Luke Ming Flanagan's Credibility

nice_guy80

Rory28 wrote: »

I never understood the anti-europe felling. The free travel alone is worth it for the individual.

I miss all the stamps in the passport.

C14N

Bambi wrote: »

Where do i sign up for this free travel


if you mean the schengen area..hmm

http://euobserver.com/social/124203

I've never equated "welfare" with "freedom of movement" before. However I can easily travel around Europe. I don't need a visa or foreign currency and it's a hell of a lot easier to move somewhere in Europe too, compared to somewhere outside of Europe.

jmayo

antoobrien wrote: »

So the companies that built the properties & people that bought them bear absolutely no responsibility for their actions?

The real problem with the country, trying to shove the blame off on somebody else. Like the rest of the population Ming needs to take responsibility for his decisions and actions.

Sorry to drag this part up but the government, indeed all local councillors, the regulatory authorites and the banks set the rules of the game.
And they set those rules to benefit their benefactors.
So yes they should take a huge chunk of the blame.

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Unsubsidised farming? Ha ha ha!

Irelands actual fish catch, in tonnes, per year, in 10 year increments from 1950. Note the big jump after we join the EEC:

1950 12,975
1960 40,676
1970 78,978
1980 149,283
1990 217,896
2000 277,981
2010 318,881

Does that include any of McHugh's fleet ?

I do think Ming will provide an enjoyment factor in EU parliament.
More importantly his anarchistic tendencies is somewhat needed in Europe.
Hell Farage will look like normality in comparison.

The next EU parliament is going to be interesting.
Something like upto 25% is forecaster to be anti EU.

Intellectuals, politicans, some people in positions of power and some others including a good few around these parts are still enthralled by the EU project, but to a hell of a lot of ordinary people throughout the EU it simply aint working.

For all mings faults such as the turf cutting or the getting off on penalty points himself, I do think he has done some good in the Dáil.
And he has actually contributed more in his few years than some have done over decades.

I would not see him in the same light as the likes of the healy raes who are unashamed parish pump politicans who would never propose anything, out of some principle, that might rock their little boat.

Zubeneschamali

jmayo wrote: »

More importantly his anarchistic tendencies is somewhat needed in Europe.

You must be joking! The European parliament is already so mad that Ming will look totally boring.

Ian Paisley was once ejected from the chamber by Archduke Otto of Austria, formerly Crown Prince Otto of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when Paisley heckled the Pope during a speech by calling him the Antichrist.

cathalio11

In reply to the OP from a year ago, I believe that if the Dáil is to truly represent the people, we need a few nutters who represent the broader base of nutters in our country.

jmayo

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

You must be joking! The European parliament is already so mad that Ming will look totally boring.

Ian Paisley was once ejected from the chamber by Archduke Otto of Austria, formerly Crown Prince Otto of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when Paisley heckled the Pope during a speech by calling him the Antichrist.

Ehhh AFAIK ian pasiley has long since retired and someone needs to take up the reins.

And yes I do remember well his refusal to sit and listen to the pope in 1988.

And you know what looking back on it he was bloody right.

At that exact time that paisley was calling him the anti christ, the pope was actively helping to hide paedophiles within the organisation he was in charge of and he would continue this for years.

BTW in 1984 a family in the Lafayette in the US were suing a priest, the local bishop, the diocese, the archbishop of New Orleans, the papal nuncio and the pope over child abuse.

And there were conversations between the papal nuncio and vatican on this matter, which included the Vatican secretary of state which is as good as the pope.

harry Bailey esq

drunkmonkey wrote: »

He's got 1 mission and that's to legalise Marajuana, I'm hoping to fcuk AGSC trump him and push for legalisation before he gets the credit for something that was going to happen anyway.

Come on Shatter don't let gob****es like Ming get credited with the greatest gift the Irish state has given to the Irish people.

ill smoke to that monkeyman! wouldn't it be some buzz giving him some sort of state roll,something like Michael Dees gig,something that would guarantee him lots of international exposure without any power as such. The rest of the world would think the whole country was mental and be a great place to visit,get stoned and soak up all the madness :pac:

realweirdo

Ming shouts and blusters a lot, and strikes me as the Giovanni Trapattoni of Irish politics, in that he is the ant-politician, not really in favour of anything, but against everything - exactly the kind of politican we don't need at the current time.

