What if a satirical political party was formed in Cork to contest elections?

ruserious

With all time lows of public confidence in the established parties, could it be the ideal time for a satirical political party to be formed in Cork?

The party could take on the mantra of the ''People's Republican Party'' with the satirical aims of wanting Cork independence.

The candidates would wear Cork GAA jerseys in interviews and attacks all other opposition candidates with slurs like ''those jackeen langers are...''

The party literature would read as if you were listening to a Cork accent.

Be totally critical of government policy. Attack the opposition too for their weakness and their ''anti-Cork ways''.

Totally crazy idea but if you got someone popular to run, you could take a seat in the 2014 local elections and what a platform that would be for the general election.

Rhys Essien

I suppose it couldnt be any funnier than the crowd already there.

mountain

a number of years ago, this man was elected to the council,

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/bernie-murphy-26321859.html

and more about him here
http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/famous-cork-independent-cllr-bernie-murphy/

Cartuja

Worth a go.
This country has failed to grasp the principles of democracy. Our politicians, for decades, are only self-serving pigs feeding at the trough, right across the board. I don't agree completely with the o p, but an alternative is well worth consideration.

MrFrisp

Cartuja wrote: »

Worth a go.
This country has failed to grasp the principles of democracy. Our politicians, for decades, are only self-serving pigs feeding at the trough, right across the board. I don't agree completely with the o p, but an alternative is well worth consideration.

Something like this maybe?

http://corkindependent.com/20130502/news/new-movement-for-cork-S64363.html
.

Cartuja

MrFrisp wrote: »

Something like this maybe?

http://corkindependent.com/20130502/news/new-movement-for-cork-S64363.html
.

I don't have all the answers, but I think that the idea of another party is just pure innocent. Direct action is what's needed now. How many elections will it take for a new party to make any inroads into the system? And then only to go the same way as the PDs and Greens.

MrFrisp

I don't have the answers either... But,,a new party has to be worth a go..

After all,,they can't get much worse than what's there.

Sadly though,I think nothing will ever change at the top..Too many rules,,laws,,etc that they all need to vote on to change things.

They only make it easy when they want it to suit themselves.
.

Cartuja

I'm no fan of Neil Prendeville, but he called it right last week. This country is rotten to the core, a legacy of decades of Fianna Fail corruption.
What started with Haughey, copied by Burke, Lawlor, Ahern, Reynolds et al., is so ingrained into the Irish political system that it is impossible to repair. Dail Eireann is inhabited for the most part by careerists whose sole interest is power, prestige, salary, expenses and pensions.
The young are emigrating, the working class are so burdened down with trying to hold on to their homes, keeping their businesses afloat and trying to pay unjust and unfair levies and taxes that there is really no section of society to mount a credible fight back. Nothing will change until social welfare is slashed.

What were are watching is a plantation of the island once more. With non-Irish born making up 15% of the population, add in their offspring and factor in the mass emigration of our youth, imagine the statistics in twenty years time. I'm not being racist or xenophobic, just factual.
We are facing a situation not too dissimilar to Fiji in the 80's when the settlers from the Indian subcontinent outnumbered the indigenous people.Little hope of changing anything in these circumstances.

MrFrisp

Cartuja wrote: »

I'm no fan of Neil Prendeville, but he called it right last week. This country is rotten to the core, a legacy of decades of Fianna Fail corruption.
What started with Haughey, copied by Burke, Lawlor, Ahern, Reynolds et al., is so ingrained into the Irish political system that it is impossible to repair. Dail Eireann is inhabited for the most part by careerists whose sole interest is power, prestige, salary, expenses and pensions.
The young are emigrating, the working class are so burdened down with trying to hold on to their homes, keeping their businesses afloat and trying to pay unjust and unfair levies and taxes that there is really no section of society to mount a credible fight back. Nothing will change until social welfare is slashed.

What were are watching is a plantation of the island once more. With non-Irish born making up 15% of the population, add in their offspring and factor in the mass emigration of our youth, imagine the statistics in twenty years time. I'm not being racist or xenophobic, just factual.
We are facing a situation not too dissimilar to Fiji in the 80's when the settlers from the Indian subcontinent outnumbered the indigenous people.Little hope of changing anything in these circumstances.

Spot on Cartuja

Very very well said.

Well done that man.
.

