govt rollback. Result.

Austerity = protest = ......?

I get the feeling that if we were to protest against every measure which we feel is unjust, we'd be on the streets 365 days a year. But, in not protesting anything, we just absorb all measures and bleet to Joe Duffy.

No win situation

muppetkiller

Increasing the Dole :P

My name is URL

LordChessington wrote: »

As long as a Starbucks is nearby

/adjusts scarf and oversized glasses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3252FSW7OC4

saiint

nude protest
should work

DavyD_83

The belief that getting out on the street protesting will actually cause a change.

Oh, and a day off work would help too, at the moment I'd be giving up a days pay to stand around and achieve nothing (at least that's how i see it, which i'm sure is part of the problem).

28064212

connundrum wrote: »

Austerity = protest = ......?

I get the feeling that if we were to protest against every measure which we feel is unjust, we'd be on the streets 365 days a year. But, in not protesting anything, we just absorb all measures and bleet to Joe Duffy.

No win situation

The phrase "Unjust cutbacks" doesn't mean anything. It's a totally meaningless phrase, like the vast majority of nonsense slogans the rent-a-mob crowd use.

If someone organises a protest that has a clear objective, and can articulate how a protest actually helps obtain that objective, then I'll join. Until then, no thanks

SEPT 23 1989

A visit from Herr Merkel could be a flashpoint

byronbay2

seipeal1 wrote: »

A first class return air ticket from Australia. Oh, and hotel accommodation either side of the protest day, in a hotel that would not be burned down as part of the protest! Cannot wait. Ireland, here I come!

Would The Hilton be suitable - I believe they have some good deals at the moment!:)

She Devil

I was actually thinking about this coming into work this morning, I am ready to protest now, I can't take another cut, its scraping the barrell as it is.

When did we become so laid back and lazy? As a nation?

fishy fishy

lets just wait and see this budget, before we decide if protests work or not. I;m sure many will be changing their tune.

Nippledragon

Irish people should have been out on the streets when all the big-wigs were getting away with screwing the country, and leaving the average joe to pay for it. It's too late for protesting now tbh...

She Devil

She Devil wrote: »

I was actually thinking about this coming into work this morning, I am ready to protest now, I can't take another cut, its scraping the barrell as it is.

When did we become so laid back and lazy? As a nation?

So who should face cuts instead? What exactly are you angry about?

gobnaitolunacy

IMO protesting doesn't get you much unless you put the frighteners on the powers that be. And it has to have a unified goal.

HellFireClub

Sorry I'd be too busy trying to keep my business open. What the fúck would I be at standing beside some public sector clown like a teacher or a middle ranking Garda at a protest, them on 70K a year thinking that they are poorly paid and "under attack" as they put it, and don't come back with this bullshít of "we're all in this together", 'cos we aren't all in this together, that's just horseshít and that argument doesn't stand up to any sort of scrutiny whatsoever...

It seems to me that the very shower of cúnts in this country who are the best looked after, in terms of Croke Park Deals and sure "whatever you are having yourself", are the very same people who have the most whinging, bawling and fúcking moaning to do at the moment.

greecy_joe

Nippledragon wrote: »

Irish people should have been out on the streets when all the big-wigs were getting away with screwing the country, and leaving the average joe to pay for it. It's too late for protesting now tbh...

FF are well up in the polls today so it looks like we have forgiven those who sold us down the river

Larbre34

HellFireClub wrote: »

Sorry I'd be too busy trying to keep my business open. What the fúck would I be at standing beside some public sector clown like a teacher or a middle ranking Garda at a protest, them on 70K a year thinking that they are poorly paid and "under attack" as they put it, and don't come back with this bullshít of "we're all in this together", 'cos we aren't all in this together, that's just horseshít and that argument doesn't stand up to any sort of scrutiny whatsoever...

It seems to me that the very shower of cúnts in this country who are the best looked after, in terms of Croke Park Deals and sure "whatever you are having yourself", are the very same people who have the most whinging, bawling and fúcking moaning to do at the moment.

Call them a clown to their face when you're meeting them to discuss your child's progress or a burglary or your elderly father's homecare, you feckin coward.

Aenaes

No internet.

HellFireClub

Larbre34 wrote: »

Call them a clown to their face when you're meeting them to discuss your child's progress or a burglary or your elderly father's homecare, you feckin coward.