Giving two fingers to Europe (because of turf cutting or the like) at a time when they helped bail us out is not really the most intelligent thing to do. Whether we like Europe or not, we are stuck in the system and there's not a whole lot we can do about it. And I'd personally prefer to be run by gombeens in the EU commission than even bigger gombeens in the Dail.

mikom

A lot of backs made for a saddle around these here parts.

beggars_bush

Its amazing how quickly our government implement some EU rules eg bog issues, but ignore other rulings on on stuff VRT

renegademaster

beggars_bush wrote: »

Its amazing how quickly our government implement some EU rules eg bog issues, but ignore other rulings on on stuff VRT

1st with the smoking ban and will be last to legalise cannabis and ensure the people of the land reap the benefits of a regulated market, instead of having undercover garda importing drugs into the country in "controlled exercises" and supplying gangsters!!

realweirdo

renegademaster wrote: »

1st with the smoking ban and will be last to legalise cannabis and ensure the people of the land reap the benefits of a regulated market, instead of having undercover garda importing drugs into the country in "controlled exercises" and supplying gangsters!!

We have enough issues with drugs like smoking and alcohol already. Do you honestly think legalising more drugs would help anyone least of all those who become addicted to it?

And criminal gangs are already heavily involved in the smuggling of legal drugs like cigarettes and alcohol. There is nothing to suggest they wouldn't be the same with cannibas. Only this time the penalties would be far less.

In short there is not much to be gained from legalising it and a lot to lose particularly healthwise from making it available more widely and over the counter. And it's usually Joe Soap honest taxpayer like me that has to pick up the medical tab for someone else's drug misuse.

mikom

realweirdo wrote: »

Do you honestly think legalising more drugs would help anyone least of all those who become addicted to it?

In short there is not much to be gained from legalising it and a lot to lose particularly healthwise from making it available more widely and over the counter.

Poitin blindness; how quickly we forget, said he sipping rum and coke.

Do you know what your brother/sister/cousin/friend is smoking.
Do they even know?
Let's check the ingredients on the package to see the THC level, the additives etc.
You can't currently.
But Damo the dealer swears the sparkles on the buds are resin glands, when in fact it's actually crushed glass.


Colorado and Washington legalised and they've gone to hell...............
Oh wait, they haven't.

Legalise it.
Funnel the saved police resources in to a specialised squad, one that targets the gangs, not the cannabis.

The gangs are the ones that need locking up.

Use your brain.

professore

realweirdo wrote: »

We have enough issues with drugs like smoking and alcohol already. Do you honestly think legalising more drugs would help anyone least of all those who become addicted to it?

And criminal gangs are already heavily involved in the smuggling of legal drugs like cigarettes and alcohol. There is nothing to suggest they wouldn't be the same with cannibas. Only this time the penalties would be far less.

In short there is not much to be gained from legalising it and a lot to lose particularly healthwise from making it available more widely and over the counter. And it's usually Joe Soap honest taxpayer like me that has to pick up the medical tab for someone else's drug misuse.

Nonsense. It would wipe out a lot of the drug gangs overnight if the price was any way reasonable. All you have to do is look at the effects of prohibition in the US.

donalh087

In 1999 Portugal had the highest percentage of HIV infected drug users in Europe. Something drastic had to be done and something drastic was done. In 2001 the government decriminalised the possession of all drugs for personal use (not just cannabis - the whole shooting' gallery). Lots of other measures were introduced too but they key was treating users as victims rather than criminals.

Thirteen years later and drug usage has halved in Portugal. Following decriminalisation, Portugal has the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.

Those are figure you won't hear that often and, if you are sceptical, my source for the figures is Time magazine. Blame them.

downonthefarm

Good man minger best of luck with your European adventure

realweirdo

professore wrote: »

Nonsense. It would wipe out a lot of the drug gangs overnight if the price was any way reasonable. All you have to do is look at the effects of prohibition in the US.

So you think it's better big multinationals were pushing the drugs instead? With their big ad campaigns and need to increase profits, and the way they give political donations.

But who picks up the tab? The health service and Joe Bloggs taxpayer, the same muggins as usual, just so the usual societal dropouts can have their cheap thrills. No thank you.

realweirdo

donalh087 wrote: »

In 1999 Portugal had the highest percentage of HIV infected drug users in Europe. Something drastic had to be done and something drastic was done. In 2001 the government decriminalised the possession of all drugs for personal use (not just cannabis - the whole shooting' gallery). Lots of other measures were introduced too but they key was treating users as victims rather than criminals.

Thirteen years later and drug usage has halved in Portugal. Following decriminalisation, Portugal has the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.

Those are figure you won't hear that often and, if you are sceptical, my source for the figures is Time magazine. Blame them.

Decriminalisation and legalisation are different things.