KCAccidental

Cartuja wrote: »

What were are watching is a plantation of the island once more. With non-Irish born making up 15% of the population, add in their offspring and factor in the mass emigration of our youth, imagine the statistics in twenty years time. I'm not being racist or xenophobic, just factual.
We are facing a situation not too dissimilar to Fiji in the 80's when the settlers from the Indian subcontinent outnumbered the indigenous people.Little hope of changing anything in these circumstances.

that's quite hyperbolic and unfair on a lot of immgrants and the comparison to Fiji is very much mistaken. We have the most homogeneous population in Western Europe for one.

here are the demographics of the ROI in 2011, the last available stats.

Ethnic backgrounds: White Irish: 84.5%, Irish Travellers: 0.7%, Other White: 9.1% (total White: 94.3%), Asian: 1.9%, Black: 1.4%, Other: 0.9%, Not Stated: 1.6% (2011)

of the 9.1% of white immigrants I would imagine that a good 7% are made up of highly skilled workers from the EU, who work at Google, Apple, Twitter, Amazon, EMC etc.

we need these immigrants to keep the local economy afloat at the moment, they are the only ones spending money (they have pretty much kept the rental property market afloat in the last year or two) as lots of jobs in Cork are for people with second languages. We will need them at least until our Education system is changed, so that more importance is placed upon learning another European language.

The idea that we have droves of immigrants coming over and leeching off of our social welfare system, simply isn't backed up by the statistics available from the CSO.

Cartuja

KCAccidental wrote: »

that's quite hyperbolic and unfair on a lot of immgrants and the comparison to Fiji is very much mistaken. We have the most homogeneous population in Western Europe for one.

here are the demographics of the ROI in 2011, the last available stats.



of the 9.1% of white immigrants I would imagine that a good 7% are made up of highly skilled workers from the EU, who work at Google, Apple, Twitter, Amazon, EMC etc.

we need these immigrants to keep the local economy afloat at the moment, they are the only ones spending money (they have pretty much kept the rental property market afloat in the last year or two) as lots of jobs in Cork are for people with second languages. We will need them at least until our Education system is changed, so that more importance is placed upon learning another European language.

The idea that we have droves of immigrants coming over and leeching off of our social welfare system, simply isn't backed up by the statistics available from the CSO.

You are not quoting the latest CSO figures.
Don't try to lower it to a white/non-white argument. Call facts for what they are.

Check the World Bank figures where every Nigerian man, woman and child living here transferred on average over €26,000 from Ireland to Nigeria in 2011, and a marginally lesser amount was transferred to Poland. Figures like this do little to stimulate the local economy. It actually raises some eyebrows.

I do not belittle the the contribution made by immigrants and in no way do I subscribe to the Orwellian, Animal Farm type of philosophy of "Four Legs good, two legs bad". Neither will I be cowed by the PC brigade.

Are you seriously saying that we don't produce enough language graduates?
What we are not producing is enough cheap language graduates.
We are engaging in a race to the bottom, with the Irish worker back where he was a century ago.

The politics of corruption of recent governments will have as big a social impact as the famine when a final tally is done.
Cromwell was kinder to the Irish than the present regime. Laughable when we have the party founded by Larkin and Connolly in coalition, isn't it?


Let us not forget that Ireland was a colony and not a colonial power. Our forefathers paid a heavy and bloody price for our independence only to have it used, abused and discarded by the traitors who got themselves elected in the guise of public representatives.
I sincerely hope that the Irish people will rise again and reclaim our country before it is too late.

KCAccidental

Cartuja wrote: »

You are not quoting the latest CSO figures.
Don't try to lower it to a white/non-white argument. Call facts for what they are.

these are the figures from the last census, if you have further updated ones, please share them.

Check the World Bank figures where every Nigerian man, woman and child living here transferred on average over €26,000 from Ireland to Nigeria in 2011, and a marginally lesser amount was transferred to Poland. Figures like this do little to stimulate the local economy. It actually raises some eyebrows.

yet Nigerians make up less that 1% of our population and Poles 2%. Many of them working and sending money home to set themselves up or help their family, Like the Irish did and are doing now. It has been a fact of life for a while now that the city centre trade and rent income is being propped up by young skilled immigrants. If you don't believe me, then join me in the Old Oak on saturday for the champions league final where you will see the place packed to the rafters with Germans spending!

