So the posters are up all over Dublin West, no better way to see them than to ride around on 'the 39', one of the most arse about face bus routes in the western world. One question for everyone when there is a race between a clear coalition (FG/Lab) and an unclear coalition (FF/whoever makes up the numbers) is whether to vote based on national or local issues.
This is particularly important in Dublin West - Minister for Children Brian Lenihan is one candidate. He is one of the better ones, with more experience, competence and coherence than Leo Varadkar, the FG boyo. But if you want a change of government, surely you should just vote FG and Labour in whichever order you prefer?
It's not that simple, though. What if you back the FG man based on your guess that they will get into power...and they lose. Or if you back him and he isn't given a ministerial role? The whole area will suffer. This scenario is unlikely, as Lenihan is tipped to keep his seat - but it shows voting is a tricky business.
Anyway back to those posters and what they tell us. Generally I would say they suggest you should vote on local issues - most of the posters focus 90per cent space on the individual's face, 10per cent on the party logo, and nothing at all on coalitions.
Joe Higgins is framed against a capitalist blood red background - you know what you're getting there. Joan Burton, Roderic O'Gorman (Greens), Lenihan, and his running mate Gerry Lynam all dominate their posters, leaving their party ties very much in the background. There is no PD candidate out here, which leaves about 2,000 Cllr. Tom Morrissey votes up for grabs. Only Felix Gallagher (SF) is smothered under his parties' logos. This, presumably, is to appeal to those who are Sinn Fein people rather than Felix Gallagher people.
So maybe the question is not local or national, but personal or party? Considering twice elected Higgins represents a party with all the power of a rusty Lade, you can say that politics out in Dublin West is both local and personal.
Showing posts with label election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label election. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
The race is on
Bertie was up with the milkman to head to Aras an Uachtarain and ask sweet mother of Ireland Mary McAleese to dissolve the 29th Dail - sitting of parliament.The Irish General Election will be held on May 24th. Let the glad-handling, schmoozing and lies begin.
They will talk about stamp duty. The Sunday Independent will tell us it is important. People who think this paper reflects modern Ireland will care.
They will talk about the environment. Everyone will care but few will understand what we can do except turn off lights, shop locally and smother your friends with pious rhetoric about the future of the planet and your children's children.
They will talk about crime. Each will be tougher than the last. None will make any difference but will seek to convince you they will. As long as they talk about being tough on crime we will continue to perpetuate it.
They will talk about these things and all a whole lot more. I will blog about them with enthusiasm for sincerity and change but crushing doubts that either will be much evident. The rule of my coverage is this: if they are open, fair and honest so will the coverage. If they are cynical, I will let them have it.
They will talk...watch how they talk. Listen to the opposition when they're asked about policy. 9 times out of ten they will respond "Our coalition's point of view has been very clear on this for a long time...". They always say this. They always try to ram home their solidarity, whether it exists or not. Watch for these masters of language, kings of deceptions...twisting, turning and fudging their way to your vote.
Watch our for bullshit buzzwords and cynical catchphrases. Think ASBO, MMR, and WMD. Ask why they have such catchy rings to them. Ask why why why. Make them work for it. We get the government we deserve; if we are lazy...
They will talk about stamp duty. The Sunday Independent will tell us it is important. People who think this paper reflects modern Ireland will care.
They will talk about the environment. Everyone will care but few will understand what we can do except turn off lights, shop locally and smother your friends with pious rhetoric about the future of the planet and your children's children.
They will talk about crime. Each will be tougher than the last. None will make any difference but will seek to convince you they will. As long as they talk about being tough on crime we will continue to perpetuate it.
They will talk about these things and all a whole lot more. I will blog about them with enthusiasm for sincerity and change but crushing doubts that either will be much evident. The rule of my coverage is this: if they are open, fair and honest so will the coverage. If they are cynical, I will let them have it.
They will talk...watch how they talk. Listen to the opposition when they're asked about policy. 9 times out of ten they will respond "Our coalition's point of view has been very clear on this for a long time...". They always say this. They always try to ram home their solidarity, whether it exists or not. Watch for these masters of language, kings of deceptions...twisting, turning and fudging their way to your vote.
Watch our for bullshit buzzwords and cynical catchphrases. Think ASBO, MMR, and WMD. Ask why they have such catchy rings to them. Ask why why why. Make them work for it. We get the government we deserve; if we are lazy...
Thursday, April 19, 2007
About time too
Some good news today. Anybody with a half a brain can see that crime in Ireland is very predictable; where it happens and who does it. Now I'm talking about crime that people get sent to jail for - not harmless, victimless, tax-dodging/fraud/embezzlement or sexual assaults. I'm talking about drug users and dealers, thieves and fighters, your stereotypical, middle-Ireland, Paul Williams definition of a 'bad' guy.
So the good news. Brian Lenihan, candidate for Dublin West and a quite good one I must say, is not a complete moron so he doesn't state the above but he does act on it. Today he announces the funding for the Children's Act 2001 will FINALLY come on stream. This is less popular than ASBOs but it is much more effective in dealing with young people who get into crime (remember about 95% of children in St Pat's will get out, re-offend and end up in Mountjoy...95%! Evidence, I strongly say, that the criminal justice system is failing the Irish public).