And its still a crime to import drugs in portugal, so nope, Portugal has not become a paradise for cannabis smokers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy

In July 2001, a law maintained the status of illegality for using or possessing any drug for personal use without authorization. The offense was however changed from a criminal one, with prison a possible punishment, to an administrative one if the possessing was no more than up to ten days' supply of that substance.[7] This was in line with the de facto Portuguese drug policy before the reform. Drug addicts were then to be aggressively targeted with therapy or community service rather than fines or waivers.[8] Even if there are no criminal penalties, these changes did not legalize drug use in Portugal. Possession has remained prohibited by Portuguese law, and criminal penalties are still applied to drug growers, dealers and traffickers.[9]

Even the Portuguese think it's not a good idea to allow anyone import cannabis and sell it freely in shops, which seems to be what some people are arguing on here.

the_syco

realweirdo wrote: »

Ming shouts and blusters a lot, and strikes me as the Giovanni Trapattoni of Irish politics, in that he is the ant-politician, not really in favour of anything, but against everything - exactly the kind of politican we don't need at the current time.

I think he actually agrees on 60-70% of what the government says, unlike the looney left who seem to say no to everything even if it benefits them.

=-=

I voted Ming, because although he is a bit of an arsehole, he seems to get stuff done as opposed to sweeping it under the carpet.

Velvet shank

beggars_bush wrote: »

Its amazing how quickly our government implement some EU rules eg bog issues, but ignore other rulings on on stuff VRT

it actually took an eternity to implement 'EU rules' on bog issues, what with 10 year derogations and the like....

That_Girl_ Is_ A_Cowboy

I couldn't vote on Friday due to work all day from 9am, well into the following morning. It was a long, tiring day.

If I was going to vote, I would have given Ming my number 1. I'm delighted that Ming got in. I'm even happier he got in without plastering his face on posters on poles. I didn't even see one of Ming. All those posters are useless waste. Here's hoping Ming does some good in Europe.

Hunchback

realweirdo wrote: »

Ming shouts and blusters a lot, and strikes me as the Giovanni Trapattoni of Irish politics, in that he is the ant-politician, not really in favour of anything, but against everything - exactly the kind of politican we don't need at the current time.

Giving two fingers to Europe (because of turf cutting or the like) at a time when they helped bail us out is not really the most intelligent thing to do. Whether we like Europe or not, we are stuck in the system and there's not a whole lot we can do about it. And I'd personally prefer to be run by gombeens in the EU commission than even bigger gombeens in the Dail.

not to drag the thread off topic, but this was hardly altruistic on the part of the greater EU and it becomes clearer all the time from within the commission how poorly, deplorably even, Ireland was treated with the onslaught of the collapse of the banking sector.

nice_guy80

124,063 first preference votes.

off to Europe then

carpejugulum

brilliant result

I'd have voted him out of the Dail myself if I could.
He has polluted too much air time with his yokel nonsense already.

road_high

Not much humility on display at count centre. Roaring and shouting "champiolios". Lovely guy I'd say

renegademaster

realweirdo wrote: »

So you think it's better big multinationals were pushing the drugs instead? With their big ad campaigns and need to increase profits, and the way they give political donations.

But who picks up the tab? The health service and Joe Bloggs taxpayer, the same muggins as usual, just so the usual societal dropouts can have their cheap thrills. No thank you.

http://connachttribune.ie/figures-reveal-shock-cost-binge-drinking/

Shocking figures reveal that more than €4 million was spent in one year alone to treat binge drinkers and other people with alcohol problems at UHG.

Additional costs associated with Emergency Department attendance and outpatient services pushed the actual financial burden on the hospital “substantially higher”.
At two information sessions, due to be held in UHG on Wednesday, A&E and acute care staff will be presented with the findings of the Galway Healthy Cities Alcohol Strategy – a five-year plan that aims to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harm through a community action approach.
The study found that alcohol was a factor in nearly half of all cases of deliberate self-harm for UHG in 2012 – higher than the national average.
And, a higher proportion of patients aged between 18-29 presented themselves to A&E departments in the Galway and Sligo area, in comparison to other sites around the country.

nice_guy80

renegademaster wrote: »

http://connachttribune.ie/figures-reveal-shock-cost-binge-drinking/

Shocking figures reveal that more than €4 million was spent in one year alone to treat binge drinkers and other people with alcohol problems at UHG.

Additional costs associated with Emergency Department attendance and outpatient services pushed the actual financial burden on the hospital “substantially higher”.
At two information sessions, due to be held in UHG on Wednesday, A&E and acute care staff will be presented with the findings of the Galway Healthy Cities Alcohol Strategy – a five-year plan that aims to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harm through a community action approach.
The study found that alcohol was a factor in nearly half of all cases of deliberate self-harm for UHG in 2012 – higher than the national average.
And, a higher proportion of patients aged between 18-29 presented themselves to A&E departments in the Galway and Sligo area, in comparison to other sites around the country.

Not surprising, considering there are two third level institutions in Galway in a small city and Sligo is only a large town and it has a large IT.
So students make up a larger proportion of the 18-29 age group

Dyr

road_high wrote: »

Not much humility on display at count centre. Roaring and shouting "champiolios". Lovely guy I'd say

The bollox was happy he won?

