Parish Pump Mentality

ScumLord

goose2005 wrote: »

Dublin population density: 1,380 per km2
Connacht: 30.

That's why dem up in dublin get evrytin

And as such our needs aren't that great, many people are going in the same direction and one motorway would solve the traffic nightmares that everyone in the west has to suffer through on a daily basis. They just waste money on pointless roadworks where they're not needed rather than doing the one thing that will go some way to making everybodies lives easier.

It's sickening to constantly hear that the rest of the country doesn't deserve modern amenities because we don't have the same population density as Dublin, even though Dublin's a tiny county. And it's attitudes like yours that enforces parish pump politics because I'll be damned if I'm going to vote for a major party just to have all our issues ignored so Dublin can suck up all our money.

goose2005 wrote: »

Why would it go to Letterkenny? Derry's much bigger

Because Derry is in another country.

chopper6

ScumLord wrote: »

And as such our needs aren't that great, many people are going in the same direction and one motorway would solve the traffic nightmares that everyone in the west has to suffer through on a daily basis. They just waste money on pointless roadworks where they're not needed rather than doing the one thing that will go some way to making everybodies lives easier.

.

Which direction is that?

The road up to Dublin?

ShaneMc2012

goose2005 wrote: »

Why would it go to Letterkenny? Derry's much bigger

Im not sure, this is the plan for it anyway? https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/534256/280469.PNG

Davelarson

Wolf Club wrote: »

Whinging about what exactly?

They act like there's a conspiracy to keep them in third world conditions.

unfortunately

Part of the N13 connects Letterkenny to Derry, a very sort section of this (5km) is dual carriage way.

Wolf Club

Davelarson wrote: »

They act like there's a conspiracy to keep them in third world conditions.

Oh yeah? Where did you hear this? Was it from talking to people from Mayo? Hearing them on the tv/radio?

CrabRevolution

A lot of people here are saying we need to 'think nationaly' and that we need to elect politicians to serve the country as a whole.

That's all well and good, but generally i get the impression that thinking of the national interest means the same as 'give Dublin more things' to the people most passionately promoting the idea.

BuilderPlumber

catallus wrote: »

Isn't "parish pump politics" common to every country in the world, ever? It is the way politics works, I thought.

It is the system in all EU countries, all commonwealth countries, other European countries like Turkey, Russia, former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, etc. Also, the USA, Mexico and South America. It has taken hold in recent years also in Iran, most of Africa, Pakistan, India, China, Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, etc.), Iraq, even Afghanistan.

There are some non-parish pump politics countries and low and behold two of them are the worst dictatorships currently in the world: Eritrea and North Korea.

BuilderPlumber

CrabRevolution wrote: »

A lot of people here are saying we need to 'think nationaly' and that we need to elect politicians to serve the country as a whole.

That's all well and good, but generally i get the impression that thinking of the national interest means the same as 'give Dublin more things' to the people most passionately promoting the idea.

That's the problem and it ain't even 'Dublin' but it means giving all money to 'the nation' which is a vague definition. The money goes into some mystery pot never to be seen again.

While I stated that parish pump politics often has a bad name of having politicians who claim they are responsible for every good event in a town, the opposite type of politician is worse. The aloof legislator who does not care about being nice and approachable is a very dangerous type of politics and one that borders on total dictatorship. Ireland is already 60% on the road to dictatorship so any further move in that direction would be very very dangerous.

How many very nasty regimes sprung up by using a PR campaign of giving the people what they want but interpreting it very differently. I think this is what we need to remember.

-when the people speak of a desire to end parish pump, they mean an end to dishonest cute hoors. They want their politicians to work harder and deliver requests of the people.
-a government could instead interpret it as a way to make themselves less approachable and say they are concentrating of being 'legislators'. This would be much worse (politicians would not even be meeting people and could do what they like) than the affable lying Killinaskully style cute hoor.

Lapin

LivelineDipso wrote: »

Are people living west of the Shannon aware that they are citizens of a nation called Ireland and not their local GAA county colours?

That could have been funny if it weren't for the fact that Bertie Ahern was the ultimate parish pump politician whose dogged insistance that the national children's hospital be built on the Mater Hospital site in his constituency has resulted in prolonging anguish of hundreds of families in this country and genuine pain for their children.

Now he is gone and the Mater site has been deemed totally unsuitable,(something everyone else knew 10 years ago). Tens of millions of euro has been wasted and not a single brick has been laid in the consruction of a new hospital. :mad:



I could tell you where to shove your parish pump OP.

BuilderPlumber

Grayson wrote: »

This isn't brazil where we have half a million people living in shanty towns. Unemployment is actually better in dublin than it is in large parts of the country. Dublin can sustain it's current population. have you got any evidence that it can't?

We don't need a minister in every county. Then we'd be picking someone to be a minister because they're a kerryman. That's just dumb.

We do need fewer politicians in the dail. That would give politicians a larger constituency and would stop them from being so local in their priorities. national politicians should not be acting like local politicians. That's what county councils are for. We might end up with fewer publicans in the dail.

You don't have to go to New Delhi, Tehran, Johannesburg, Lagos or Sao Paolo to see extreme poverty residing alongside obscene wealth. There are no shanty towns in Dublin per se but there are high rise flats (just watch Love/Hate and you will see them!) where severe poverty (ironically, much worse than anything in poor counties like Waterford, Leitrim or Donegal) truly exists. While not 'shanty towns', they are not pleasant places and problems (admittedly, some self-caused by the people there) exist there. The flats shown in Love/Hate (and all the problems shown in this series) are real and I have passed them many times when I lived in Dublin a few years back. Dublin can sustain for the moment professional migrants and its deprived poor wallow in dispair and turn to crime. But, high rise ghettos, drug dealing, unemployment culture and inequality are the seeds that cause greater problems and at present 2013 Dublin looks no better than 1972 Tehran (Iran).

Every county needs a minister (or some system in place to make sure equality exists) because otherwise some get all the goodies and others get damn all. Longford, Leitrim, Waterford, Roscommon, etc. all suffer while Wexford, Mayo, Galways, etc. gain. I'm sure Cork, where I currently live, will fare much better under the next Micheal Martin lead government!!!

I agree we need less TDs. If each county does not get a minister, we need some federal system in place where each county is guaranteed a hospital, a VEC, some third level insitute (whether standalone or an outreach centre), some major government-facilitated employer, an industrial estate, etc. County councils should have more power (the last FF lead government took away a lot of their powers allowing the current government to amalgamate county's resources) and our country should be named the Federal Republic of Ireland. Another European federal republic is one of the few well run countries in the world and one that has escaped recession by and large!!

The attack on local government and on counties' entities is horrible to see. I agree that a lot of the politicians who are TDs in the poor counties are not ministerial material anyway but how in the name of god can the major parties like FG, FF & Labour pick such poor candidates?!?!?! Surely, there are some good people with talent who would stand?