Deirdre Clune TD (FG)

dahamsta

Just had some canvassers for Deirdre Clune call to the door, and Deirdre was conveniently across the road, so we had her over. All in all, I was rather unimpressed by her level of interest and conviction on the topics relevant to me. I explained that the fibre rings project in it's current form was illogical and wasteful, and that TD's concentration on broadband was also illogical, if not dangerous. I also pointed towards Ivan Yates' policy document of 2000, and that Fine Gael should amend and re-release the document. She was distant when I was explaining all of this to her, seeming more interested in her surroundings than what I was saying, even though I was rather passionate[1] about it all. She noted down my email address, but I believe that most of it went in one ear and out the other. For a TD facing a serious challenge to her seat, I found this rather astounding.

As it happens, I believed I was twisting the truth when I told her canvassers that she would not be getting a preference on my ballot card, because I will do everything in my power to take Fianna Fail out of power. Now I'm not so sure. I don't believe Deirdre Clune deserves a seat if she can't be bothered to make the effort to even /pretend/ that she is in any way interested in the topics at hand. I don't care whether it's her field or not, it's an important subject to many of her constituents, she should make it one.

I await with interest to see if she'll follow up on our discussion and email me about her progress, but right now, Deirdre Clune is off [ok, sinking down] my ballot card. I'll just have to find another non-FF candidate to support.

adam


[1] Not obnoxious, just passionate.

aidan_dunne

Adam, as I explained in a different post, some people seem to feel that FF have bollocksed up a lot over the past five years and are going to vote for an opposition party just for the sake of getting them out of power. DON'T DO THAT! Vote for a politician on their policies, not just for the sake of getting FF out of power.

Personally, FF aren't going to get my vote either but I'm not just going to vote for somebody for the sake of a change. I'm going to vote for the politician/party who seems to have the best manifesto, best policies and who looks like they will actually do something, not just sit on their ar$e$ once they get into government. And if none of them meet those criteria, then I will not be voting at all. But I'm not going to go to a polling station and think, "Okay, I don't like any of them but I'll give FG or Labour my first preference just to get FF out of government."

Your vote is important. Use it wisely or don't use it at all.

dahamsta

Aidan,

Voting is as much about the party as it is about the politician. A politician can only do so much on their own, because when the Whip comes around and tells you to get on the party bus, you'd better have a damn good reason not to, or you'll lose the support of your party, and quite probably your seat next time around. To assuage your concerns, you can rest assured that I won't be voting for some idiot just because I don't want FF in power.

But it's still possible to vote strategically. For example, I've just sent an email to Senator Brendan Ryan (Labour), who is standing for election in my constituency, asking him to call on me personally when canvassing, to discuss his party's Public Enterprise policies[1]. If he impresses me, he will almost certainly replace Deirdre Clune as first preference on my ballot card. And so will anyone else who shows more interest than Deirdre Clune.

Getting votes should be a battle for TD's, they should have to work for them. The harder they work for them, the higher they go on my ballot card. (Seems like the whole point to me.) Deirdre Clune is sinking right now, but she can still redeem herself...

adam

[1] Senator Ryan is the Labour Senate Spokesperson for Public Enterprise.

El_MUERkO

Noel Ahern (FF) was on my road the other day but I was busy so I didnt get a chance to talk to him. I gave one of the canvassers the ioffl web address and my email address and pointed out I was unemployed in the IT industry and felt the current government hadnt done enough to support IT growth in Ireland and in closing I pointed out that Mary O'Rourke was a useless berk and I'd rather have Liam Lawlor running things than her.

The Dessie Ellis (SF) came round and asked if there was any criminal element in the area and I said I knew of this drug dealer called Mary O'....

Cork

Don't rely on manifestos or party policies.

It is programmme for goverments.

Bertie will probably be the next taoiseach. I will target my FF canvassors. I will be voting for FF. Labour & Fine Gael promise alot but will not deliver. Did anybody note Jim Higgins level of expenses? You could stay alot on the net for expenses like that. They need to be lobbied. Not harrassed - We have the better arguement.

We need to win TDs over.

dahamsta

Cork, you've been pretty partisan in your comments on Fianna Fáil recently. Can you please give me some valid reasons for voting Fianna Fáil? "Fianna Fáil will win" isn't good enough for me I'm afraid, I don't believe the status quo will address my concerns. Fianna Fáil's only initiative to correct the quite serious problems is the fibre rings project, which nearly /every/ commentator - including IrelandOffline - has voiced serious concerns about. Fianna Fáil hasn't even acknowledged these concerns as far as I'm aware, never mind doing anything to address them.

Furthermore, the Fianna Fáil Minister for Public Enterprise utterly misled - I fear saying the 'L' word may result in litigation - the House on the matter of flat-rate services, and has demonstrated a willingness to bow to pressure from our favourite monopolistic business at every turn. On every other issue, they have demonstrated ignorance of a level embarassing to people like me.

