Waterford Politics MEGATHREAD

Max Powers

AdMMM wrote: »

From monitoring the comments on Twitter and Facebook, a few things become very obvious.

There’s an awful lot of fake outrage out there by people who claimed they gave John their Number 1 vote but are now calling him a traitor who’ll never get their vote again. However, after only a few clicks we can see that they’ve never spent a day in Waterford in their lives and judging by previous profile pictures, count the day they met Gerry Adams at the Ard Fheis as one of the high points of their lives.

These orchestrated tweets and comments are attempts at setting the tone for the discussion that follows and Sinn Fein have become very adept at it. By flooding the initial discussion with made up negative claims, they hope that negativity remains the focus when more pragmatic people come along to comment later.

When the dust settles however (and it always does), it will become obvious that the outrage that was seemingly ever-present within seconds of a post going up on Facebook or Twitter is not a true reflection of how most people feel about the issue.

With all that being said, there most certainly are people in Waterford who did vote for John but will probably never vote for him again, but that’s always going to be one of the consequences of rolling the dice and going into Government.

Good point about the shinner bots alright.I suppose they see extra votes in trying to do down John in hope that they (John's voters)would transfer their vote to sf.
Also,
We have heard the stats justifying the provision of 24 cardiac care for south east,I wish the media would stop reporting this like a complete stroke and that it is justified by any means of measure.

Johnboy1951

I believe Halligan made a near fatal mistake by stating publicly that he was likely to support something he admitted HE HAD NOT EVEN READ!

Then to quickly do a U-turn, after been spoken to, just made his situation even worse.

He has a lot to learn it seems.

I had admired his moves up to this, but this was a huge error on his part.
Hopefully he will learn to 'keep his powder dry' in future, until he is sure of his ground.

Cabaal

AdMMM wrote: »

From monitoring the comments on Twitter and Facebook, a few things become very obvious.

There’s an awful lot of fake outrage out there by people who claimed they gave John their Number 1 vote but are now calling him a traitor who’ll never get their vote again. However, after only a few clicks we can see that they’ve never spent a day in Waterford in their lives and judging by previous profile pictures, count the day they met Gerry Adams at the Ard Fheis as one of the high points of their lives.

These orchestrated tweets and comments are attempts at setting the tone for the discussion that follows and Sinn Fein have become very adept at it. By flooding the initial discussion with made up negative claims, they hope that negativity remains the focus when more pragmatic people come along to comment later.

I'd tend to agree that there's alot of keyboard warriors and just outright attacks on John and really the same can be said for any TD.

The reality is these claims of "never vote again" rarely transfer to the polling days because if it was the case we wouldn't be seeing FF gaining votes as they have done.

Many of these attacks are undoubtedly from other party's be in AAA or Sf as they hope to sway people away from John to them

Sully

It's funny seeing Halligan tow the party line. Whip well and truly placed. The deep rooted anti-water crew won't forgive him regardless of any success he may get. Can't see the wood from the trees and all that.

It's well documented that online trolls are often deep left supporters pretending to be 'concerned citizens'.

I Am Justice82

Some of the people posting negative comments on John Halligans facebook page are the very same people who on the 1st/ November / 2014 at the local anti water charges march in Waterford kept blown horns + booing John Halligan & all the speakers who went to speak on the microphone that afternoon, on a political note about John Halligan I Intend to wait & see what way he will vote on the water issue in a years time and I,ll judge him on what he does then .

Gardner

his latest status update is epic. brilliant attack on Sinn Fein. this quote must go down as quote of the year "[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]SF happily work side-by-side with the European equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church in the name of providing stable government in the north"[/font]

MRnotlob606

Sully wrote: »

It's funny seeing Halligan tow the party line. Whip well and truly placed. The deep rooted anti-water crew won't forgive him regardless of any success he may get. Can't see the wood from the trees and all that.

It's well documented that online trolls are often deep left supporters pretending to be 'concerned citizens'.

What would you prefer Sully? Damned if you do Damned if you don't. You must frothing at the mouth at every slip up John Halligan makes. Just to give yourself an excuse to cut the man down. Jesus he's not two weeks in the job.

Max Powers

MRnotlob606 wrote: »

What would you prefer Sully? Damned if you do Damned if you don't. You must frothing at the mouth at every slip up John Halligan makes. Just to give yourself an excuse to cut the man down. Jesus he's not two weeks in the job.

