Leo is the new king of Ireland.

blanch152

Matt Barrett wrote: »

On the usual cronyism and failed policy he stays the course followed by Kenny. Help certain parties dodge tax legally and put private business above the public.

.

Can you give some concrete examples of this? Since he has become Taoiseach.

Or is it the usual throw mud and see how much sticks.

McMurphy

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

... isn't closing the Double Irish tax loophole literally the first thing that Varadkar's Government did after he became Taoiseach?



(rhetorical question; the answer is yes)

No.

The first thing his government literally did was surround itself in controversy surrounding the Marie Whelans appointment to the court of appeal.

14th of June
Leo Varadkar becomes youngest ever Taoiseach


16th of June

While it is the AG who receives expressions of interest from sitting judges, or canvasses sitting judges about whether they are interested in being promoted, the bringing to cabinet of recommendations as to who should be appointed a judge is a function of the minister for justice. This is usually done in consultation with the taoiseach and the AG.

same old same old

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Fianna Fail's Jim O'Callaghan said that the Government "circumvented the law" in relation to the appointment.

FrancieBrady

blanch152 wrote: »

Well spotted. The story does change all the time:






There is a certain whiff of desperation to attempts to put down Leo.

There are a lot of politicians without any substance both now and in the past - Bertie Ahern, Shane Ross, Mary-Lou McDonald, Simon Harris, Tim Dooley, Pearse Doherty, to name just a few - and for many of them, the shine never came off or has lasted a long, long time. Some of them still have a chance to do something substantive, but Leo appears to have a lot more and done a lot more than most of them. However, he still has a long way to go to fill the shoes of Bertie.

Are you working for the SCU?

johnnyskeleton

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Are you working for the SCU?

Mod note:

Don't personalise matters and please provide only substantive contributions.

christy c

Matt Barrett wrote: »

Perceived best of a perceived bad bunch

That's precisely why I vote for FG, obviously you disagree. Would you mind telling me which of the current leaders you would see as the best and why?

FrancieBrady

christy c wrote: »

That's precisely why I vote for FG, obviously you disagree. Would you mind telling me which of the current leaders you would see as the best and why?

I would not see much between Michael and Leo. With Michael coming across as a tad more sincere.

Edward M

FrancieBrady wrote: »

I would not see much between Michael and Leo. With Michael coming across as a tad more sincere.

Michael is about as sincere as or summer is guaranteed dry, at best hit and miss, but mostly miss.
FF of course could pull Leo's plug any time they choose, a couple of times sincerity could have done it, but sincerity knows that the polls aren't in its favour.

christy c

FrancieBrady wrote: »

I would not see much between Michael and Leo. With Michael coming across as a tad more sincere.

While I don't agree that he is more sincere, I wouldn't vote for him anyway because he was one of the ones in charge when the ship was going down. I think he needs a longer spell on the sidelines.

Anyway I meant all leaders, would you put both ahead of Mary Lou?

christy c

christy c wrote: »

While I don't agree that he is more sincere, I wouldn't vote for him anyway because he was one of the ones in charge when the ship was going down. I think he needs a longer spell on the sidelines.

Anyway I meant all leaders, would you put both ahead of Mary Lou?

Mary Lou has one big disadvantage. Her voice. Her droaning moany preaching tone is very off putting. Coupled with SFs suspect finance plans and she’s on a hiding to nothing.

FreudianSlippers

I'd rank her annoying voice as a close second to her lack of any kind of economic knowledge or plan.

christy c

I said that I would vote for Leo/FG as best of a bad lot. Just wondering if anyone sees another leader as better and why

Chips Lovell

We must be spoiled for choice for potential Taoiseagh if something so trivial as an annoying voice would rule someone out.

Jawgap

Baron de Charlus wrote: »

We must be spoiled for choice for potential Taoiseagh if something so trivial as an annoying voice would rule someone out.

I think there's a difference between annoying (Cowan, Ahern) and grating (McDonald) and downright unintelligible (Healy-Raes, Wallace).