I'm not aware of any initiatives to correct the /bad/ policies so far. I'm not aware of any new policies that will replace current policy. Please help me and my peers out by pointing to Fianna Fáil policies that address the problems. I'm afraid your streadfast - and in my opinion rather misguided - faith and belief in the incumbent is not enough for me. I need evidence.

adam

jbkenn

The Dessie Ellis (SF) came round and asked if there was any criminal element in the area

You should have told him there was!! He was standing in front of you

Dessie Ellis was born and educated in Dublin. He was arrested in 1981, charged with possession of explosives and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in Portlaoise Prison. .

jbkenn

Jorinn

Originally posted by Cork
Don't rely on manifestos or party policies.

It is programmme for goverments.

Bertie will probably be the next taoiseach. I will target my FF canvassors. I will be voting for FF. Labour & Fine Gael promise alot but will not deliver. Did anybody note Jim Higgins level of expenses? You could stay alot on the net for expenses like that. They need to be lobbied. Not harrassed - We have the better arguement.

We need to win TDs over.

You will be voting for FF, relly? Never would of gathered that even though you're like a TD depserate for votes from boards.ie who just makes a complete fool out of themselves in their desperation.

Yes, I did note Jim Higgins expenses, you need to take into account he was on the Public Accounts comittee which is probably the most time consuming job any politician will have to do. He also has to prove his expenses etc. so it's hardly a sign of wrongdoing.

If you think people need to be lobbied and harassed then wqhy do you attempt to bring the merits of FF into every argument you post on recently, you're just harassing people.

Now kindly fk off, ta.

yellum

Deidres old man (Peter Barry) called to us before on behalf of her. She hasn't called, doesn't give a damn about the area she grew up in and will probably lose her seat if shes not listening to the people on the doorstep who will allow her back into the dail again.

Why don't the candidates of the same party talk to each other for gods sake. I think you said before that Simon Coveney was slightly clued in to these matters, it would make so much sense for all candidates in the same party to know whats going on.

Fianna Fail did very well last time in Cork South Central due to very clever vote management and good strategies. I know another TD going for re-election and I'll be amazed if he gets back in with his far to relaxed attitude.

I'm going to go independent to hopefully throw a spanner in the works.

dahamsta

Deidres old man (Peter Barry) called to us before on behalf of her. She hasn't called, doesn't give a damn about the area she grew up in and will probably lose her seat if shes not listening to the people on the doorstep who will allow her back into the dail again.

This is what I said to her canvasser. (I didn't get a chance to say it to her, because she started backing down my driveway as if she had absolutely no interest in what I was saying. In a rush to look over and to the left of the next voter's head, I should imagine*.) I said that as far as I can see, Deirdre has done nothing for the contituency, and his response was to ask me why I think that. One would have that the natural response would be to explain what the candidate /has/ done. The deduction I make from this is that he couldn't, because she hasn't...

Why don't the candidates of the same party talk to each other for gods sake. I think you said before that Simon Coveney was slightly clued in to these matters, it would make so much sense for all candidates in the same party to know whats going on.

He is, but there seems to be a little animosity between Coveney and Clune. When I met Coveney a few months ago, I suggested that I may talk to Clune aswell, and he suggested that he was the right person to talk to. And today, when I mentioned Coveney's name to Clune, she pretty much brushed it aside. It wasn't long after this that she started backing down my driveway, so I can only speculate that she had decided that my vote was going to Coveney.

Which was wrong, I haven't actually decided yet. Coveney is winning hands-down at the moment though, because he has met with me, and responded to most of my emails, including my recent email from the charities VAT campaign. He has also committed to meeting me again after the election, and he's done the same for Tim. And I don't even want to talk about IrelandOffline with him, I want to talk about politics.

All that being said, we have to remember that Coveney is an outgoing TD, and that he has contributed in part to the situation we are currently in. To be fair, he was in Opposition, but we all know that's unlikely to change. Will Coveney change? Will he start tackling the issues instead of waiting for us to do all the research for him, and hand it to him on a plate? Haven't we done enough already?

I can only imagine that the local whip - who happens to be the daddy of one of my drinking buddies - has quite a bit of fun dealing with this. And I can't help thinking to myself that Cork may be better off without Clune. I have become more and more convinced in recent weeks that Fine Gael and Labour could be good coalition partners, and at the moment, that's probably the way my ballot card will look. Clune will get a preference, but not a high one.

There's a lot more to consider though. I was thinking of holding an IrelandOffline meeting to discuss this kind of stuff before the election (and have a few pints into the bargain), would any Cork/Munster based IrelandOffline members be interested in that? If we all came together, we may be able to help each other decide how to tackle the issues that obviously mean a lot to us.

