Has anybody watched Rip off Republic on RTE

Sparky

just watching it now on rte, and there is some interesting stuff on it.

eth0_

Indeed. It's sickening that that groceries act is still a law here. Meant to protect corner shops by stopping multi-national grocery chains from passing on their bulk discounts to the customer - well, that worked REALLY well considering there are sooo many corner stored in 2005, yet the government refuse to drop the law!

He said a high court case had to be taken to take nappies off the list of products it's illegal for stores to pass on a discount on!

Unbelievable!

CCOVICH

I went along to the filming of one episode. Some interesting stuff, mostly anti-government (i.e. the government are the source of the rip-offs), I'm surprised RTE are showing it.

aidan_walsh

Don't suppose the TV license will get mentioned at all

DannyD

Great show, get your nappies posted or else pay the price.The shows were recorded on 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd July 2005.

Dimitri

Its about time rte brodcast something like this we cant doubt that fianna fail/ pd's have boosted our economy however thay have ended up in the pockets of big business as a result and now are afraid of stepping on people's toes, a show like this is needed to huighlight the failings of the government seeing as they are always blasting on about how successful they are.

CJhaughey

I think he is trying to create a stronger consumer culture here, If there is one thing that we do well it is lie down and get fúcked in the ass by vested interests.
Fair play to Eddie he made a fairly dry topic entertaining, although that clip with the guy getting run over by the Rubbish men was pretty scary!

zappb

yea just finished - was a great show - with all the stealth taxes we get hit with, i heard an es
timation that we have 70% tax!!!

what a joke

Micheal Martin
Department of Enterprise, trade & employment
Kildare Street
Dublin 2.

whiskeyman

Essential viewing... they should show this in all secondary schools / colleges .. and workplaces too!
Fair play to all involved in the show.

Perhaps this show will have the status "Thats Life" had in the UK in the mid 80s.
We never seemed to have a decent consumer affairs prog.... and they had "Watchdog" also.
People need to be educated about the state of the rip-off republic we're in... maybe then we'll start acting on it.

Sarsfield

I thought it was pretty good overall. It may well have brought closer the end of the groceries order!

However he seemed to give the impression that taxation is a rip-off in itself. I disagree. The tax rip-off is when it is not well spent to deliver quality services and infrastructure. Maybe that's in episode 2?

Ardent

Thanks for the address, didn't have time to write it down, I'm sending a nappy to that f*cker.

CJhaughey

Sarsfield wrote:

I thought it was pretty good overall. It may well have brought closer the end of the groceries order!

However he seemed to give the impression that taxation is a rip-off in itself. I disagree. The tax rip-off is when it is not well spent to deliver quality services and infrastructure. Maybe that's in episode 2?

To almost paraphrase one of Eddies earlier shows:
Show me the Quality services and Infrastructure?
I don't see any from where I am standing now.
Crumbling disease ridden hospitals, Poor public transport nationally the list goes on...

whiskeyman

Ardent wrote:

Thanks for the address, didn't have time to write it down, I'm sending a nappy to that f*cker.

Remember... clean ones only.
Besides, they're full of sh*t in Leinster House anyway!

I hope it got good ratings and is the talk of pubs / offices for a long time.

Sarsfield

CJHaughey wrote:

To almost paraphrase one of Eddies earlier shows:
Show me the Quality services and Infrastructure?
I don't see any from where I am standing now.
Crumbling disease ridden hospitals, Poor public transport nationally the list goes on...

Isn't that what I just said?

Sarsfield

Ardent wrote:

Thanks for the address, didn't have time to write it down, I'm sending a nappy to that f*cker.

How much does it cost to post a nappy these days anyway?

Sparky

and musgraves no1 in rgdatas list. and oil prices went up today aswell, and the thing that gets to me is how taxes go up and their salary goes up aswell.

as said above its a joke, i can see alot of young people like myself emigrating if this gets worse, which it will.

eth0_

Sarsfield wrote:

The tax rip-off is when it is not well spent to deliver quality services and infrastructure. Maybe that's in episode 2?

Huh? What? *looks out bedroom window* where are these quality services and infrastructure you speak of?

Dimitri

Sparky_S wrote:

and musgraves no1 in rgdatas list. and oil prices went up today aswell, and the thing that gets to me is how taxes go up and their salary goes up aswell.

as said above its a joke, i can see alot of young people like myself emigrating if this gets worse, which it will.

I know i'm definetely emigerating after i qualify, no way in hell am i going through what my sister and her boyf put up with just to pay a mortgage(sp?) thats just not living to me, undertaking a massive workload just to have somewhere to live and food to eat.