Or whinge if you do whinge if you don't

robtri

Max Powers wrote: »

So you would prefer he votes with SF and no cardiac care and extra airport funding?
If yes, that is a clear example of the short sightedness (trying to be polite)of the Irish voter.

no I wouldn't... he needs to toe the line a bit, support the government and do the best for Waterford.... he can help Waterford from inside the government.. he can do feck all for Waterford sitting on the sidelines....

Sully

MRnotlob606 wrote: »

What would you prefer Sully? Damned if you do Damned if you don't. You must frothing at the mouth at every slip up John Halligan makes. Just to give yourself an excuse to cut the man down. Jesus he's not two weeks in the job.

I'm not saying anything against the man at all. Yer awful sensitive supporters. People are now beginning to see how politics works and how one tows the party line to try achieve something rather than being cast aside. Nobody ever understood that and now Halligan, a vocal critic of the government, is siding with them to get stuff done.

Max Powers

robtri wrote: »

no I wouldn't... he needs to toe the line a bit, support the government and do the best for Waterford.... he can help Waterford from inside the government.. he can do feck all for Waterford sitting on the sidelines....

Sensible enough but contradicts your derisory comments you made earlier.

Max Powers

Sully wrote: »

I'm not saying anything against the man at all. Yer awful sensitive supporters. People are now beginning to see how politics works and how one tows the party line to try achieve something rather than being cast aside. Nobody ever understood that and now Halligan, a vocal critic of the government, is siding with them to get stuff done.

Good point sully to be fair, some people are realising that banging a table gets people very little and quid pro quo is needed in politics.of course SF and likes of PBP still have the luxury of never compromising and as result never achieving anything of note in the republic in modern times.add..obviously they did compromise up north for the betterment of the peace process and some credit due there, I'm referring to normal day to day politics.

robtri

Max Powers wrote: »

Sensible enough but contradicts your derisory comments you made earlier.

what comment and how does it contradict it??

Max Powers

robtri wrote: »

Halligans backs down after a stern talking to by his new masters

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/john-halligan-to-vote-with-government-on-water-charges-vote-1.2657622

This one slating his actions for supporting govt, next one supportive he should support govt.

robtri

Max Powers wrote: »

This one slating his actions for supporting govt, next one supportive he should support govt.

I didnt slate his actions, I made fun of him a bit for doing it, considering all the hype around his campaign, it is amusing but I do think he made the right decision to help Waterford

Suryavarman

Adam Wyse has been elected Mayor of Waterford making him the youngest mayor in Irish history.

Wanderer78

Suryavarman wrote: »

Adam Wyse has been elected Mayor of Waterford making him the youngest mayor in Irish history.

gimme a f*ckin break! i dont know the chap, im sure hes a smart young fella, but these things are just embarrassing. i know the mayor doesnt have a whole lot of power and is more an ambassador for the city than anything, but we really need people that have some experience in life for these kind of positions. i wish him the best all the same

Wanderer78

Wanderer78 wrote: »

gimme a f*ckin break! i dont know the chap, im sure hes a smart young fella, but these things are just embarrassing. i know the major doesnt have a whole lot of power and is more an ambassador for the city than anything, but we really need people that have some experience in life for these kind of positions. i wish him the best all the same

Yeah its ridiculous, no life experience at all and is mayor of the city Wasn't his dad a politician? Forgive me for maybe being ignorant here but isn't this just pure nepotism?

mooseknunkle

Wanderer78 wrote: »

gimme a f*ckin break! i dont know the chap, im sure hes a smart young fella, but these things are just embarrassing. i know the mayor doesnt have a whole lot of power and is more an ambassador for the city than anything, but we really need people that have some experience in life for these kind of positions. i wish him the best all the same

It'll be funny seeing him in the paper giving his classmates the school attendance certs!

dzilla

I thought Big John Hearn got the mayor gig

Suryavarman

dzilla wrote: »

I thought Big John Hearn got the mayor gig

Wyse is mayor of the city, Hearne is mayor of the metropolitan area. Not sure why they need two mayors. Then again, the council does love to waste money.

Max Powers

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yeah its ridiculous, no life experience at all and is mayor of the city Wasn't his dad a politician? Forgive me for maybe being ignorant here but isn't this just pure nepotism?

Nepotism is giving your family jobs, his father unfortunately died and he was co opted.....standard practice , he won seat on his own merits after that in election.I see no problem in his youth, couldn't be worse then the people that have been hanging around there ten+ years.in fact, positive to see younger people moving up, more than likely our TDs in years to come.

