FF/FG/Green Government - Part 3

Again, you are wrong and you never stated that from the start. This is what you originally said.

We have no actual binding obligation to do anything with asylum policy. As, again, can be seen with Denmark.

As I've had to point out multiple times. We do have actual binding obligations in regards to asylum policy. We have legal obligations regarding the asylum policy to process requests for asylum. I posted multiple links highlighting that fact and you decided to repeatedly ignore them. At least now you've finally accepted that Ireland do have legal obligations regarding asylum policy though.

You posted that we should give asylum €20,000 despite that fact the evidence is clear that following the Danish government implementing this policy, asylum requests increased. But you haven't posted a list of things our government can do, our government can't do what Denamrk did, and reduce social welfare payments to asylum seekers from €1,500 per month to €750 per month becusse we already pay them much less than that.

All going swimmingly for FFG according to the latest poll

Very disgusting indeed

Unfortunately voters love rewarding failure and incompetence. Politicians know there's no repercussions for their actions.

How many times do we keep voting for parties that keep **** up housing, keep **** up health, making an absolute shambles of immigration over and over again.

Another big factor is there's no opposition party

I was listening to Yates/Cooper podcast. They were absolutely scathing about the RTE decision/cop-out.

Some of the phrases used..."unmitigated spineless decision", "blank cheque", "rewarding failure", "funding totally bloated severances", "hoodwinking government", "cannot be reformed", "absolute cowardice in advance of election", "most shameful episode in this government's history".

They got the €725m bailout on top of the license fee revenue. Watch how the golden parachutes continue. Joke shop.

I loved this headline.

RTÉ sent ‘dozens’ of €132 boxes of macarons to advertisers on same day as €725m public bailout | Irish Independent

Broadcaster gifted cakes from high-end patisserie Laduree to mark start of Olympics.

And in my opinion we have way too many RTE reporters living it up in Paris.

How can anyone compete against "corporate landlords"

https://www.newstalk.com/news/corporate-landlords-needed-to-fix-housing-crisis-donohoe-1753369

Absolutely scary this. Sure there can never be any repercussions for bad governance if theres no opposition.

😆 so that will solve the housing, rental problems, mass emigration etc.,

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/would-a-750-tax-credit-stop-young-people-leaving-ireland-fine-gael-minister-peter-burke-thinks-so/a633610828.html

An extra 14 quid in the pocket a week. Unpack the bags darling we're staying put.

These fools are living in another world.

FG are the simple idiots with the highest first preference votes in the land, according to the polls & very likley to be forming another term in govt with FF in the autumn.

I think the 750 euro thing isnt meant to be viewed in isolation. There will be other benefits im the October budget, hopefully!

Saw that. Presume wants O'Cuiv votes. We are now in the realm of Celebrity Politics in Ireland. Such a joke.

Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

I'd have thought she would be left leaning and would go for a party like the Soc Dems.

I wonder why these figures come out almost a month late. These figures are for end of July so we've likely set another record since.

Contrast that to the ECB releasing August inflation figures today. Prices still rising.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/dublin-mep-calls-for-investigation-into-ticketmaster-pricing-after-oasis-ticket-sales-1667257.html

Kids cannot get the places in schools that they want, the emergency wards in our hospitals are bursting, but our local Fianna Fail/Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty is more concerned about who gets Oasis tickets or not.

Where are Oasis tickets on Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

In fairness, we did ask for this.

You people did vote Regina Doherty as the preferred candidate of all of Dublin so she could fake annoyance at Oasis demanding top dollar for the latest popularity contest.

The Indo reckons two-thirds want to see FF and FG reelected for another term.

While not exactly surprising in any sense, it highlights two things really - the complete lack of any real(istic) political alternatives in this country, and the subsequent rewarding of failure as a result.

These 2 parties have overseen a situation where people can't afford a home (if they could find one in the first place), where parents have their "children" back with them in their 30s, where a single Children's Hospital has become a black hole of taxpayer money with no end in sight and where getting a GP appointment or non-critical care is harder and more expensive than ever, where crime and punishment is a farce and the Gardai are demoralised because of the most useless Justice Minister we've seen in decades and a Commissioner who it seems is hugely unpopular among his own ranks - and oh yes, where the country has been overrun by tens of thousands of third world economic migrants posing as refugees who are then forcibly planted among communities without any regard for those already living there or the additional stresses on all of the above that this causes as well.

But then, why would there be changes when the electorate seem poised to return parties headed by a man who's never had a job outside of his party and no qualifications, and another man who only wanted to be Taoiseach no matter what (so he wouldn't be the odd one out) but who handed over the running of the country to a bunch of unelected civil servants rather than lead through an unprecedented "crisis" situation and who ever since seems to enjoy touring the World at our expense and tut-tutting at the electorate back home for complaining about any of the issues.

