General Irish politics discussion thread

How many, who stood in 2020, are not standing again is it now, 11?

Was Thatcher a centrist? I would say she was anything but.

After all, 52% of the people voted for it, did they not?

52% of the portion of the electorate (which itself is a portion of the people) who turned out on the day.

Many of whom cast a protest vote and did not want to leave the EU.

Many more of whom did not understand the consequences of their vote (hardly a surprise as the Leavers broke electoral law on funding and lied with impunity) and since regret it.

It's notable that the people most affected by the vote - long-term EU residents in the UK - did not get a vote at all.

But yeah, it's democracy, for some debased devalution of the word democracy - just like FPTP. "Democracy in name only" if you prefer.

Farage? Are you serious?

His party is a magnet for racists, bigot and islamophobes, to a degree that has embarrassed even the party itself. You may not have noticed his extremism but they certainly have.

He's a noted Putin fanboy. He has stated that he admires him as a political operator. Putin's political operations, of course, include assassinations, torture, the subversion of democracy, autocratic rule, media supression, widespread crony corruption and the invasion of neighbouring states; Nigel likes that kind of thing because he reckons it gets results.

He obsesses about illegal immigration to a degree out of all proportion to the actual signficance of the issue.

He wants to impose a punitive levy on businesses that (entirely legitimately) employ “foreign workers”.

He leans heavily into culture wars at the expense of freedom of thought and opinion. He want schools to "ban transgender ideology” and to enforce a “patriotic” model of education which means, among other things, that “any teaching about a period or example of British or European imperialism or slavery must be paired with the teaching of a non-European occurrence of the same to ensure balance.”

He wants to end "woke policing", whatever that is.

He wants to "reclaim Britain", which according to his manifesto involves indulging post-COVID-19 paranoia about the World Health Organization, the World Economic Forum, and the declining use of cash currency.

His entire politics is based on stoking fear, anger and division.

Will be interesting who they put up for the nomination.

Will it be Buttimer again, or will Shane O'Callgahan get a chance? He is much younger than Buttimer who isn't all that popular.

Will also be the first time in 43 years a Coveny was not up for election in that constituency.

I am not re-debating Brexit, it's been done to death.

But the idea was put forward that Brexit was the result of FPTP, which ignored the actual large groundswell of opinion that was in favour of it, and in a PR system, that support would have coalesced to a party more aligned to its values and would have had a large number of seats in Westminister.

Will John Mullins be the replacement for Simon Coveney?

It creates a great opportunity for Harris to reinvent his party with a new image, new leader, new candidates.

It is a pity that O'Gorman is not doing the same.

Dear Christ.

Why are you right-wingers so obsessed with other people's genitalia?

II don't offer answers to anything. I call them the Ballygobackwards Party. A crystalisses of what they are, a new Soc Dem Cllr is seeking to remove prayers from the start of each Cork County Council meeting, II come out opposing it before there's any discussion. A variant on Ulster says NO.

I'm not vehemently against prayers, but I would have a rational discussion on it. Do we really follow through on the separation of religion and state?

@Water John we talk a good game about being a secular republic but in reality there is no separation of church and state in Ireland, almost 95% of our primary schools are religious controlled despite being fully state funded, and they indoctrinate kids with the state’s blessing.

Michael “Opus Dei” Woods decided the taxpayer would pick up the vast majority of the RCC’s abuse compensation and that was that. €1bn+ and counting.

I’m thinking of setting up a religion with prayers of minimum length one hour, then forcing the councils to recognise it because it’s sectarianism if they don’t 😎

Of course you'd disagree. Despite being in government, despite FG controlling Dublin city Council, despite a FG Minister very vocal pleas to stop the Dublin City transpor plan tpostponed, it is still somehow SFs fault. 😂😂😂

Can we have examples please, of how SF are "the biggest obstacle to public transport"?

Harris is looking to promote a fresh new brand image for FG. It works both ways, if he gets back into government, he can claim new ideas and new blood, if he ends up in opposition, he won't be stuck with old TDs who have no chance in 5/6 years time of getting elected.

Steenson is a complete chancer whose being doing the rounds for years.