Fianna Fail did very well last time in Cork South Central due to very clever vote management and good strategies. I know another TD going for re-election and I'll be amazed if he gets back in with his far to relaxed attitude.

I think Cork South-Central is a wrongly skewed towards Fianna Fail, and runs the risk of being skewed again this election. Mostly because of Micky Martin, who I can't seem to decide about - did he do a good job or didn't he? He actually strikes me as a good politician, but let's be honest, the health service is still rightly screwed. Can it be fixed?

I actually don't mind seeing Fianna Fáil with seats in Cork South-Central, but I'd like a bit more balance this time around. Having three FF seats and two FG seats is troubling to me, it stinks of a situation where everybody can happily roll along with the status quo. I don't think FG works very well in a situation like that, it needs a bit of a nudge to get going. At the very least I'd like to see FF lose a seat and Labour gain a seat. The problem is that there's a risk of Clune losing her seat, so who fills seat five?

I'm going to go independent to hopefully throw a spanner in the works.

Who though Damien? Point me to the website, let me read about the guy or gal. Like I said earlier, I'm not voting for some tosser just to "throw a spanner in the works", I want to see people who'll represent me. And I certainly don't want some far-right or far-left militant twat playing with fire he doesn't understand.

adam

* Terry Pratchett, geddit?

212.2.179.66

I am not much into politics but I do know right from wrong. Our soo called leader Bertie blatantly denied that he was speeding, it does not matter where or when.Everyone knows he did it. But what annoys me most it the way he shrugged it off
as if it were funny. And then like any politician he totally sidetracked the conversation on to something else. For the best part of my life I have let this sort of thing pass. But I am getting old now and this sort of thing does not wash with me any more.
For people in Ireland to have any sort of ‘Real Life’ we should chuck them ALL OUT’ and start over. I know this might not be possible. But for too many years now we have voted in nothing but liars/thief’s/bloodsuckers/money grabbers/and selfish B’s. Everyone gets hyped up and the power of advertising and lies takes over and makes us blind. You would think after all this time we would have woken up to all this…. But have we?


PS I have not posted my IP this time but if I am breaking any rules please tell me.

Jorinn

Originally posted by 212.2.179.66
I am not much into politics but I do know right from wrong. Our soo called leader Bertie blatantly denied that he was speeding, it does not matter where or when.Everyone knows he did it. But what annoys me most it the way he shrugged it off
as if it were funny. And then like any politician he totally sidetracked the conversation on to something else. For the best part of my life I have let this sort of thing pass. But I am getting old now and this sort of thing does not wash with me any more.
For people in Ireland to have any sort of ‘Real Life’ we should chuck them ALL OUT’ and start over. I know this might not be possible. But for too many years now we have voted in nothing but liars/thief’s/bloodsuckers/money grabbers/and selfish B’s. Everyone gets hyped up and the power of advertising and lies takes over and makes us blind. You would think after all this time we would have woken up to all this…. But have we?


PS I have not posted my IP this time but if I am breaking any rules please tell me.

Er, ok, but what has it got to do with the thread?

212.2.179.66

Originally posted by Jorinn
Er, ok, but what has it got to do with the thread?

Broken promises, lies.... want me to go on?

Dustaz

Originally posted by 212.2.179.66
But for too many years now we have voted in nothing but liars/thief’s/bloodsuckers/money grabbers/and selfish B’s. Everyone gets hyped up and the power of advertising and lies takes over and makes us blind. You would think after all this time we would have woken up to all this…. But have we?

See a pattern forming?
These are the types that go for these positions, best you can do is deal with them in some way.

PS I have not posted my IP this time but if I am breaking any rules please tell me.

Actually you have, its your nickname (your not breaking any rules tho)

BoneCollector

Apparently... we only have the option to hold politians accountable during ellection... once there in power they seem to have there own agenda and forget any fialed promises.

once there in power we can contact them and request there asisstance, but.. realy!?

Can we make them do what needs to be done?
from what i can see, its the people in opposition that work hardest because they! are the ones that have to prove themselves. politians in power already have it made and have nothing to prove.

dahamsta

I received an email from Deirdre Clune this morning. If she has no objections, I'll publish it here later.

adam

Fallschirmjager

this should be interesting...cant wait to read this one..obviously a hack from FG told her she was getting blasted and voila...we have care and attention. Explain to her how sooner she would have known if we were all connected all the time!!! LOL

ALSO, can we please stop turning this into a part political broadcast. vote for who you want...but i think it is fair if we all ask a few simple questions about HOW serious they are about sorting out what is now a right mess with our solutions to the web CRISIS...and notice is say WE. They are working for US. WE pay them. i think it is fair to ask. Now i want to see what they say so i can make my mind up..not be bombared with a political broadcast from one side or the other...it is about what they will do ...and nothing else.