[The_Minister]

Originally Posted by dlofnep

They right did a great job at generating wealth, burdening the tax-payer with billions in debt. It was right-wing thinking that destroyed our economy.

Raising public spending when the economy was already booming, in order to make everything 'boomier' was very much left-wing.

Right-wing, if a term so broad could really gve forth a policy, would have been to invest in domestic businesses rather than property incentive after incentive.

Stupidity is not solely the property of the left-wing or the right-wing.

[dlofnep]

Originally Posted by Sully

Is this what the country needs? A SF Labour coalition?!? One wanting to default on our debts and the other not really sure what it wants!

Our debts?

Sinn Féin doesn't want to transfer private debt as sovereign debt in the first place. I'm glad to see you're in favour of calling on the already burdened Irish tax payer to pay for the ills of the wealthiest people in the state.

[dlofnep]

Originally Posted by The_Minister

Raising public spending when the economy was already booming, in order to make everything 'boomier' was very much left-wing.

All political parties called for parallel public spending.

I guess you missed the Fine Gael 2007 election manifesto which called for higher spending than Fianna Fáil were implementing.

It's very easy to look at public spending after an economic crash, where the funds are not readily available - rather than looking at the direct cause of the crash in the first place.

[pigeonbutler]

I'm actually happy to see people arguing whether or not a left wing government is what we need. Finally maturity in Irish political discourse rather than tribal rubbish.

Now all we need is for people to vote on a similar basis.

If they don't want to see left wing parties in government to vote for FG or FF and make very clear to canvassers that they should keep labour out at all costs.

If they do want left wing parties in government they should vote Labour/SF/ULA and make clear to canvassers that they don't want them to go into power with FG or FF.

I'm probably being idealistic but the current situation of anti-left voters voting FG but insisting Labour should be first choice coalition partners over FF is part of what's wrong with politics here.

[meditraitor]

Originally Posted by Sully

What Ireland needs is one party government. A strong party. With a strong mandate. I think that coalition agreements are bad for the country as its all about themselves rather then actually serving the country for the greater good.

.

What party would that be? I will take a guess at FF lite???? am I right ?

I tell you why I ask, see I am like you, I would prefer a Majority Government (you want FF lite and I would like Labour) because I can see nothing but problems sharing power with FG. They offer nothing but the usual civil war parish pump politics that FF gave us.


FF lite are everything FF are with about 5% less support base of family that only vote for FF lite because Daddy and granda voted for them.
Take that ignorant voting groups (FF 20% and FF lite 15%) out and what you really have is a the Labour party as the biggest political party in the country because the people who actually consider politics for what it is; vote mainly for Labour!

The Times will keep pushing the FF lite agenda but it will never happen(Fg majority) because this coming election is going to be about politics and not power....

[Iwasfrozen]

Originally Posted by meditraitor

What party would that be? I will take a guess at FF lite???? am I right ?

I tell you why I ask, see I am like you, I would prefer a Majority Government (you want FF lite and I would like Labour) because I can see nothing but problems sharing power with FG. They offer nothing but the usual civil war parish pump politics that FF gave us.


FF lite are everything FF are with about 5% less support base of family that only vote for FF lite because Daddy and granda voted for them.
Take that ignorant voting groups (FF 20% and FF lite 15%) out and what you really have is a the Labour party as the biggest political party in the country because the people who actually consider politics for what it is; vote mainly for Labour!

The Times will keep pushing the FF lite agenda but it will never happen(Fg majority) because this coming election is going to be about politics and not power....

Yeah because Labour isn't populist or opportunistic at all.

*cough* fox hunting bill *cough*

No siree, not populistic at all.

[irishh_bob]

Originally Posted by dlofnep

They right did a great job at generating wealth, burdening the tax-payer with billions in debt. It was right-wing thinking that destroyed our economy.

it was populist short term thinking which led to our downfall , any goverment led by bertie aherne could not be defined as having any particular idealogy

[Eliot Rosewater]

Originally Posted by dlofnep

All political parties called for parallel public spending.

I don't see how that changes The_Minister's point.

I think it's fallacious to call the boom year policies Left or Right. They were merely Bad. The manifestos of most (all?) parties for the 2007 election called for increased spending and decreased taxes - a kind of mathematics that would earn you a fail at any level, and a kind of ideology that's a mish-mash of broad Left and Right thinking. There are videos from 2000 warning against the economy over-heating, so there really is no justification.

The current sovereign debt crisis is a result of these bizarre policies, and it is currently the spending items that ballooned in excess of inflation during the boom that are the biggest obstacle to the crisis being rectified.

In terms of the housing boom, it seems fashionable to blame it on "Right wing economics" but this blatantly ignores (to the point of intellectual dishonesty, in my opinion) the dramatic effect pro-cyclical government policies had on the housing market and widespread availability of cheap credit. This isn't Right wing economic thinking at all.

[PeterIanStaker]

Originally Posted by Eliot Rosewater

In terms of the housing boom, it seems fashionable to blame it on "Right wing economics" but this blatantly ignores (to the point of intellectual dishonesty, in my opinion) the dramatic effect pro-cyclical government policies had on the housing market and widespread availability of cheap credit. This isn't Right wing economic thinking at all.

I'd agree - the policies on property weren't so much right-wing, as very populist & consumer driven, and people need to get that Tiger mentality out of their heads as well or we'll be back where we started in another decade.