(1) Don't have kids 'cos I can't afford to have kids. (2) My father is fit and healthy thank you, and (3) I have the very same discussion face to face, with any people I know in the public sector who starts to shíte on about "having it hard", while they are on a 50K plus salary. I've a mate who is a paramedic for the HSE and was left under no illusions as to how I feel about this nonsense when he started trying to tell me he was relatively poorly paid. He isn't poorly paid, he is very well paid by any standard, but his union and his buddies that he works with, they are all subscribing to the only mantra that they know, which is that they are "under attack", poorly paid and basically being abused by their employers.

Bullshít and bollóx the lot of it, when you look at what is on offer in the private sector.

Cabaal

If the pope visits Ireland I'll go out an protest, been saying it for years

Rabidlamb

I'd love to march, unfortunately the protest would be co-opted by the Unions or the Shinners & I hate them more than the government.

Shenshen

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

A visit from Herr Merkel could be a flashpoint

What, him?

Bipolar Joe

Protesting, in the sense of going out waving a sign with a clever slogan on it, does nothing. What the Hell is that supposed to achieve? Will the powers that be look at the signs and say "I see you are all very good at puns. Free everything for you, now!"?

There needs to be a proper, organised system where we economically starve the ones that starving us. Once they feel the choke hold, they can either start to behave themselves or jail every one in the country.

Or something, I dunno, I'm an idiot.

tayto lover

HellFireClub wrote: »

Sorry I'd be too busy trying to keep my business open. What the fúck would I be at standing beside some public sector clown like a teacher or a middle ranking Garda at a protest, them on 70K a year thinking that they are poorly paid and "under attack" as they put it, and don't come back with this bullshít of "we're all in this together", 'cos we aren't all in this together, that's just horseshít and that argument doesn't stand up to any sort of scrutiny whatsoever...

It seems to me that the very shower of cúnts in this country who are the best looked after, in terms of Croke Park Deals and sure "whatever you are having yourself", are the very same people who have the most whinging, bawling and fúcking moaning to do at the moment.

We used to laugh at PS workers a few years ago in the pub. We were earning twice what they were getting. Some of them also had to work weekends when we were enjoying ourselves going to race meeting or football matches. I would not be so hypocritical to change tact now so as to whinge and cry over their wages unlike you. What goes round comes round.

Drumpot

tayto lover wrote: »

We used to laugh at PS workers a few years ago in the pub. We were earning twice what they were getting. Some of them also had to work weekends when we were enjoying ourselves going to race meeting or football matches. I would not be so hypocritical to change tact now so as to whinge and cry over their wages unlike you. What goes round comes round.

Who is we?

Most of the people I know have never earned much over the 30k bracket and we live frugal lives . . We also dont understand this ridiculous comment about how private sector workers creamed it in the good years. At one stage the public service average was over 6k above the private sector. Considering there are more people working in the privat sector (perhaps 5 times more?) and a majority of them are in jobs that pay 30k or less, I find this comment offencive and ignorant.

I work in the financial services sector and know people over 10 years in the industry on salarys below 30k, not just in admin.

Its very presumptuous that everybody in the private sector were on the pigs back in the boom when it was in reality just a select group that truely benefited in any significant way.

shedweller

What i'd like to know is how an economy is supposed to work when there is less for us left to spend? What was it? "Every euro spent generates 3 euro" or words to that effect?
Well, we have less euro to spend now. How is an economy to grow like that? Do "they" know what they are doing?

Re the household charge. Wasnt there high and mighty horses on here about how bad it would be if we didnt pay it? So it seems that that is the only way then. For paye workers. Not the higher echelons. They got loopholes, we got loops around our necks.

Same as it ever was.

Ted_YNWA

Warmer weather ..

fair weathered protester

2ndcoming

HellFireClub wrote: »

(1) Don't have kids 'cos I can't afford to have kids. (2) My father is fit and healthy thank you, and (3) I have the very same discussion face to face, with any people I know in the public sector who starts to shíte on about "having it hard", while they are on a 50K plus salary. I've a mate who is a paramedic for the HSE and was left under no illusions as to how I feel about this nonsense when he started trying to tell me he was relatively poorly paid. He isn't poorly paid, he is very well paid by any standard, but his union and his buddies that he works with, they are all subscribing to the only mantra that they know, which is that they are "under attack", poorly paid and basically being abused by their employers.

Bullshít and bollóx the lot of it, when you look at what is on offer in the private sector.

Well done on choosing not to have kids because you can't afford them, I genuinely mean that. If everyone had the luxury of choosing how and when they have kids we'd be the Abu Dhabi of the west no doubt, but this public service gig sounds like free money, and considering all your back-breaking labour at the coal-face of private enterprise (when you're not adding to your 3,337 posts on Boards, that is), how the fúck did you let that gravy train pass you by?! What on earth were you thinking?!