I do have a campaign slogan for them though - "5 years squandered, another 5 to piss away" or perhaps "a lot undone, a lot more to come" (which reflects better the destruction of the social contract and increasing friction and division in Irish society that they've promoted in their current term).

More Good Times ahead for sure!

Not to minimize the many, many failings of our current government but a huge part of the blame for their popularity has to lay with SF. SF have gone from polling at nearly the same as FF and FG combined, to less than either now, in the last 12 months.

Thats an absolutely shocking achievement given we've had the same party in government for 13 years now, and the litany of policy failures on things like immigration, housing and public services.

SF are the only serious/large opposition party that has a chance to lead a government, but have spent their time trying desperately to sit on fences and not offend anyone - instead of actually laying out firm policies that differ from the government.

They've also shown unbelievable arrogance completely ignoring what polls show their supporters want - much stricter rules on asylum seekers etc.

Not a given that they'll need a third party. If they're on a combined 46% of FPV as per the latest poll, every chance FF & FG will have a workable majority of seats between them.

Are these asks not somewhat conflicting?

You seem on one hand to be saying Sinn Fein are too flip floppy and not strong enough to their principles for fear of upsetting a cohort people (I agree with this view).

Then in the last paragraph you say they are not being strict enough on restricting asylum seekers and need to change their position completely on this because it’s upsetting people?
(Sinn Fein are (supposedly) a left wing democratic socialist party with a history of being very supportive of open borders)

I understand all that, but my point is wondering why Sinn Fein hasn’t been clearer on how it would reduce immigration numbers is like wondering why the Green Party haven’t been clearer on how they’d reducing carbon tax. It runs completely at odds to their DNA.

Parties have their long term beliefs and generally don’t violently swing from left wing to right wing due to short term changes in public sentiment because it makes you look incoherent. 18 months ago it was all the rage to put Ukraine badges on your car in solidarity. Now it’s in vogue to burn down their accommodation. Who knows where it will be in another 18 months.

Its not at all like wondering why the Green Party haven't been clearer on why how they'd reduce carbon tax, because most Green Party supporters aren't in favour of reducing carbon tax.

If a large majority of a political party's supporters are strongly in favour of a policy either that political party changes its platform to reflect that, or its going to lose a lot of its voters. Thats how democracy works. And its exactly what has happened to SF.

Being in favour of migration controls is also not a policy platform thats in any way incompatible with being left-wing. Historically, before the move to a focus on culture war issues in the 1990s, left-wing political parties were in favour of migration controls because large scale unskilled immigration tends to negatively impact the working class most. Plenty of political parties elsewhere in Europe are also left-wing and in favour of migration controls in 2024 - the BSW in Germany, the Social Democrats in Denmark etc.

There isn't a perfect party in politics.

Each voter has their own priorities, but let's assume the key priorities are immigration, housing and health.

If a voter decides that FFG will address those 3 issues more effectivley than SF will, they will vote FFG.

It's a 2 person event, competing in a triathlon. It doesnt matter if we know that neither competitor is a world beater. We have to back the person that we think will score the most points.

SF haven't offered a different approach to asylum immigration, so its quite understandable to think the current govt are a safer bet.

SF want to push out the investment funds that make the majority of new home complexes in the state viable. We have record new commencements this year and will see near 40k homes built by year end. The govt have committed to 250k more homes up until 2030.

I do not see how SF would deliver this number of homes by 2030, if they remove investment funds from the equation.

We spend 30% more on healthcare than the OECD average and spend is rising. New homes will come on stream for nurses and hospital staff via an increase in cost rental and affordable home schemes.

Again, SF havent produced an alternative to HSE management that the electorate seem to perfer.

Although far from perfect, the current govt are making progress on the above issues.

The only question that matters is who will make the most progress over the next 5 years and it looks clear that most people think FFG will outperform SF in that hypothetical race.

It doesnt matter if FFG dont score enough points to qualify for the olympics, it only matters if they score more points than SF.

If a large majority of a party's membership want a certain policy enacted then its very rare to see a party not embrace that. For fairly obvious electoral reasons.

When has open borders ever been a fundamental core principle for SF? Their only core principle that I'm aware of they possess is Republicanism / unification. They've always been flexible on everything else over the decades as the party has evolved.

The polls are very clear that far fewer SF party members and voters would be "abhorred" at them becoming in favour of reducing immigration than there are against the party's current position. Which is why SF are now, belatedly, and hesitantly, moving their policy.

You're rather wrong in the real world on party splits - its very rare in Anglosphere democracies for large parties to split on issues like this. In the real world parties mostly just evolve their platforms to match the views of their members and voters. Reference FG and FF (and even SF themselves) and their evolution on issues over the last 100 years, and lack of splits (apart from the PD experiment - and that was more down to personality conflicts than policy). Or the durability and evolution of Labour and the Tories, or the Republicans and Democrats.