Why haven't Fine Gael dumped Leo?

Wanderer78

Lumen wrote: »

Leo perfectly embodies his party. FG are the party for people who think the country is doing just fine, usually because they themselves are doing just fine. They are classic conservatives.

He doesn't even try to hide his disregard for people struggling with the status quo. That's not particularly a criticism. If he made more of an effort it would be dishonest.

I can see Coveney bringing more electoral success because he has a better arseholery cloaking device.

What disappoints me in Irish politics is not Leo and FG, it's the lack of persuasive intellectual opposition.

the political left is beyond diabolical

Malcomex

Wanderer78 wrote: »

the political left is beyond diabolical

They're diabolically bad

Like a leftover dinner microwaved back to life

Wanderer78

Malcomex wrote: »

They're diabolically bad

Like a leftover dinner microwaved back to life

you re too kind there i think

HBC08

blanch152 wrote: »

Let's call a spade a spade.

Some people can't handle a gay man with Indian heritage being in charge of a purely Irish state, they think it somehow dilutes our Irish identity.

That is all over Twitter, and it spills in here too.

This is where twitter/boards gets confusing for some people and they think its real life.

Lots of people I know in the real world dont like Leo.
Absolutely nobody I know gives a fuk thats hes gay or of Indian heritage.

spurious

I'm not a racist but...

RandomViewer

Good loser wrote: »

I like Leo in general, wish he had a slightly harder edge at times. That's difficult in Irish politics. He was unlucky in the timing of the last election.
Didn't FG subsequently reach about 34 % in the polls?; that would give FG 15 plus seats and return all the existing deputies. In these circumstances FG would be mad to dump him.
If ever he goes there are two outstanding replacements in Simon and Paschal.
With S Harris for another generation.

There was a poll recently that stated that only 4% of the population would object to a windfarm beside them, every one knows that that isn't the case but they've run with the poll, polls before the last election put SF on 13%, that proved wrong,

bertiebomber

Wanderer78 wrote: »

so you wouldnt understand me then, qualified to the gills with this that and the other thing, but doing virtually nothing to do with those pieces of papers

and taking a place in college from someone who actually really wants to
be a doctor.

RandomViewer

bertiebomber wrote: »

and taking a place in college from someone who actually really wants to
be a doctor.

Think its a family thing, they wanted him to be a doctor
Sort of like all those people who entered the priesthood to please their mother,
Probably better for everyone he didn't practice if his heart wasn't in it

bertiebomber

Leo is the perfect leader, as Ms Chu is the perfect mayor of Dublin. We live in times when being white is wrong so anything that is off white is right. We cannot say much as we will be guilty of hate speech and soon we wont be allowed to say anything. The world is now a liberal orgy and none of us are invited unless we wear the t shirt and attack any & all alternative views.

I am a conservative white person so i am the original C u nt in all this. I am watching the world and this is true everywhere.
Community is gone, knowing and helping your neighbour is gone there is no longer any connection between us. \These leaders are manoevered for that reason so we will not join up together and revolt.
We have lost control of our borders and our country and that topped with Covid is just a long slow death of irish culture and community. A long slow death of the world we all knew growing up. Sad but true so drink the cool aid and suck it up this is what it is now, for better or for worse.

Eric Cartman

HBC08 wrote: »

This is where twitter/boards gets confusing for some people and they think its real life.

Lots of people I know in the real world dont like Leo.
Absolutely nobody I know gives a fuk thats hes gay or of Indian heritage.

A lot of SF voters either openly or subconsciously have an issue with his heritage.

Tyrone212

Eric Cartman wrote: »

A lot of SF voters either openly or subconsciously have an issue with his heritage.

But sure I thought lefties like Sinn fein were all about open borders . Make up your mind.

boombang

Don't understand those saying Coveney's passed it. He's still young as national leaders go. He's held high portfolios without gaffes. He seems to have better judgement and credibility than Leo the Leak who has disillusioned many.

RandomViewer

Eric Cartman wrote: »

A lot of SF voters either openly or subconsciously have an issue with his heritage.

Think playing the race card is saying more about you than those you are accusing,

Tyrone212

Eric Cartman wrote: »

A lot of SF voters either openly or subconsciously have an issue with his heritage.

Thats actually hilarious. Look at your threads made. You got banned for being.. racist lol. Contested it and lost. And warned by mod if you do it again it'll be lengthy site ban. Told to stop your racism and dog whistles.

The absolute hilarity of your post above.

The issue I would see coming up with Coveney is his father tbh. That has never been dealt with and twouldnt be long coming up

Agree that Leo has had a poor run as leader of FG and tbh seems not too bothered with fairly important elements of the job

Best person in FG is Donohoe and I'm not sure he's leader as opposed to being in the best place already for him.