McDonald manages to combine a Howlin/Boyd-Barrett/Murphy ever patronising tone, with a hectoring Coppinger/Daly timbre and the vocanulary of McGrath- one of the great parliamentary orators she is certainly not.

Varadkar's tone may be soothing to the point of being boring but at least he's a bit articulate (or at least well capable of speaking the words written for him).

FrancieBrady

christy c wrote: »

While I don't agree that he is more sincere, I wouldn't vote for him anyway because he was one of the ones in charge when the ship was going down. I think he needs a longer spell on the sidelines.

Anyway I meant all leaders, would you put both ahead of Mary Lou?

Too early to say.
She's up against some fairly blatant sexist commentary though.
Comments on her tone or the 'grating' etc voice seem to me to be deserved for putting down women even though there is care been taken on this thread to 'balance' remarks. It is almost never the first thing referred to when commenting on male politicians

christy c

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Too early to say.
She's up against some fairly blatant sexist commentary though.
Comments on her tone or the 'grating' etc voice seem to me to be deserved for putting down women even though there is care been taken on this thread to 'balance' remarks. It is almost never the first thing referred to when commenting on male politicians

Well the original post I quoted (from another poster) was suggesting that Leo was not the best of a bad lot. Am I correct in thinking that your initial reply means that you would give that title to Micheal and therefore your vote?

blanch152

FrancieBrady wrote: »

I would not see much between Michael and Leo. With Michael coming across as a tad more sincere.

The sincere Micheal Martin?

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/02/11/so-why-did-that-money-end-up-in-your-wifes-account-mr-martin/

Still isn't clear whether he met Owen O'Callaghan or not.

blanch152

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Too early to say.
She's up against some fairly blatant sexist commentary though.
Comments on her tone or the 'grating' etc voice seem to me to be deserved for putting down women even though there is care been taken on this thread to 'balance' remarks. It is almost never the first thing referred to when commenting on male politicians

Pascal Donohoe's voice gets referred to very often.

FrancieBrady

christy c wrote: »

Well the original post I quoted (from another poster) was suggesting that Leo was not the best of a bad lot. Am I correct in thinking that your initial reply means that you would give that title to Micheal and therefore your vote?

I will decide who i vote for on the basis of an election campaign.
Neither would inspire me.

McMurphy

blanch152 wrote: »

Pascal Donohoe's voice gets referred to very often.

In fairness it's not his voice I hear being mocked, it's his speech impediment.

And I don't condone it either.

I consider Paschal a fairly competent and intelligent politician.

FrancieBrady

blanch152 wrote: »

The sincere Micheal Martin?

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/02/11/so-why-did-that-money-end-up-in-your-wifes-account-mr-martin/

Still isn't clear whether he met Owen O'Callaghan or not.

I think I said, .'a tad more sincere'. I didn't give the starting level of sincerity.

christy c

FrancieBrady wrote: »

I will decide who i vote for on the basis of an election campaign.
Neither would inspire me.

Fair enough.

I'm still wondering though who these people saying "how could you vote for FG/Leo" see as better and why. Not aimed at you

FrancieBrady

blanch152 wrote: »

Pascal Donohoe's voice gets referred to very often.

As a comedy thing maybe. But not something that dimishes his abilities or puts him down.

Men generally don't notice themselves putting women down because of personal traits.
Fairly common behaviour.

Idbatterim

Previously voted fg. As best of a bad lot. Voting renua this time round. There is no point in complaining, unless you vote in alternatives. Fg can get away with their ****, because they effectively have no competition in their lie of ‘’making work pay” until people start voting alternatives, they won’t change track ... Varadkars bulls hit is so transparent, it’s laughable

Edward M

christy c wrote: »

Fair enough.

I'm still wondering though who these people saying "how could you vote for FG/Leo" see as better and why. Not aimed at you

I hope you don't think all these polls that are conducted are only for members of boards.ie now:)
Or maybe you think these threads are influencing the polls taken outside in the real world?

christy c

Idbatterim wrote: »

Previously voted fg. As best of a bad lot. Voting renua this time round. There is no point in complaining, unless you vote in alternatives. Fg can get away with their ****, because they effectively have no competition in their lie of ‘’making work pay” until people start voting alternatives, they won’t change track ... Varadkars bulls hit is so transparent, it’s laughable

Yeah, I'm considering doing the same but the important thing is who will be your number 2 given that Renua are unlikely to get many (any) seats.