Sarsfield

eth0_ wrote:

Huh? What? *looks out bedroom window* where are these quality services and infrastructure you speak of?

Please read my comment again. I said the tax rip-off is when it's not spent well. Get it? I'm saying it's not!

It do not speak of good services. I point out they have not been delivered and I hope it is brought up in a later episode.

I simply said tax in itself is not a ripoff.

Does nobody speak English (or read full posts) anymore?

John R

Dimitri wrote:

I know i'm definetely emigerating after i qualify, no way in hell am i going through what my sister and her boyf put up with just to pay a mortgage(sp?) thats just not living to me, undertaking a massive workload just to have somewhere to live and food to eat.

Just be careful where you move. Earlier this evening there was a programme on the beeb about brits who bought properties in Spain. Developers are using some crazy compulsory purchase law to take the land from them (and Spanish owners), pay them derisory amounts for it and then charge the previous owners for the development costs. The people were ending up without all or part of their property and a massive bill for the pleasure.
It's nice to know that things are even worse in other parts of Europe. :rolleyes: FFS even Mugabe isn't charging people for destroying their homes.

DannyD

If people don't send nappies they have no right to complain.BE PROACTIVE

davej

If people don't send nappies they have no right to complain

Hmm. The logic of this sentence escapes me. Sending a nappy to the government IS one way to complain. So you're sentence pretty much reads: "People who don't complain have no right to complain".

Anyway I watched it last night, thought it was good - hopefully it will generate a few ripples and change a few more attitudes.

BTW I think it's worth creating a "send a nappy" sticky for this forum. Mods ?

davej

galwaydude

exactly, everyone on boards should send a nappy to micheal martin. Look what that woman in trim did with people power.

Thanx christ im emmigrating next march to the states for a year after watching that programme. Its crazy how some companies operate and get away with it and then line their pockets.

Sleipnir

Sure we all know we are being ripped off at every turn.
Send your nappies in!

Jip

eth0_ wrote:

He said a high court case had to be taken to take nappies off the list of products it's illegal for stores to pass on a discount on!

Unbelievable!

Not exactly. At the time when Dunnes and Tescos were having their tit-for-tat sales they were selling their nappies for nothing. Dunnes were taken to court for breach of the groceries act and they successfully argued that nappies are not a necissity and therefore not covered under the act.

K2

I've heard that it was Tescos that took the high court action, anyone know if this is true? The clip about the bin protesters was quite stunning, you could see the effect it had on the audience, I know I was quite stunned and shocked to see someone carried at speed on the front of a van.

the nappy has been put in the post and I am making a number available to my work collegues so they can do the same. Postal protests are an old trick but, as proven over the years by the likes of Amnesty and Greenpeace, it works. A 20% reduction in my shopping bill would be very welcome.

rondjon

I know it'll cost a bit, but should the nappies be sent by registered post? Given that the Department officials will know what's going on, and will recognise spongy A4 envelopes, if they're registered, they'll have to at least go through the trouble of accepting delivery.

ednwireland

John R wrote:

Just be careful where you move. Earlier this evening there was a programme on the beeb about brits who bought properties in Spain. Developers are using some crazy compulsory purchase law to take the land from them (and Spanish owners), pay them derisory amounts for it and then charge the previous owners for the development costs. The people were ending up without all or part of their property and a massive bill for the pleasure.
It's nice to know that things are even worse in other parts of Europe. :rolleyes: FFS even Mugabe isn't charging people for destroying their homes.

What amazed me is that these people said they expected the law to be the same as britain - when people say how cheaply spain build public infrastructre maybe this is part of the reason (i'm sure it is) we'd all what some compensation if our land is taken for a road or something else, although the amount you get isn't that large if your not in the right circles a frind had half his front garden taken for a road and got a few thousand quid but the rock breakers shook the old house to bits damp proof course has gone but couldn't get anything from the contractors. i'd still rather live in ireland than england (where i moved from).

Eoin

I found some of the facts very interesting, but overall I found the show incredibly patronising - am I alone in this? To me had the feel of a secondary school teacher doing their best to keep their students interested in an economics class.

galwaydude

give eddie hobbs a chance as this was the first episode of the series

Tazz T

I thought it was a great show. A real eye-opener, even for me, and I thought I'd researched these things. I think he had to dumb it down so not to blind everyone with jargon.

Using children to demonstrate his point and the 'nappy' ploy was tantamount to saying everytime you let yourself get ripped off, its your children who pay the price. A bit harsh but effective.

Surprised how 'anti-government' the show was. There will be some reaction to this.

A wake-up call for the Irish consumer at last.