I actually can't get over the bit about your mate who's a paramedic. You are self-righteous to a nauseating degree. If you work all day and your business doesn't make you any money, might I suggest your business isn't any good? It's like those episodes of Dragons' Den where they tell people flat out, "give it up, this isn't going to make any money, I'm out". Welcome to capitalism. Sink or swim. Adapt or fail. You chose it. It's not anyone in the public service's fault your business makes no money, but if, God forbid, your home or business was broken into and you or a loved one was attacked and injured, would you spend the ambulance ride leaving the paramedics "under no illusion" of their value to society. I doubt it somehow.

hooradiation

2ndcoming wrote: »

But if, God forbid, your home or business was broken into and you or a loved one was attacked and injured, would you spend the ambulance ride leaving the paramedics "under no illusion" of their value to society. I doubt it somehow.

Well not at the time. But when he's retelling the story on boards, I'm certain he'll embellish it suitably.

HellFireClub

tayto lover wrote: »

We used to laugh at PS workers a few years ago in the pub. We were earning twice what they were getting. Some of them also had to work weekends when we were enjoying ourselves going to race meeting or football matches. I would not be so hypocritical to change tact now so as to whinge and cry over their wages unlike you. What goes round comes round.

As another poster just said, who is "we"?!?!? The most I ever got paid in a year in a private sector employment was 39k in one year, and that was a year that I worked every hour of overtime that came my way (there was loads of it available this particular year, I think it was 2003 or 2004), and that included a bonus for that year of I think it was around 2k before tax.

It's absolute horse**** this mentality that all private sector people had high incomes, the most I ever earned was 1k above the average industrial wage, and furthermore, every salary increase I ever got, I had to go in and fight for it & make an argument ad to why I should get it and everything was taken into account, including certified absence if there was any! Basically if my absence, whether medically certified or not, was above 3%, I got no pay increase and that was company policy so don't be talking to me about the shyte you are pushing there!

gobnaitolunacy

This is why we are sh*t at protesting...Private sector vs. Public Sector, Urban vs. Rural.....

Drumpot

If OAPs get a reduction in their pension, does that mean we dont give a sh*t about them? If Welfare is cut (as it has been pretty much in at least one area every year since 2007), does that mean we dont give a sh*t about people in poverty?

Why does the cutting of salaries of jobs in state control mean that these people are not valued ?

This is not a question of who is valued or not, its a question of economics and what is best for the financial health of the state. If I were a state employee I wouldnt be happy at any talk of my pay being cut, but that wouldnt make me any less self interested or subjective on the topic.

Put simply, people are making the topic of cuts in public service personal for understandable reasons, but in truth it diminishes the credibility of their argument.

I have plenty of nurses whom I look after as a financial adviser and my heart bleeds for them as they are emotionally and physically wrecked by their 50s. I actually think they are underpaid, but one thing they are clear on is that they are not represnted by the media public service unions that have turned this into a private v public dogfight with some of the most ridiculous bullsh*t excuses and ideas ever imagined.

The nurses I speak with believe that the wastage in the public service (that they have seen) is one of the most frustrating aspects of their jobs. People simply incapable of managing properly, competently or efficiently. Certain sections being protected and their names (nurses, guards etc) being used to protect a differant level of public/civil servants who prevent meaningful reform as an excercise in self preservation.

And then we have the spineless wimps in power, unwilling and unable to seize control back from the civil servants who are the bullys behind the wheel, pissing away taxpayers money with zero accountability. .

I dont blame the public service, I blame the government. I dont have a problem with the public service, I have a problem with vested parties within the public service that refuse to help or encourage reform without fighting tooth and nail for even most unreasonable things.

Son Of A Vidic

connundrum wrote: »

What will it take to get you out on the street protesting?

Why a significant appearance fee of course.

Fawkon

2ndcoming wrote: »

Well done on choosing not to have kids because you can't afford them, I genuinely mean that. If everyone had the luxury of choosing how and when they have kids we'd be the Abu Dhabi of the west no doubt,

I really didn't think a condom was classed as a luxury item...

Real Life

I dont think theres anything that could get me out on the street protesting, unless i was locked and just doing it for the laugh.
I dont think it works.

tayto lover

HellFireClub wrote: »

As another poster just said, who is "we"?!?!? The most I ever got paid in a year in a private sector employment was 39k in one year, and that was a year that I worked every hour of overtime that came my way (there was loads of it available this particular year, I think it was 2003 or 2004), and that included a bonus for that year of I think it was around 2k before tax.