Bobtheman

Tyrone212 wrote: »

But sure I thought lefties like Sinn fein were all about open borders . Make up your mind.

SF is a hybrid of a nationalist party first and a socialist party second. Its not a traditional left wing party like Labour. Its very much like FF in the 1930s which was ultimately diasterous with its economic war. Though its self sufficiency idea was all the rage at the time.
Its still getting its head around the protestants 400 years after they arrived. SF

Malcomex

bertiebomber wrote: »

and taking a place in college from someone who actually really wants to
be a doctor.

I wouldn't have the highest regard for a medicine graduate per se

It demonstrates an ability to focus, concentrate and study to get it but that's all at a minimum

However definitely if I had to put 1 politician on the spot and require a straight up answer to an unpalatable question it would be leo varadkar

I admire and value him for that quality above most other politicians

Lumen

bertiebomber wrote: »

Leo is the perfect leader, as Ms Chu is the perfect mayor of Dublin. We live in times when being white is wrong so anything that is off white is right. We cannot say much as we will be guilty of hate speech and soon we wont be allowed to say anything. The world is now a liberal orgy and none of us are invited unless we wear the t shirt and attack any & all alternative views.

I am a conservative white person so i am the original C u nt in all this. I am watching the world and this is true everywhere.
Community is gone, knowing and helping your neighbour is gone there is no longer any connection between us. \These leaders are manoevered for that reason so we will not join up together and revolt.
We have lost control of our borders and our country and that topped with Covid is just a long slow death of irish culture and community. A long slow death of the world we all knew growing up. Sad but true so drink the cool aid and suck it up this is what it is now, for better or for worse.

What are you on about? I do stuff for my neighbors all the time and yet don't feel any of your white Irish conservative victimhood.

Eric Cartman

Tyrone212 wrote: »

Thats actually hilarious. Look at your threads made. You got banned for being.. racist lol. Contested it and lost. And warned by mod if you do it again it'll be lengthy site ban. Told to stop your racism and dog whistles.

The absolute hilarity of your post above.

Has nothing to do with my views. A lot of hardline SF voters in their nationalist views would have issues with any taoiseach/ tainaiste who was not 100% ethnically irish . I dont understand how saying thos is controversial, check any facebook news site when a story about leo comes up, tonnes of comments from people with the lilly on the profile picture or resharing SF content.

SF are nationalist by their own admission, I dont see how its any reflection on me to point out that many of that parties members do not like a leader that is not 100% irish

bertiebomber

Lumen wrote: »

What are you on about? I do stuff for my neighbors all the time and yet don't feel any of your white Irish conservative victimhood.

its not victim hood its just an observation i also help my neighbours and call to them from a distance in this pandemic but the neighbours are less and less known to us. They are no longer the cousins of people we knew or the sister who married the son of Tom in the next village. Its a rural thing maybe not so much urban as you are used to not knowing who lives next door.

beggars_bush

bertiebomber wrote: »

Leo is the perfect leader, as Ms Chu is the perfect mayor of Dublin. We live in times when being white is wrong so anything that is off white is right. We cannot say much as we will be guilty of hate speech and soon we wont be allowed to say anything. The world is now a liberal orgy and none of us are invited unless we wear the t shirt and attack any & all alternative views.

I am a conservative white person so i am the original C u nt in all this. I am watching the world and this is true everywhere.
Community is gone, knowing and helping your neighbour is gone there is no longer any connection between us. \These leaders are manoevered for that reason so we will not join up together and revolt.
We have lost control of our borders and our country and that topped with Covid is just a long slow death of irish culture and community. A long slow death of the world we all knew growing up. Sad but true so drink the cool aid and suck it up this is what it is now, for better or for worse.

I think the opposite
The country is much better place than 30 years ago
Diversity has been very good for most places outside the big urban areas

I don't have much time for Leo, but its nothing to do with his heritage or sexual orientation

He just comes across as a smug git, who thinks he knows more than most people and doesn't really understand what most people in ireland have to toil through, just to get by

RobAMerc

I think one thing overlooked with Leo is that while Coveny may be the better politician for the country, and ability's at negotiations and general understanding of how politics work, Leo has much more presence. Leo is the one out there doing all the interviews, giving sound bites and twittering. We've seen how celebrity has proven as powerful a vote getter as policy ( in the US and UK ), and Leo plays that better than Simon imo.

As for Leo being a doctor - doctors are idolised in Ireland and people give them credence where it often isnt due. I am particularly talking about the health service where I believe deference to consultants has led us in a large part to the mess we are in today.
But thats for another day.

