DDI

Sully

darkhorse wrote: »

If it does'nt, thats it for the country. We will have no more lives left.

I guess we are ****ed so.

Hijpo

Sully wrote: »

I guess we are ****ed so.

Nothing new there in fairness eh?

flowerbattle

I've been reading through this and reading through articles on Ben Gilroy and DDI as well as the DDI website and I have a few questions, because I am thinking about voting DDI.
What is the connection between Gilroy and the UKIP? Does he just admire Farage's empassioned Eurosceptic speeches in the EP or has he some kind of right-connections?

Let's say that the next general election happened tomorrow and DDI cleans up and ends up in a majority government. You have the referendum, it passes, we all have DD then etc. etc. then what? Where does your party go from there?

Your policies seem to be all mainly economic in nature? I'm worried about the lack of clarity on your website and other publications about the other sides of policies, and this worry isn't helped by the complete lack of information on anyone in the party, bar MHE13 info on Gilroy. What does DDI think of things like abortion, education, gender and sexual equality, immigration, culture, etc.? And please don't give me the We've only been around 4 months, how are we expected to form policies on that kind of thing so soon? line. I'm confident that DDI didn't just wash up on the beach 4 months ago without a clue of how things are in Ireland, there must be something felt in the party about these kind of things.

Finally, and in relation to that last question, what would happen if Ben Gilroy, or any DDI member got elected to the Dáil? Granted, you do have policies in some areas, but when it came to other matters, would the DDI TD just stand there shouting THE ANSWER IS DIRECT DEMOCRACY, IMPLEMENT IT NOW! across the floor?

Cheers!

Hijpo

flowerbattle wrote: »

I've been reading through this and reading through articles on Ben Gilroy and DDI as well as the DDI website and I have a few questions, because I am thinking about voting DDI.
What is the connection between Gilroy and the UKIP? Does he just admire Farage's empassioned Eurosceptic speeches in the EP or has he some kind of right-connections?

Thanks for the questions, as you can see through out the thread im not afraid to say it as I see it. Unfortunatly thats the only perspective i can give, mine.

Regarding the UKIP issue.
Alot of people are saying Ben admires Farage there for he must support the far Right but fail to look at what he values on the left side of politics. Wether they are listening to much to people involved with other parties using there usual smear tactics or what i dont know. All I can say is from listening to Ben speak about justice and fairness and ireland as a whole he is far from rascist and fascist, the traits associated with far right ideologies

flowerbattle wrote: »

Let's say that the next general election happened tomorrow and DDI cleans up and ends up in a majority government. You have the referendum, it passes, we all have DD then etc. etc. then what? Where does your party go from there?

Direct Democracy is not pure democracy, it still supports a certain amount of representation. This link should give you a better explanation as to how its is proven to work in Switzerland

flowerbattle wrote: »

Your policies seem to be all mainly economic in nature? I'm worried about the lack of clarity on your website and other publications about the other sides of policies, and this worry isn't helped by the complete lack of information on anyone in the party, bar MHE13 info on Gilroy. What does DDI think of things like abortion, education, gender and sexual equality, immigration, culture, etc.? And please don't give me the We've only been around 4 months, how are we expected to form policies on that kind of thing so soon? line. I'm confident that DDI didn't just wash up on the beach 4 months ago without a clue of how things are in Ireland, there must be something felt in the party about these kind of things.

Im not going to give you the "were only new" answer
What kind of info are you looking for on the members, i can try source it for you. DDI has not sat down and discussed policy on abortion, education, gender and sexual equality, immigration and culture so i cant give you there opinions on them. As i said i cannot speak for Ben Gilroy or any of the other members. If you would like my own (which is mostly what DDI brings to the table, freedom of opinion for all 4.5 million instead of 64% of the Dáil and a few old priests) i would be more than happy to debate with you. I would be interested to hear your take on those issues (as would DDI, its what it stands for, the peoples opinions).

The reason i believe our policy is mainly economic is because that is the burning issue at the moment. If the country has no money it is severly limited to what it can do. No money means the standard of education falls, you face cuts to services and pay which can effect immigration controls, that can have an effect on equality and i believe abortion would be over shadowed by the other issues because it doesnt effect everyone (which i dont agree with by the way)

flowerbattle wrote: »

Finally, and in relation to that last question, what would happen if Ben Gilroy, or any DDI member got elected to the Dáil? Granted, you do have policies in some areas, but when it came to other matters, would the DDI TD just stand there shouting THE ANSWER IS DIRECT DEMOCRACY, IMPLEMENT IT NOW! across the floor?