It's absolute horse**** this mentality that all private sector people had high incomes, the most I ever earned was 1k above the average industrial wage, and furthermore, every salary increase I ever got, I had to go in and fight for it & make an argument ad to why I should get it and everything was taken into account, including certified absence if there was any! Basically if my absence, whether medically certified or not, was above 3%, I got no pay increase and that was company policy so don't be talking to me about the shyte you are pushing there!

As another poster said, you must have been poor at your business. If you were any good they would have been coming to you offering you a pay rise to stay. You are on here spouting nonsense about another worker in another sector and what you said to him. Pure shyte.

not yet

Cut public sector pay...ha ha

tayto lover

Drumpot wrote: »

Who is we?

Most of the people I know have never earned much over the 30k bracket and we live frugal lives . . We also dont understand this ridiculous comment about how private sector workers creamed it in the good years. At one stage the public service average was over 6k above the private sector. Considering there are more people working in the privat sector (perhaps 5 times more?) and a majority of them are in jobs that pay 30k or less, I find this comment offencive and ignorant.

I work in the financial services sector and know people over 10 years in the industry on salarys below 30k, not just in admin.

Its very presumptuous that everybody in the private sector were on the pigs back in the boom when it was in reality just a select group that truely benefited in any significant way.

There were people in the Private Sector earning more than 40k in the 1980's People who worked in the brewery in Dundalk or in P.J. Carrolls cigarette factory. We used to play football with lads in the PS. Teachers, garda and army lads. They were earning a lot less than that. Nothing ignorant about it at all except that it disagrees with your comments and your bit of bashing.

HellFireClub

tayto lover wrote: »

As another poster said, you must have been poor at your business. If you were any good they would have been coming to you offering you a pay rise to stay. You are on here spouting nonsense about another worker in another sector and what you said to him. Pure shyte.

More patronizing shyte talk out of you. When I hit that gross salary, 39k for one year, I worked for one if the largest employers in Ireland, I wasn't even working for myself then so you're talking out your arse there. The vast majority of people in this country in the private sector, like myself, earned at or under 40k a year, and we worked damn fu*king hard for it, there were no more or less automatic promotions based on seniority, there were no automatic pay increases, no unions to hide behind, and very little toleration of absence, whether certified or not. My experience of PAYE employment was that when you got promoted, you had to prove yourself in your new role for a year before the salary increase for your new role was awarded.

The notion that people in the private sector were all property developers flying around in private jets, is just as pathethic an idea as it is a stupid one...

tayto lover

HellFireClub wrote: »

More patronizing shyte talk out of you. When I hit that gross salary, 39k for one year, I worked for one if the largest employers in Ireland, I wasn't even working for myself then so you're talking out your arse there. The vast majority of people in this country in the private, like myself, earned at or under 40k a year, and we worked damn fu*king hard for it, there were no more or less automatic promotions based on seniority, there were no automatic pay increases, no unions to hide behind, and very little toleration of absence, whether certified or not. My experience of PAYE employment was that when you got promoted, you had to prove yourself in your new role for a year before the salary increase for your new role was awarded.

The notion that people in the private sector were all property developers flying around in private jets, is just a as pathethic an idea as it is a stupid one...

Ha more rubbish. The fact that some people were not getting well paid in the Private Sector now as opposed to some in the Public Sector is a fact of life. Things turn with time. It will be the other way again in a few short years.

Who mentioned property developers? Stick to the words I actually used. To change someone's words does no good to your argument and lets you down. In fact it could be described as stupid and ignorant.

Boombastic

My wheelchair would have to be set to automatic

Drumpot

tayto lover wrote: »

There were people in the Private Sector earning more than 40k in the 1980's People who worked in the brewery in Dundalk or in P.J. Carrolls cigarette factory. We used to play football with lads in the PS. Teachers, garda and army lads. They were earning a lot less than that. Nothing ignorant about it at all except that it disagrees with your comments and your bit of bashing.

I see what you did there . .

Where did I say there werent people in the private sector earning over €40k ?

I will thank you for not putting words in my mouth (threads) and conveniently misinterpreting what I posted. That my fellow boardie is an ignorant action right there . .

Edit:

tayto lover wrote: »

Who mentioned property developers? Stick to the words I actually used. To change someone's words does no good to your argument and lets you down. In fact it could be described as stupid and ignorant.

Perhaps you need to take your own advice . .