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John Bruton's second coming...or is it more than two..?

  • 10-08-2014 1:06pm
    #1
    AlekSmart
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,005 ✭✭✭✭


    I tend to get cynically suspicious when a former "Name" emerges from the Political Mists to offer Opinions on stuff.....particularly when the Opinions now being treated as Newsworthy are a year old......I mean WTF

    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/john-bruton-populations-are-blaming-austerity-on-bankers-like-people-in-the-17th-century-blamed-witches-30495871.html
    “We’re no longer able to control the system — people are able to compete with us, doing most of the things that we were able to do at high wages [they do] at much lower wages, all over the world. And that is changing the balance of economic power.”

    Mr Bruton predicted, “We’re still going to be well off, but other people are going to get richer, and we’re going to be not getting rich as fast.”

    And that, he said, “requires a whole lot of difficult adjustments”. American social insurance schemes, “Medicare and Medicaid and social security”, he said, “are completely unaffordable. And will not be afforded. And will not be deliverable. These promises will be broken here in the US. The same is going to happen in Europe.”

    He said, “it’s going to happen — those promises are going to be broken.” He emphasised: “And they have to be broken. Because they can’t be afforded.”



    So,is JB a Warlock or does he know something we don't....?


    Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

    Charles Mackay (1812-1889)



Comments

  • #2
    irishpancake
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,481 ✭✭✭irishpancake


    AlekSmart wrote: »
    I tend to get cynically suspicious when a former "Name" emerges from the Political Mists to offer Opinions on stuff.....particularly when the Opinions now being treated as Newsworthy are a year old......I mean WTF

    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/john-bruton-populations-are-blaming-austerity-on-bankers-like-people-in-the-17th-century-blamed-witches-30495871.html





    So,is JB a Warlock or does he know something we don't....?

    Amazing.....and this is under Gene Kerrigan's by-line!!!

    As he been replaced by another "Sweety" type clone, which Sindo did with Charlie s Bird......[pun intended] Ms Keane Edge......Terry??

    I can't see very much by Gene there, perhaps he feels this video is so ridiculous it needs little by way of comment from him.

    The comments are interesting, and overwhelmingly anti-Bruton and his "vision".

    The video was published on 19th March 2013, one year and five months ago???

    WTF, Geno??

    Anyuways, here it is for yiz, enjoy......



  • #3
    Bits_n_Bobs
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,301 ✭✭✭Bits_n_Bobs


    Fintan O'Toole delivers a solid kick at the pompous ass in todays paper o'record...

    http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/john-bruton-represents-fine-gael-values-and-those-values-are-in-deep-trouble-1.1893856


  • #4
    touts
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,536 ✭✭✭touts


    I am a capitalist and a life long opponent of socialism. But listening to John Bruton on the radio just now makes me want to take up the red flag and send him and his like to a gulag.


  • #5
    Banjo String
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,380 ✭✭✭✭Banjo String


    Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »
    Fintan O'Toole delivers a solid kick at the pompous ass in todays paper o'record...

    http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/john-bruton-represents-fine-gael-values-and-those-values-are-in-deep-trouble-1.1893856

    Funny, I was just after reading that and thought I'd log on to boards to see if anyone else picked up on it.


  • #6
    Sligo Quay
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 734 ✭✭✭Sligo Quay


    I often wonder does a scoundel like john bruton ever read boards, he probably thinks we're just a bunch of cranks.
    For an individual who thinks we need another 10 years of austerity, so long as he's not suffering it, enjoying his over inflated pension, Iv often heard the term ''fat cat''
    john bruton is definitely the ultimate fat cat, a parasite living off the long suffering taxpayer.


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  • #7
    touts
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,536 ✭✭✭touts


    He was all over the radio again today talking about Albert Reynolds. Considering we hardly knew the guy was alive for the last 10 years he has certainly pushed his way back to the front of political life in recent weeks. Maybe he has his eye on Van Rompuy's job. If there was a presidential election next year I'd say he was definitely positioning himself for a run at the Aras. Something is going on that has attracted him out of a very comfortable retirement.


  • #8
    Sligo Quay
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 734 ✭✭✭Sligo Quay


    Sometimes it's forgotten, but the IRA ceasefire actually broke briefly down when john bruton became Taoiseach, of all that was done in the peace process, john bruton did very little, just like his hero John Redmond, very very much yesterday's men, who belong in the dustbin of history.


  • #9
    jank
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 13,018 ✭✭✭✭jank


    Interesting the hate for John Bruton here but we was on charge of arguably the best government in Irish history. If he won the 97 election and stoped
    Bertie coming to power Ireland would be in a much better place now.