The choice really is so poor, but you get many on this forum acting as if we have fantastic candidates that haven't been voted for yet

christy c

Edward M wrote: »

I hope you don't think all these polls that are conducted are only for members of boards.ie now:)
Or maybe you think these threads are influencing the polls taken outside in the real world?

Why would I think any of that? I'm just trying to get an answer to my original question

blanch152

FrancieBrady wrote: »

As a comedy thing maybe. But not something that dimishes his abilities or puts him down.

Men generally don't notice themselves putting women down because of personal traits.
Fairly common behaviour.

I don't find the mocking of a speech impediment particularly funny. I know a number of comedians get laughs out of it, but each to their own taste.

I think you are generalising too much about the grating thing. Yes, there are female politicians - Joan Burton, Mary-Lou McDonald - who have got unfavourable comments about their voice, but in my opinion, Joan is a successful politician who helped drag this country back to stability whereas Mary-Lou has whined from the sidelines ever since she entered politics. That opinion of the two women is independent of their voices.

Similarly, there are women whose voices don't grate - Brid Smith, for example - for whom I have zero time, and whose political opinions I find amusing and others who have considerable achievements - Mary McAleese, Mary Robinson etc - whose voices don't grate. For most of us, the level of grating in the voice doesn't stop us from judging the political capability of the politician.

I generally find that you find people reverting to "you are slagging Joan's voice" or Mary-Lou's once they have run out of actual substantive arguments. So for what it's worth, complaining about a grating voice isn't sexist, and certainly is of a far less serious level than turning a speech impediment into a comedy item, which you seem to condone.

FrancieBrady wrote: »

I think I said, .'a tad more sincere'. I didn't give the starting level of sincerity.

If you find Micheal, about whom there are unanswered questions about political donations more sincere than Leo, you must have a reason for that relating to something Leo has done, could you elaborate?

FrancieBrady

blanch152 wrote: »

I don't find the mocking of a speech impediment particularly funny. I know a number of comedians get laughs out of it, but each to their own taste.

I think you are generalising too much about the grating thing. Yes, there are female politicians - Joan Burton, Mary-Lou McDonald - who have got unfavourable comments about their voice, but in my opinion, Joan is a successful politician who helped drag this country back to stability whereas Mary-Lou has whined from the sidelines ever since she entered politics. That opinion of the two women is independent of their voices.

Similarly, there are women whose voices don't grate - Brid Smith, for example - for whom I have zero time, and whose political opinions I find amusing and others who have considerable achievements - Mary McAleese, Mary Robinson etc - whose voices don't grate. For most of us, the level of grating in the voice doesn't stop us from judging the political capability of the politician.

I generally find that you find people reverting to "you are slagging Joan's voice" or Mary-Lou's once they have run out of actual substantive arguments. So for what it's worth, complaining about a grating voice isn't sexist, and certainly is of a far less serious level than turning a speech impediment into a comedy item, which you seem to condone.



If you find Micheal, about whom there are unanswered questions about political donations more sincere than Leo, you must have a reason for that relating to something Leo has done, could you elaborate?

I don't get the feeling Leo is a sincere politician. He talks In soundbytes., seems detached and lacks any convincing empathy with the victims of various disasters the coalition's have presided over.

Idbatterim

christy c wrote: »

Yeah, I'm considering doing the same but the important thing is who will be your number 2 given that Renua are unlikely to get many (any) seats.

The choice really is so poor, but you get many on this forum acting as if we have fantastic candidates that haven't been voted for yet

I won’t have a number 2. If my renua candidate doesn’t get in so be it. I can’t vote for the alternatives and I can’t bring myself to vote fg again. They are a disgrace ...

Idbatterim

This “new politics” Where all that matters is image and optics. over integrity and results. Disgusts me..