Cheers!

Unfortunatly opposition TD's have no power at all to oppose what the coalition want to do. Iv done out a few percentages that supports this fact.
64% of the Dáil is made up of coalition government operating a party whip system. That leaves just 36% that can freely oppose the coalition government.
The government already have the majority, meaning 10% must risk there pensions, perks, lavish salary, lifestyle and careers in order to succesfully oppose any imorral and unjust taxes, charges, levies and laws that the coalition want to inact and that is never going to happen.
Thats not democratic, its no where near democratic. So in order to change anything it must be changed from the inside, in order to be in a position on the inside we must have a landslide, in order to have a landslide we must rely on the electorate.

I am happy about what DDI bring to the table with regards giving the people a voice. For instance TD's involved with tax evasion, corruption, fraud would all be able to be removed by the people through Direct Democracy, for now all we can do is sit here and wait for them to make the decsision to resign.

I hope that coverd your questions.

Finnbar01

Hijpo wrote: »

Thanks for the questions, as you can see through out the thread im not afraid to say it as I see it. Unfortunatly thats the only perspective i can give, mine.

Regarding the UKIP issue.
Alot of people are saying Ben admires Farage there for he must support the far Right

The UKIP are not a far right party regardless of how the BBC and Guardian try to paint them as such.

What exactly are the DDI or your opinion on how to manage the economy?

Hijpo

Finnbar01 wrote: »

The UKIP are not a far right party regardless of how the BBC and Guardian try to paint them as such.

What exactly are the DDI or your opinion on how to manage the economy?

Some people could do with being educated on that point finnbar

For a start we need to suspend bailout payments pending a legal review on the fact that private debt was manipulated into national/public debt. Second we need to utilize what is ours ie: oil and gas, fishing waters, forestation etc i would be in favour for significantly reducing perks, expenses, salaries and pensions right across the board from taoiseachs, ministers to senetors and councillors to stop the "in it for the money" attitude. Major reform is needed for local councils, being able to just right off 500 million in development levies is not acceptable. Little bits of needless waste in the public sector all adds up, that needs to be scrutinized. Waterford county alone has 65 Councillors along with 5 Mayors and 5 Deputy Mayors along with a City Council, County Council, and three Town Councils, this kind of bloated councils need to be reformed.
Obviously there are a number of things, but off the top of my head and taking into account im trying to type all this on my little phone while on the move its all i can come up with for now.

One last point is that we must find some way of reducing mortgages and making it so that households disposable income is at a satisfactory level so the people of ireland can get irelands economy back by spending again. Taking money from people through areas they dont have a choice in is completely immoral and in my eyes extortion.

7upfree

Hijpo wrote: »

Taking money from people through areas they dont have a choice in is completely immoral and in my eyes extortion.

Just like Cyprus. And then Enda & Co. were complimenting the EU on their approach yesterday. Sweet Jesus.

Hijpo

7upfree wrote: »

Just like Cyprus. And then Enda & Co. were complimenting the EU on their approach yesterday. Sweet Jesus.

I actually created an account on a cypriot discussion forum as i felt compelled to leave a post saying that the view being reported in the media is not one of the irish people but one of the government who do not in any way speak for the irish people and would only lick there greedy lips at such an idea being implemented so they could jump on the bandwagon. That there disposable income is theres and should not be penalized for doing whatever they want to do with it ie: saving some of it.

Finnbar01

Hijpo wrote: »

For a start we need to suspend bailout payments pending a legal review on the fact that private debt was manipulated into national/public debt.

The problem with suspending our bail out payments is that we would immediately have to bring in cuts and tax increases of around €10 billion overnight to balance our budget. Don't get me wrong, I hate the dreaded bail out payments as much as the next person but if we cancel them, how are we doing to reduce our budget defict overnight?

Second we need to utilize what is ours ie: oil and gas, fishing waters, forestation etc

We do have lots of oil and gas but we don't know exactly where it is. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack trying to find it, it costs a fortune to do so* and another fortune to extract it. As for the fishing, i don't think that would work, we're not a fish type people if you know what I mean.

i would be in favour for significantly reducing perks, expenses, salaries and pensions right across the board from taoiseachs, ministers to senetors and councillors to stop the "in it for the money" attitude. Major reform is needed for local councils, being able to just right off 500 million in development levies is not acceptable. Little bits of needless waste in the public sector all adds up, that needs to be scrutinized. Waterford county alone has 65 Councillors along with 5 Mayors and 5 Deputy Mayors along with a City Council, County Council, and three Town Councils, this kind of bloated councils need to be reformed.