PhoneMain

Its also reasonable to conclude that being a leader of a party in govt right now is a really difficult job at the moment. Granted it's very well rewarded financially but you I wouldnt do their job for twice the salary. I'm sure the pressure is horrific at the moment and at the best of times the hours are crazy but I'd say they're septic now. You're trying to balance public health needs versus the economy and with the added complication of dealing with Brexit and the inevitable further difficulties that will arise from that (look at Article 16 over the weekend!).

I'd say the same no matter who else was in charge, Mary Lou, Roisin Shortall etc. Even Boris, despite being a luder of the highest order has a tough time at the moment.

Granted Leo has made some mistakes and he would want to step back from the social media politics for a while I think. Social media, particularly Twitter doesnt represent the view on the ground I find.

It also has to be playing in the minds of the FG party that a leadership contest would not be welcome in a climate like this, the exact same as an election. If someone pulled the plug on govt now, it'd be political suicide for them.

PhoneMain

RobAMerc wrote: »

As for Leo being a doctor - doctors are idolised in Ireland and people give them credence where it often isnt due. I am particularly talking about the health service where I believe deference to consultants has led us in a large part to the mess we are in today.
But thats for another day.

I get what you're saying but I'd argue its more deference to unions that has caused the problem!

bertiebomber

beggars_bush wrote: »

I think the opposite
The country is much better place than 30 years ago
Diversity has been very good for most places outside the big urban areas

I don't have much time for Leo, but its nothing to do with his heritage or sexual orientation

He just comes across as a smug git, who thinks he knows more than most people and doesn't really understand what most people in ireland have to toil through, just to get by

You say out side the big urban areas? is it not so good inside those areas then, we are only drip fed whatever the MSM choose to tell us we only hear about the real goings on through twatter.......and phone camera footage. Leo is smug who wouldnt be on his salary and no kids to support he is riding the big wave id be bloody smug too.

Bobtheman

beggars_bush wrote: »

I think the opposite
The country is much better place than 30 years ago
Diversity has been very good for most places outside the big urban areas

I don't have much time for Leo, but its nothing to do with his heritage or sexual orientation

He just comes across as a smug git, who thinks he knows more than most people and doesn't really understand what most people in ireland have to toil through, just to get by

To be fair to him he is a hard worker and bright. A lot of people ignore that when evaluating middle class people. Particularly the work ethic and value put in education.
They just say its all privilege. Yes privilege is a factor but not the entire story of how he became GP and got elected taoiseach before 40.
I don't rate him as a politician but unfair to say everything he achieved is down to privilege.

Malcomex

RobAMerc wrote: »

I think one thing overlooked with Leo is that while Coveny may be the better politician for the country, and ability's at negotiations and general understanding of how politics work, Leo has much more presence. Leo is the one out there doing all the interviews, giving sound bites and twittering. We've seen how celebrity has proven as powerful a vote getter as policy ( in the US and UK ), and Leo plays that better than Simon imo.

As for Leo being a doctor - doctors are idolised in Ireland and people give them credence where it often isnt due. I am particularly talking about the health service where I believe deference to consultants has led us in a large part to the mess we are in today.
But thats for another day.

Hmm

Isn't it merely because consultants have us over a barrel if they withdraw services?

RandomViewer

Eric Cartman wrote: »

Has nothing to do with my views. A lot of hardline SF voters in their nationalist views would have issues with any taoiseach/ tainaiste who was not 100% ethnically irish . I dont understand how saying thos is controversial, check any facebook news site when a story about leo comes up, tonnes of comments from people with the lilly on the profile picture or resharing SF content.

SF are nationalist by their own admission, I dont see how its any reflection on me to point out that many of that parties members do not like a leader that is not 100% irish

Nationalist is about belief in your country not what colour or religion the inhabitants are, you are using SF as an excuse to peddle your own views,

screamer

screamer wrote: »

Never thought I’d say it, but I prefer Leo to me hole as Taoiseach. He’s to the point and clear, mightn’t like what he had to say but at least he says it. I would imagine he’s popular enough TBH within the party and I don’t see him being changed any time soon.

DibbyDibbyDibbyDibbyDibby That simply is not t-true poster. The er, ah fact as it were of the matter is that Mehole, is er, indeed an excellent orator, as they say.

Eric Cartman

RandomViewer wrote: »

Nationalist is about belief in your country not what colour or religion the inhabitants are, you are using SF as an excuse to peddle your own views,

Im peddling nothing. Ive been a massive supporter of what Leo said he was going to do, especially regarding tax and have absolutely no issue with his heritage. He has been a great leader at times.

I just responded to a poster claiming nobody cared about his heritage which sadly is untrue and most of that concern is all coming from one political ethos.