BBM77

Suryavarman wrote: »

Wyse is mayor of the city, Hearne is mayor of the metropolitan area. Not sure why they need two mayors. Then again, the council does love to waste money.

That is a bit harsh in fairness. They have had to deal with a shambles of a situation enforced on them by a government that put politics and regional status delusions over logical local government arrangements that serves the best interest of the area. The reason there are three mayors is because that is the mess the local authority was left in after the government forced merger. Having one local authority for Waterford city and county is utter utter nonsense. This is not a local pride thing the same applies to Limerick and the planned merges in Cork and Galway. The local authority needs of a sizeable urban area like Waterford city is very different to the county which is mainly rural.

Max Powers

The Irish times today reporting that the report done by the NHS doctor into cardiac care in UHW actually recommends reducing services...I find that worrying and shocking.wouldn't be the first time a national paper tried to undermine something trying to be achieved here with a bias against Waterford but still, worrying .we all thought this was a done deal no matter how much some tried to use old census figures and other ways to undermine.

O Riain

Max Powers wrote: »

The Irish times today reporting that the report done by the NHS doctor into cardiac care in UHW actually recommends reducing services...I find that worrying and shocking.wouldn't be the first time a national paper tried to undermine something trying to be achieved here with a bias against Waterford but still, worrying .we all thought this was a done deal no matter how much some tried to use old census figures and other ways to undermine.

I read the article and I'm lost for words to be honest. The article is very ambiguous and doesn't flat out confirm that there is no recommendation for a second lab but it is extremely worrying none the less.

Before the report we were informed of figures of people being transferred to Dublin and Cork just to prop up their numbers in order to justify their services, if that is the case then why does the report not recommend a second lab? Losing all hope at this stage for any kind of a fair go for Waterford and the South East.

Harry Palmr

Cork Cork Cork - **** off Cork!

Dunmoreroader

Halligan's been done up like a kipper! Who's this Niall Herity geezer anyway? Have a read of how out-of-hours heart attacks are dealt with by Dr Herity in Belfast: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/another-heart-stopping-night-on-the-cardiac-unit-1.680549

Does he believe Waterford & SouthEast lives are less important than Belfast lives?

"There can’t be any delay. As they say in the world of cardiology, “time is muscle”. Every minute that passes is doing irreparable damage to the muscle of the woman’s heart: the strength of the heart, and its ability to keep on beating, diminishes moment by moment. The circumstances couldn’t be more serious – it’s a life or death situation."

This stinks to high heaven, looks like once again Waterford gets royally screwed by Fine Gael, central government, the HSE, Dublin, Cork and now add to the list a Dub UCD graduate working in Belfast.

plus ca change plus ca meme chose

Max Powers

JH's performance so far hasn't been great, he promised us this, 'done deal'..if that doesn't materialise now and its difficult to see how it can at this stage with the 'independent' report saying contrary. JH should have made sure that the terms of the report led to only one conclusion, that is the way other people/companies/TDs/parties do it.

only 2 decent outcomes here, either he gets it sorted or near enough it so it looks like a victory for him and govt can stand over it or he gets a load of investment elsewhere such as in hospital, IDA jobs, investment in North quays etc etc so that one offsets the other.

O Riain

Max Powers wrote: »

JH's performance so far hasn't been great, he promised us this, 'done deal'..if that doesn't materialise now and its difficult to see how it can at this stage with the 'independent' report saying contrary. JH should have made sure that the terms of the report led to only one conclusion, that is the way other people/companies/TDs/parties do it.

only 2 decent outcomes here, either he gets it sorted or near enough it so it looks like a victory for him and govt can stand over it or he gets a load of investment elsewhere such as in hospital, IDA jobs, investment in North quays etc etc so that one offsets the other.

While I guess it ultimately comes down to John, should we not be looking at the bigger picture here? The bigger picture being once again we are being shafted? John seemingly did well enough only for it to fall to pieces at the first hurdle.

But this time it's worse, an 'independent' inquiry is there to back up their shafting of us so we have absolutely nothing to complain about!

Max Powers

O Riain wrote: »

While I guess it ultimately comes down to John, should we not be looking at the bigger picture here? The bigger picture being once again we are being shafted? John seemingly did well enough only for it to fall to pieces at the first hurdle.

But this time it's worse, an 'independent' inquiry is there to back up their shafting of us so we have absolutely nothing to complain about!

Annoying thing is we were told by JH and consultants that we had the need, had the population etc.was that lies or was this report fixed to fail from day one.hopefully we will see some positive out of what looks like now,a complete mess.