Worse than Hitler that fella

downonthefarm

Oh no a politician who doesn't conform to the norm
Quick throw him to the lions

nice_guy80

a dig at Ruairi Quinn as well, nice.

Ruairi claimed Ming was a protest vote. Nice insult to the voters of Midlands/West/Northwest

mikom

road_high wrote: »

Not much humility on display at count centre. Roaring and shouting "champiolios". Lovely guy I'd say

All the humble pie is left aside for the FG runner ups.

ebbsy

nice_guy80 wrote: »

a dig at Ruairi Quinn as well, nice.

Ruairi claimed Ming was a protest vote. Nice insult to the voters of Midlands/West/Northwest

Looked down the list, gave number one to Ming and two to Carthy. rest to Inds

Rest of the scumbags can go to hell

Birdie Num Num

ebbsy wrote: »

Looked down the list, gave number one to Ming and two to Carthy. rest to Inds

Rest of the scumbags can go to hell

Well thought out.

C14N

nice_guy80 wrote: »

a dig at Ruairi Quinn as well, nice.

Ruairi claimed Ming was a protest vote. Nice insult to the voters of Midlands/West/Northwest

ebbsy wrote: »

Looked down the list, gave number one to Ming and two to Carthy. rest to Inds

Rest of the scumbags can go to hell

Only took 3 posts before someone corroborated Ruari's statement :rolleyes:

nice_guy80

C14N wrote: »

Only took 3 posts before someone corroborated Ruari's statement :rolleyes:

Why is voting for Independents seen as a protest vote?
Are the electorate not capable of deciding who is the best candidate for them?

Rory28

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Why is voting for Independents seen as a protest vote?
Are the electorate not capable of deciding who is the best candidate for them?

Its not that voting for inds is seen as a protest vote but the fact he said "Rest of the scumbags can go to hell" would make you think this voter was protest voting.

C14N

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Why is voting for Independents seen as a protest vote?
Are the electorate not capable of deciding who is the best candidate for them?

You're only reading the first half of the post. It's a bit like how "I didn't watch the Oscars" is a perfectly acceptable thing to say, but if you follow it with "The whole event is just run by a bunch of Jews anyway", now it means something different.

nice_guy80

Well, didn't he state that they weren't worth voting for.
Same thing as saying, "they are a bunch of wasters"

Rory28

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Well, didn't he state that they weren't worth voting for.
Same thing as saying, "they are a bunch of wasters"

How is that not a protest vote?

nice_guy80

Rory28 wrote: »

How is that not a protest vote?

because they are voting for the other candidates.
a protest vote would be spoiling your vote, surely.

Rory28

nice_guy80 wrote: »

because they are voting for the other candidates.
a protest vote would be spoiling your vote, surely.

Sounds like hes voting out of spite. If he were voting because he actually agreed with their policies then maybe he wouldn't put the whole scumbags going to hell thing.

Altho he has a right to be angry. Country is fcuked.

debabyjesus

Id say ming is delighted, amsterdam is only a short spin from brussels and strasbourg. I wonder will he wear a tin of fruit out there.

Ash.J.Williams

debabyjesus wrote: »

Id say ming is delighted, amsterdam is only a short spin from brussels and strasbourg. I wonder will he wear a tin of fruit out there.

I bet nobody else has said that anywhere else on the internet.

debabyjesus

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

I bet nobody else has said that anywhere else on the internet.

Sure start looking and report back with your findings

Muahahaha

debabyjesus wrote: »

Sure start looking and report back with your findings

I said it yesterday over on the journal :pac: doubt I was the first either !

Plentyofice

Mings credibility........ as opposed to Gerry Adams, or Bertie Ahern or Alan Shatter etc etc. Jaysus theres hardly one of them in the dail that doesn't have some form of a skeleton buried in the closet. Best of a bad bunch if you ask me.

cournioni

I'm delighted to be represented by Ming. He's one of the only politicians out there who is truly passionate about making change for the good of Ireland and now Europe, I believe he is capable of doing it too.

Have to laugh at the sour grapes from Labour and Fine Gael, both parties on the decline, and with good reason too!

comongethappy

cournioni wrote: »

I'm delighted to be represented by Ming. He's one of the only politicians out there who is truly passionate about making change for the good of Ireland and now Europe, I believe he is capable of doing it too.

Have to laugh at the sour grapes from Labour and Fine Gael, both parties on the decline, and with good reason too!

Which group will Ming be a member of in the EP?

(Non aligned members having next to zero chance of making an impact).

Conmaicne Mara

comongethappy wrote: »

Which group will Ming be a member of in the EP?

(Non aligned members having next to zero chance of making an impact).

ALDE possibly?

Ash.J.Williams

Muahahaha wrote: »

I said it yesterday over on the journal :pac: doubt I was the first either !

waterford whispers had it this morning! i guess it was you i saw on the journal yesterday!