The wondrous adventures of Sinn Fein (part 3) Mod Notes and Threadbanned List in OP

I'm no property expert but I do know quite a bit about tax. If SF can introduce a punitive vacant property tax and an effective derelict houses tax, as proposed by EO'B, that would be a fantastic start. FG will do everything in their power to deter such measures.

Marylou has spent the last week travelling around the States meeting with Trump Supporters and charging them 1000 dollars for a few spuds and a Toicfaidh At La.

Their talk about spending increases and tax cuts resemble the final few budgets of the Bertie Era.

Then there's their policies. 100% social housing on state owned land while raising taxes on those who are successful to fund it.

They want to bring in 100s of hospital consultants while raising taxes on those on over 100K a year.

Then there is SFUK branch raising rents on social housing during the pandemic, privatising alot of the social stock up north. Screaming in the Dail about welfare cuts but then voting to send welfare decisions back to Westminster.

Then the best of all could you imagine Pauline Tully as minister for justice after marrying and campaigning for the release of a fella in prison for murdering a cop... Dessie Ellis as Minister for Defence ?

Yawn one who ran up a bill with the housing charity in charge of housing ?

Could we see a Taoiseach attending commerations for those who tried to overthrow the state ?

They’ll be as far and away from supporting workers as you’ll get.

something and someone will have to pay for their increased handouts and freebies to their mates, layabouts, criminals as well as a massively increased influx of numbers from outside the state ...

Law and order ? The place could become an absolute desolate violent hellhole. Every violent ne'er-do-well will be of the opinion the shinners have their back, they probably will... Sinn Fein in its 51/52 year history has gone to outstandingly outlandish lengths to aid and support violence, the subversion of democracy, law and order and the safety and wellbeing of citizens of this state and indeed others...

so on those basis, they won’t be seeing a vote from me..a leopard does not change its spots... and Mary Lou’s loyalty goes no further then her own supporters she isn’t in this for our wellbeing. She is not a team player.

if they get in, what happens at the next general election ? Will their be an attempt to subvert democracy as is their style.... will they undermine, threaten the electoral commission....in order to remain in power ? It’s possible..they’ve enabled and supported Garda killers... so all of a sudden they’ll be backing them ? Don’t think so.

its not that difficult to grasp.... they have launched attacks on this state, it’s citizens and our representatives before via their terrorist proxy..... they get in, it might be impossible to get them out...democratically.

So as imperfect the current situation... we exist in a society that for the most part values and enables freedom, democracy, law and order... investment in the wellbeing of our citizens... we are a nation that is respected more or less worldwide...

while I understand frustrations as regards the political status quo I also understand too well the abhorrent risk that a Sinn Fein government would represent for the people of this state.. our reputation internationally as well as the safety and security of people of and in this state....

better the devil you know..

We've had 100 years of FF and FG passing the buck and blaming each other for the piss poor job they've done in government.

Finally, they've been forced to combine and can no longer fall back on the usual excuses.

I'll vote for Sinn Fein, purely to kick out FFG for at least a term and force them to come up with new ideas.

sf will be fine, at the absolute absolute worst they will be much better then ffg would ever be, whereas at their best they will deliver all and every one of the changes needed to modernise ireland, and i am convinced that it will be sf at their best that we will get.

ffg have a bloodier past then sf so the past as an argument against voting for sf doesn't hold any water, it amounts to an i won't vote for them but i have no real reason for not voting for them argument. sure sf's past goes up to more recent then ffg but that doesn't matter if the past is going to be a problem when voting for sf but not ffg.

the reason our boy gerry held on as leader until he retired is he was popular among the party faithful and voters and he was a damn good politician, it was a sad day when he retired.

i look forward to voting for them every election as they are the party of modernisation and they will invest in our systems so that we can get back law and order, deal with the housing issues and have the quality infrastructure that we are lacking finally built.

You say "piss poor job", but then we are one of the most affluent countries in the world, by any measure. Quite an extraordinary achievement when you consider what a poor country we were 100 years ago, with very little industry outside of agriculture. We also have much better distribution of wealth than most other developed countries. We have a tax system which puts much of the burden on the better off.

On the things we complain about such as the health service, we have much improved health outcomes these days as measured by life expectancy and cancer recovery rates. Housing is a real problem - largely because we have been so successful and have net migration - but the only solution to that is to build more houses.

Sure, lots of things could be better but I really can't see how Sinn Fein (who have a shocking record in government in NI) can claim they would have done a better job overall. There is literally no country in the world which can match Ireland's economic and social progress over the last 100 years.

The parties in favour of the Special Criminal Court are probably the minority these days.

I understand your points, Ireland is a great place to live. But are all the benefits you listed purely down to our government?

They made Ireland into a tax haven to attract FDI, the EU invested heavily in us too over the past 40 years, the country has (or had) a very young population due to decades of emigration. I don't think much governance was needed to make Ireland the country it is today. And what governance have we actually had? Decades of scandal between Haughey and Bertie, the many tribunals, Anglo Irish, vulture funds to name a few..

On the things we do complain about, housing, health, wage stagnation, high taxes or disproportionate taxes, these are pretty fundamental to life. The country already has several "lost generations" due to incompetence.

I think the idea of having a non-jury court in this day and age is fairly self-explanatory.

They eat babies too I believe.