Now we will have judges who can actually deal with 15 and 16 year olds, not condescend with arcane language. Families will also be brought in. This is to be welcomed and although the timing is spurious - six years after the Bill came in, six weeks before the general election - Lenihan deserves credit. Youth crime should not, unless it's particularly violent, be dealt with by just the Department of Justice - we need a more expansive approach that involves social welfare, education and justice. This is the only chance we have to make a better Ireland and end the cycles of poverty that are analogous to the cycles of crime.
I've left the key with my neighbour and he's promised to keep an eye on the place, but not sadly my blog. So I'll be away for the weekend and the blog will as productive as a student with a hangover. Alas I will miss blogging on the first round of the French elections - but you can keep in touch if you follow the links on the right of this posting.
So the good news. Brian Lenihan, candidate for Dublin West and a quite good one I must say, is not a complete moron so he doesn't state the above but he does act on it. Today he announces the funding for the Children's Act 2001 will FINALLY come on stream. This is less popular than ASBOs but it is much more effective in dealing with young people who get into crime (remember about 95% of children in St Pat's will get out, re-offend and end up in Mountjoy...95%! Evidence, I strongly say, that the criminal justice system is failing the Irish public).
Now we will have judges who can actually deal with 15 and 16 year olds, not condescend with arcane language. Families will also be brought in. This is to be welcomed and although the timing is spurious - six years after the Bill came in, six weeks before the general election - Lenihan deserves credit. Youth crime should not, unless it's particularly violent, be dealt with by just the Department of Justice - we need a more expansive approach that involves social welfare, education and justice. This is the only chance we have to make a better Ireland and end the cycles of poverty that are analogous to the cycles of crime.
I've left the key with my neighbour and he's promised to keep an eye on the place, but not sadly my blog. So I'll be away for the weekend and the blog will as productive as a student with a hangover. Alas I will miss blogging on the first round of the French elections - but you can keep in touch if you follow the links on the right of this posting.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Irish General Election - 2007
Way out past the green fields of the Phoenix Park and just beyond the mind-crushing, bumper to bumper M50, lies West Dublin. Famous only for the odd sensational murder, it's also the fastest growing place in Ireland, with a population of over 90,000 at the 2006 census. More people than Galway city, so they say. It is the hearbeat of the new Ireland, the one where catholicism and the English language no longer dominate. There is no real history out here - housing estates are still being piled onto green space and it will take a while to see what effect all this change has. There's no-one really famous, for any reason, from west Dublin. So a place is being created, a community perhaps, a suburb for sure. It's where I live and where I will focus on for the general election.
I won't bore you with the candidates; instead, just to set the ball rolling, here's a taste of what one Fianna Fail man had to say about HIV at a recent meeting between young people and politicans.
"The reason there is a HIV and TB crisis here is because we let people into the country without medical screening. In the US and Australia you have to do a full medical if you want to emigrate there."
That was from Gerry Lynam (right - pun intended), the man with a ronnie that could shine shoes or sweep the streets, Fianna Fail's latest weapon in its war against Socialist Joe Higgins, Labour's Joan Burton and Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar. He's a decent bloke, Gerry Lynam, but is prone to populist, lazy, stereotypical rubbish. Besides pandering to fears, paranoia and uncertainty of the local electorate, he also does himself a diservice.
He has done admirable work for many years as part of the Greater Blanchardstown Repsonse to Drugs. So why come out with - what he surely knows to be - lies? Is he, a man who ran as an independent in the last election, that desperate to be elected that he will ignore what he knows and manipulate what people don't?
HIV and TB were in Ireland long before we had immigration - they were spread, primarily, by repeatedly using the same needles while injecting heroin. That's why so many people with a heroin addiction in Ireland have HIV. That's why we have a crisis - trying to lay the blame on people who can't even vote in the next election is revolting.
(Local paper Community Voice picked up on this and that's where I got it so fair play, it's a good paper).
I won't bore you with the candidates; instead, just to set the ball rolling, here's a taste of what one Fianna Fail man had to say about HIV at a recent meeting between young people and politicans.
"The reason there is a HIV and TB crisis here is because we let people into the country without medical screening. In the US and Australia you have to do a full medical if you want to emigrate there."
That was from Gerry Lynam (right - pun intended), the man with a ronnie that could shine shoes or sweep the streets, Fianna Fail's latest weapon in its war against Socialist Joe Higgins, Labour's Joan Burton and Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar. He's a decent bloke, Gerry Lynam, but is prone to populist, lazy, stereotypical rubbish. Besides pandering to fears, paranoia and uncertainty of the local electorate, he also does himself a diservice.
He has done admirable work for many years as part of the Greater Blanchardstown Repsonse to Drugs. So why come out with - what he surely knows to be - lies? Is he, a man who ran as an independent in the last election, that desperate to be elected that he will ignore what he knows and manipulate what people don't?
HIV and TB were in Ireland long before we had immigration - they were spread, primarily, by repeatedly using the same needles while injecting heroin. That's why so many people with a heroin addiction in Ireland have HIV. That's why we have a crisis - trying to lay the blame on people who can't even vote in the next election is revolting.
