Royston & FF, getting ready for a messy divorce?

gandalf

Well it looks like FF's former Poster Boy Royston Brady is out in the cold totally now. He claims Bertie promised to cover his expenses and now FF are leaving him in the lurch. He or FF owe €50,000 from last years abortive election campaign.

I particularly liked his comments during the interview that if FF wanted to help businesses instead of running this "access" program they should pay some of the bills they owe

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0330/bradyr.html

FF responds to Brady campaign claims

30 March 2005 17:26

Fianna Fáil has insisted that any outstanding expenses arising from last years European Election campaign are now a matter for individual candidates.

The party was responding to claims from defeated Dublin candidate Royston Brady that it should pick up the tab for some €50,000 which he says remains to be paid to creditors after his campaign.

A statement from the party said that it was standard practice in Fianna Fáil that every candidate in all elections was ultimately responsible for his or her own individual campaigns.

cdebru

royston has a great knack of opening his mouth before he gets his brain in gear
although i wonder if a public fallout might not be part of a ploy to distance himself from fianna fail before he takes on a new job as a commentator

Villain

cdebru wrote:

royston has a great knack of opening his mouth before he gets his brain in gear
although i wonder if a public fallout might not be part of a ploy to distance himself from fianna fail before he takes on a new job as a commentator

Royston has a brain :eek:

Every day is a school day

Sorry Gandalf just in a good humour

aodh_rua

Maybe Fianna Fail's financial woes are worse than we thought. First they launch a fund-raising campaign aimed at creating a golden circle with donations just below the disclosure ceiling, and now it turns out that they can't even meet their election expenses. I suppose on one level, it's interesting to see they are as careless with their own money as they are with the taxpayers.

Badabing

He really is a prat, let himself down during the european election by not talking or doing interviews to anyone. He was a shoe in to be Bertie's running mate in Dublin central but not now although things might settle down.

swiss

I too was curious when I heard about this. I always assumed that Fianna Fáil party headquarters and local branches financed the election campaigns of their candidates, perhaps with some financial input from the candidates themselves. Royston appears to be painting a different story in this particular case. This was a particularly expensive election if I recall (€200k election expenses) so it is feasible to assume that even if Fianna Fáil were to cover most of the costs there could still be a large debt outstanding.

Fianna Fáil are maintaining that they have covered all of the election expenses. I don't really trust either Fianna Fáil or Royston Brady to tell the whole truth in this affair, but as gandalf said, the timing of this story with the report of the launching of Fianna Fáils controversial "Forum for opportunity" is telling. It has brought back into focus the fact that Fianna Fáil are €1.5 million in debt, which weakens their position in this matter significantly. After all an organisation in debt is far less likely to pay its bills.

The other interesting association is between that of this new forum and an infamous "Taca" group that was quite blatently a business coven for those who wanted to curry favour with those in political power. We know that the amount of money that individuals can donate to a political party has been limited, and that those who do donate above a certain amount (around £5000 ≈€5800 IIRC) must be named. If this has led to Fianna Fáils current financial woes, to the extent that they are willing to raise - in a different guise - a relic of the "bad old days" of fundraising with a nod and a wink it would indicate that FF have been hit badly by these financial restrictions. It implies that contrary to the working class image of FF, they are continually funded by business interests. Exactly what these interests receive in return is the question.

Cork

swiss wrote:

they are continually funded by business interests.

As are indeed other political parties.

Without 100% state fundng - coperate donations are a fact of life in our political system.

I believe - trade unions supporting the Labour party is wrong.

cyclopath2001

Badabing wrote:

He really is a prat, let himself down during the european election by not talking or doing interviews to anyone.

I think they stopped him doing interviews after he lost the cyclist/pedestrian vote when he revealed that his ideal form of transport was a HumVee......

bonkey

Cork wrote:

I believe - trade unions supporting the Labour party is wrong.

You believe it's equally wrong, or that corporate finding with all the undertones of advantaeous influence is acceptable, but funding from what is effectively an organised voting-block with all the same undertones of advantageous influence is wrong?

I would have said that at least a union wields the power inherent in its democratic voting ability, which is more democratic than politicians and their parties lining their pockets to listen to the voice of capitalism instead.

But maybe I'm hopelessly idealistic in thinking that democracy had anything to do with serving the people.

jc

m1ke

lets all take a moment to be thankful that we didn't actually send that plank to represent ireland in the european parliament.

I believe - trade unions supporting the Labour party is wrong.

I believe that it's their business which party they want to support, just as you and I can donate as we please - part of living in a free country.

[ Daithí ]

Cork wrote:

I believe - trade unions supporting the Labour party is wrong.

How is it wrong?

Trade unions are going to support Labour because it's in their best interests just like corporations and companies are going to support the current government because it's in their best interests.

If capitalism can support Fianna Fáil, why can't the organised working class support Labour?

Cork wrote:

...coperate donations are a fact of life in our political system.

Are you a fan of corruption and bribery then?

Time Magazine

m1ke wrote:

lets all take a moment to be thankful that we didn't actually send that plank to represent ireland in the european parliament.