This! You're a man after my own heart. I just cannot for the life of me understand why no one is bringing this up. The last crowd in bloated itself up and squandered our money on bigger government. I guess the TDs and councillours don't mention it because we all know turkeys wouldn't vote for Christmas.

One last point is that we must find some way of reducing mortgages and making it so that households disposable income is at a satisfactory level so the people of ireland can get irelands economy back by spending again. Taking money from people through areas they dont have a choice in is completely immoral and in my eyes extortion.

The best thing that could happen is to allow people to walk away from their over price homes without any strings attached. Assist them with finding rented accomodation. Problem with that though is banks will need to be further recapitalised.

Here's somethings I would do.

- Establish correct regulations for finance and the banking system. We had too much of the wrong type regulation during the bubble.
- Take a detailed look at our 800+** quangos. Close some, merge others and privatise what we can there.
- Reform local government. Reduce number of councillours, mayors etc
- Make Ireland one of the best and easiest places to set up and do business here. That would mean reducing red tape and ignoring a lot of useless EU directives.

* In the 1980's over 4 .2 billion punts was used to search for oil off the coast of Waterford. Apparently all the geological tell tail signs that oil was present were there, but we found sweet F All.

** No one knows what is the exact number of quangos in Ireland, some say it could be as high as 1000.

7upfree

Finnbar01 wrote: »

The problem with suspending our bail out payments is that we would immediately have to bring in cuts and tax increases of around €10 billion overnight to balance our budget. Don't get me wrong, I hate the dreaded bail out payments as much as the next person but if we cancel them, how are we doing to reduce our budget defict overnight?

By not spending more than we raise in taxes. And treating Government and the services they run as a business. Until that is recognised we will continue to borrow €50m A DAY to fund this madness.

Finnbar01 wrote: »

The best thing that could happen is to allow people to walk away from their over price homes without any strings attached. Assist them with finding rented accomodation. Problem with that though is banks will need to be further recapitalised.

Just a thought. When people bought these houses they knew it would mean paying back €Xk over Y amount of years. Considering that a lot still have the jobs they had when they bought, what is the problem here? If the houses had appreciated in price would they still have been treated differently? One to ponder.

Finnbar01 wrote: »

Here's somethings I would do.

- Establish correct regulations for finance and the banking system. We had too much of the wrong type regulation during the bubble.
- Take a detailed look at our 800+** quangos. Close some, merge others and privatise what we can there.
- Reform local government. Reduce number of councillours, mayors etc
- Make Ireland one of the best and easiest places to set up and do business here. That would mean reducing red tape and ignoring a lot of useless EU directives.

* In the 1980's over 4 .2 billion punts was used to search for oil off the coast of Waterford. Apparently all the geological tell tail signs that oil was present were there, but we found sweet F All.

** No one knows what is the exact number of quangos in Ireland, some say it could be as high as 1000.

Until banks are treated as normal businesses (no special treatment) nothing will change. They should have been left go to the wall like any normal company.

No problem reforming local Government as long as its evenly spread and fair. Unlike the Waterford witch hunt under way at present - supported by Hogan's cronies.

Don't hold your breath on the red tape, which brings me to my next point:

You mention quangos:

It doesn't get more surreal than this:

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/axed-consumer-watchdog-quango-hands-137000-deal-to-new-chief-29141774.html

"ONE-time Central Banker Karen O'Leary has been appointed to head up the National Consumer Agency (NCA) for the next five years, even though the agency is set to be merged. The NCA – the state body charged with protecting the interests of consumers – is due to link up with the Competition Authority to create a new super-quango.

Ms O'Leary is getting an annual salary of €137,554, which is almost €40,000 less than her predecessor's. This is to reflect the fact that the agency will no longer be a standalone body.

She succeeds Ann Fitzgerald.

Ms O'Leary has been director of the agency's public awareness and financial education division since 2010.

But the NCA is due to merge with the Competition Authority later this year. Ms O'Leary will become one of up to six "members" of the new merged body."

Cabaal

Ok guys, this stopped being anything specific about Waterford a long time ago.

If you want to discuss politics in general I'd suggest you start a thread about DDI in the politics forum,