I do not belittle the the contribution made by immigrants and in no way do I subscribe to the Orwellian, Animal Farm type of philosophy of "Four Legs good, two legs bad". Neither will I be cowed by the PC brigade.

Nothing PC in my points.

Are you seriously saying that we don't produce enough language graduates?
What we are not producing is enough cheap language graduates.
We are engaging in a race to the bottom, with the Irish worker back where he was a century ago.

yes I am and so are other people

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/item/27913-foreign-language-proficienc

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/education/graduates-must-learn-languages-to-compete-26779103.html

as for the cheap graduates, that's a misnomer.. how are there jobs for people with languages for 24-35k a year in Cork being snapped up by skilled immigrants if we have plenty of language graduates?

The politics of corruption of recent governments will have as big a social impact as the famine when a final tally is done.
Cromwell was kinder to the Irish than the present regime. Laughable when we have the party founded by Larkin and Connolly in coalition, isn't it?

I'm not going to argue with you there.

Let us not forget that Ireland was a colony and not a colonial power. Our forefathers paid a heavy and bloody price for our independence only to have it used, abused and discarded by the traitors who got themselves elected in the guise of public representatives.
I sincerely hope that the Irish people will rise again and reclaim our country before it is too late.

or there, but it seems like a lot of anger is being misdirected at our small number of immigrants, mostly skilled and needed in our economy, when the anger should be at the government. These are guys who screwed our country, not someone who was willing to uproot their whole world in search of a better life, something we know about more than others.

Cartuja

KC, surely the World Bank figures make you wonder how the Nigerians are able to transfer so much money home from an economy on it's knees.
It certainly makes no sense to me.
The Eastern Europeans are without doubt industrious people and by and large are making their contribution to Ireland.
I grant that there will always be a need to import certain skills.
I'm all in favour of the immigrants who came here during the boom, paid their taxes and contributions, being treated fairly now.
The problem now is that the Irish are being discriminated against.

Why are Irish nurses emigrating and being replaces by foreign nurses? Answer : They are cheaper.
This economic principle benefits no one except the fat cats.
The works of Upton Sinclair are worth reading. He has been airbrushed from American literature because he wrote socialist truth. His account of the meat industry in Chicago in the twenties typifies the impact of mass immigration on the indigenous worker.
We have no immigration policies here, unlike the US and Australia, an open door which has led to the exploitation of both native and foreign worker and abuse of the social welfare system.

You say that anger should be directed at the government. True, but they are only part of the corrupt system. The examples of TACA (you mightn't remember that far back), Haughey and Ben Dunne, Michael Lowry,the banks, planning, show how the tentacles of corruption have invaded every facet of society.
Have the public and private sectors, black and white, native and foreign worker all at each others throats and deflect from the real problem is the political ploy.

What is needed is unity to destroy the rotten society which has evolved. Talk shops and another party won't solve our problems.

mordeith

Cartuja wrote: »

Let us not forget that Ireland was a colony and not a colonial power. Our forefathers paid a heavy and bloody price for our independence only to have it used, abused and discarded by the traitors who got themselves elected in the guise of public representatives.
I sincerely hope that the Irish people will rise again and reclaim our country before it is too late.

We can all bang about the failure of the government and talk about the people rising again but the fact is that the people put them there in the first place. The likes of Mick Wallace, Luke Flanagan and the Healy Rae's are all as corrupt as some of the big party politicians. At a local level people know this and are prepared to turn the blind eye because a pot-hole gets filled or planning for a house is granted. From the smallest town council to the Dáil there is a direct and continuing line of certain elected representatives abusing the system. If it's tolerated at the lowest levels then is it any wonder our TDs are the same?
What's need is a national change in our attitude. Many Irish people are quick to try and get away with breaches of rules. Just look are drivers on the roads and social welfare cheats, fellas cutting bogs when it's illegal, no dog licences etc. Of course the big boys are gonna be the same. It's predominant in our culture.

tokitoki

Cartuja wrote: »

Let us not forget that Ireland was a colony and not a colonial power. Our forefathers paid a heavy and bloody price for our independence only to have it used, abused and discarded by the traitors who got themselves elected in the guise of public representatives.
I sincerely hope that the Irish people will rise again and reclaim our country before it is too late.

Well said