Yeah but we voted Mary Lou instead of Ivana Bacik.

Now I'm no Labourite but ffs...

Cork

bonkey wrote:

You believe it's equally wrong, or that corporate finding with all the undertones of advantaeous influence is acceptable, but funding from what is effectively an organised voting-block with all the same undertones of advantageous influence is wrong?
jc

I believe that we should have private funding of political partys or funding by donantions (private & coperate).

At the moment - we have a mix and match situation - where there is limited state funing and private donations.

It is like RTE accepting the licence fee and advertising.

But it is a no win situation for political partys - If they decide on 100% state funding - Our liberal media will hightlight the amount of posters going up & no playground for little Jimmy.

bonkey

Cork wrote:

I believe that we should have private funding of political partys or funding by donantions (private & coperate).

And a donation from a Trade Union would fall under the latter half of that surely?

Or would you feel happier if a TU simply decided to get each member to privately donate a fiver, rather than making a single, organised, visible payment?

At the moment - we have a mix and match situation - where there is limited state funing and private donations.

You're still not explaining why support from Trade Unions to the party of their choice is wrong, which is what I was asking you about. Any chance of a straight answer rather than a change of subject?

jc

madmorphy

Angry Banana wrote:

Yeah but we voted Mary Lou instead of Ivana Bacik.

Now I'm no Labourite but ffs...

I've no time for mary lou or what she stands for and wouldn't vote for her but Ivana banana she's one serious pain in the whole.And on the labour ticket aswell you'd have to go a long way to find someone as far removed from the ordinary working people of dublin.Pat Rabitte what were u thinking :rolleyes:
I wonder where all the labour votes went,it just shows how poor the field really was !

Jack Feeney

gandalf wrote:

Well it looks like FF's former Poster Boy Royston Brady is out in the cold totally now. He claims Bertie promised to cover his expenses and now FF are leaving him in the lurch. He or FF owe €50,000 from last years abortive election campaign.

I particularly liked his comments during the interview that if FF wanted to help businesses instead of running this "access" program they should pay some of the bills they owe

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0330/bradyr.html

You'll find this whole Royston story will gradually fade into nothing as he accepts a BROWN ENVELOPE for an amount less than 50K but large enough to keep him from mouthing off further....watch and see! :eek:

Kingsize

His family live near my parents.
for what its worth he is just as much of a twat outside politics

swiss

Cork wrote:

As are indeed other political parties.

Without 100% state fundng - coperate donations are a fact of life in our political system.

I believe - trade unions supporting the Labour party is wrong.

I believe - you have missed my point.

I never said that there was anything wrong with a business funding a political party. In principle, I do not have a problem with the practice with the caveat that such a political donation does not curry special favor or dispensation with the political party in question, whether such favors are overt or implied.

The issue in this case are the questions that are raised when an overtly "socialist" party such as that which Fianna Fáil attests to be is funded by interests that are most distinctively capitalist.

Let me put it another way.

In the normal course of events, we would expect a party such as the Progressive Democrats to receive funding from businesses because their manifesto indicates that they give a higher priority to business activities than perhaps more "leftist" parties.

Similarly, we would expect a party such as Labour to derive part of their funding through trade unions, because their manifesto indicates that the rights and conditions of workers are central to their ethos.

Looking at Fianna Fáil, one would also expect private individuals, as opposed to medium/large businesses to fund their political operations. In some cases this is indeed the case. However, for a party that purports to represent the working class they appear to receive the majority of their funding from business interests.

On the surface, this doesn't necessarily imply wrongdoing. I'm sure businesses as opposed to the working class would have the means to support a political party. However, in the light of Fianna Fáil corruption scandals, as well as the notoriety of the Taca group, it is important that we determine with a level of confidence that such funding from business groups is not deterring Fianna Fáil from their stated socialist principles.

Fianna Fáil have been a socialist party in their last 10 years or so in governance, right?! Right?

Please, please tell me you see the issue. People will naturally support, financially or otherwise, those parties whom they see as pursuant to their interests. If businesses are funding a "socialist" party, what do they expect in return? A good health service? An excellent public transportation system?

Or perhaps a lower tax rate? No favors sought or implied, remember.

And then you state your belief that the financial support of Labour by trade unions is wrong. You still haven't answered bonkeys question.

*boggle*

To the moderators, I appreciate this has gone off topic, but I would really like to see Cork explain this one. Normal service will resume shortly.

The Black Oil

Hehe. I was in a certain shop today in Drumcondra, some woman came in picked up the Evening Herald, say the Royston cover story and did a little dance and song "revenge is sweet" for about 20 seconds. Strangest thing I've seen in a shop...maybe she works for Bertie, this shop is pretty near Fagans, it has a few photos of Bertie in it.

DublinWriter

cyclopath2001 wrote:

I think they stopped him doing interviews after he lost the cyclist/pedestrian vote when he revealed that his ideal form of transport was a HumVee......

I thought it was the Mayoral Horse & Coaches, the use of which on his wedding day cost the taxpayer in excess of €15K.