(Local paper Community Voice picked up on this and that's where I got it so fair play, it's a good paper).
Monday, February 19, 2007
Cafe bars
The PDs were down in Wexford at the weekend for their pre-election conference and the media were with them, watching, listening, scribbling notes and scabbing free cups of tea and hot-cross buns.
We have a funny relationship with the PDs. Recent opinion polls show them drowning with anywhere between 1 and 3% support. Yet Monday's papers gave them as much, if not more, coverage than was given over to Labour's equivalent conference last week.
Of course, the PDs hold two of the most divisive posts in government so you could say that's why the media turns their amps up so loud. You could also ask why they have so much influence when they have such little support.
Anyway, McDowell was on tele sweating in front of the lights and being the authoratitve voice he undoubtably is. And his pledges were mostly economy based. No stamp duty for first time buyers. A new pensions scheme. Chopping of both tax rates. The type of stuff that will likely appeal to twenty somethings with jobs, cars and debts.
The tax thing is interesting. The PDs will cut high tax rate from 41 to 38% and the low tax rate from 20 to 18%. This means more euros for you and less for the government.
Depending on where you stand this can be a good or a bad thing. Low personal tax usually results in high public tax - bin charges, road tolls and high public transport costs, for example. Now if you have a lot of money and don't need to get the bus, this is great. But if you're an average worker, earning industrial wage, lower taxes will, overall, create the illusion of wealth - high public service costs will soon disolve this illusion. You will quickly learn what a sliced pan costs; people on higher rates still continue oblivious to it.
Looking at public services, it's hard to say that reducing taxes will be benficial. In general, they're not very good.
When they stopped throwing money at us, the PDs resurrected one of their better ideas. The cafe bar.
This McDowell baby has been doing the rounds for a while, but Fianna Fail, eager to keep those boys who pay for their tent at the Galway races happy, shot it down.
Michaeal wants to relax licensing laws so people who set up cafes can apply for alcohol licences. This is normal in European countries. It gives people an alternative to the pub.
Fianna Fail and their publican buds don't want an alternative to the pub. They want you to go to pubs and pay five euro for a drink.
Publicans are smart. They offer everything the continental cafe offers, in general (food, music, tv, waiter services). But they do it badly. Food in pubs is ok but limited and expensive. Music is dodgy, often played by middle-aged men for middle-aged people. Most of the time it's too loud and people are forced to resort to sign language. And tv either can't be seen, can't be heard or annoys everybody who doesn't want to watch.
The cafe-bar (have to add in the bar, don't want to frighten us too much) will do all these things better. For both consumer and community they are a good thing. It's about time we had a chance to talk, eat and drink in moderate ways for moderate prices.
We have a funny relationship with the PDs. Recent opinion polls show them drowning with anywhere between 1 and 3% support. Yet Monday's papers gave them as much, if not more, coverage than was given over to Labour's equivalent conference last week.
Of course, the PDs hold two of the most divisive posts in government so you could say that's why the media turns their amps up so loud. You could also ask why they have so much influence when they have such little support.
Anyway, McDowell was on tele sweating in front of the lights and being the authoratitve voice he undoubtably is. And his pledges were mostly economy based. No stamp duty for first time buyers. A new pensions scheme. Chopping of both tax rates. The type of stuff that will likely appeal to twenty somethings with jobs, cars and debts.
The tax thing is interesting. The PDs will cut high tax rate from 41 to 38% and the low tax rate from 20 to 18%. This means more euros for you and less for the government.
Depending on where you stand this can be a good or a bad thing. Low personal tax usually results in high public tax - bin charges, road tolls and high public transport costs, for example. Now if you have a lot of money and don't need to get the bus, this is great. But if you're an average worker, earning industrial wage, lower taxes will, overall, create the illusion of wealth - high public service costs will soon disolve this illusion. You will quickly learn what a sliced pan costs; people on higher rates still continue oblivious to it.
Looking at public services, it's hard to say that reducing taxes will be benficial. In general, they're not very good.
When they stopped throwing money at us, the PDs resurrected one of their better ideas. The cafe bar.
This McDowell baby has been doing the rounds for a while, but Fianna Fail, eager to keep those boys who pay for their tent at the Galway races happy, shot it down.
Michaeal wants to relax licensing laws so people who set up cafes can apply for alcohol licences. This is normal in European countries. It gives people an alternative to the pub.
Fianna Fail and their publican buds don't want an alternative to the pub. They want you to go to pubs and pay five euro for a drink.
Publicans are smart. They offer everything the continental cafe offers, in general (food, music, tv, waiter services). But they do it badly. Food in pubs is ok but limited and expensive. Music is dodgy, often played by middle-aged men for middle-aged people. Most of the time it's too loud and people are forced to resort to sign language. And tv either can't be seen, can't be heard or annoys everybody who doesn't want to watch.
The cafe-bar (have to add in the bar, don't want to frighten us too much) will do all these things better. For both consumer and community they are a good thing. It's about time we had a chance to talk, eat and drink in moderate ways for moderate prices.
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