  • #10
    Banjo String
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,380 ✭✭✭✭Banjo String


    jank wrote: »
    Interesting the hate for John Bruton here but we was on charge of arguably the best government in Irish history. If he won the 97 election and stoped
    Bertie coming to power Ireland would be in a much better place now     .

    How have you reached this conclusion may I ask?


  • #11
    jank
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 13,018 ✭✭✭✭jank


    Banjo String wrote: »
    How have you reached this conclusion may I ask?

    Look at both of the Manifestos during the 1997 election and more importantly the 2002 manifesto. Bruton and Noonan both cautioned against splashing the cash. I remember at the time that FG talked a lot about how to best use the boom to figure out what type of country we wanted to be and what we should invest in for the future.

    FF and Bertie on the other hand practiced pure populist politics and electioneering in their budgets. They just gave everyone what they wanted with little regard to vision or the future.

    Manifestos available here.
    http://www.michaelpidgeon.com/manifestos/byelection.htm

    In some sense FF were just better at politics and crucially they were better politicians but the country suffered as a result. There was a common narrative circulating when that the taillight accord between CJ and Dukes was what the country needed and set up our success that followed. It was summed up by the phrase "FF politicians implementing FG policy".


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  • #12
    realweirdo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 974 ✭✭✭realweirdo


    jank wrote: »
    Interesting the hate for John Bruton here but we was on charge of arguably the best government in Irish history. If he won the 97 election and stoped
    Bertie coming to power Ireland would be in a much better place now.

    In an alternative universe perhaps. However Fine Gael in the mid 90s were corrupt. They cleared a 3 million debt within a year or two of gaining power and no-one really knows how but there must have been at least some dodgy dealings going on there.

    Were they on the same scale of corruption as Fianna Fail? Probably not, but only because Fianna Fail have been in power a lot more and hence been able to hand out more contracts, licences, jobs and the like.

    Would there have been a property boom under Fine Gael? Probably. A property boom usually accompanies a booming economy. And given that we wouldn't have controlled interest rates, we wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

    So the crash would still have happened I think regardless of Fine Gael or Fianna Fail in office.


  • #13
    realweirdo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 974 ✭✭✭realweirdo


    touts wrote: »
    He was all over the radio again today talking about Albert Reynolds. Considering we hardly knew the guy was alive for the last 10 years he has certainly pushed his way back to the front of political life in recent weeks. Maybe he has his eye on Van Rompuy's job. If there was a presidential election next year I'd say he was definitely positioning himself for a run at the Aras. Something is going on that has attracted him out of a very comfortable retirement.

    Maybe he is struggling to get by on what is it, 4 pensions?? And he needs another one?

    I think he's blown any hope of a run at the Aras with his latest pronouncements.


  • #14
    touts
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,536 ✭✭✭touts


    realweirdo wrote: »
    In an alternative universe perhaps. However Fine Gael in the mid 90s were corrupt. They cleared a 3 million debt within a year or two of gaining power and no-one really knows how but there must have been at least some dodgy dealings going on there.

    Were they on the same scale of corruption as Fianna Fail? Probably not, but only because Fianna Fail have been in power a lot more and hence been able to hand out more contracts, licences, jobs and the like.

    Would there have been a property boom under Fine Gael? Probably. A property boom usually accompanies a booming economy. And given that we wouldn't have controlled interest rates, we wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

    So the crash would still have happened I think regardless of Fine Gael or Fianna Fail in office.

    They were in power for what 2 years or so. In that time two of their ministers (Michael Lowery and Hugh Covney) had to resign for dodgy business dealings while in office. I suppose at least Fine Gael made them resign while Fianna Fail would probably promoted them. But in my opinion it isn't just Fianna Fail or Fine Gael who is corrupt. It's the political system which rewards chancers who scramble up the political ladder by filling potholes and chasing coffins.


  • #15
    touts
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,536 ✭✭✭touts


    realweirdo wrote: »
    Maybe he is struggling to get by on what is it, 4 pensions?? And he needs another one?

    I think he's blown any hope of a run at the Aras with his latest pronouncements.

    I don't think a man like Bruton would really be satisfied by pensions. It's power and influence he wants. A quick look at the history of failed runs for the Aras would show that candidates don't always accurately assess their chances. When the golden carrot is dangled in front of them they'll keep walking towards it without realizing they have no chance of getting it. Also there is a possibility that he does know he would struggle to win an election by the public BUT he may well figure there would be an advantage to being the only early candidate were something to happen to the elderly Michael D. Higgins.


  • #16
    Permabear
    Closed Accounts Posts: 39,022 ✭✭✭✭Permabear


    This post has been deleted.


  • #17
    jank
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 13,018 ✭✭✭✭jank


    It is curious that no one seems to take issue with his central point regarding the promises or soon to be broken promises of future pensions and benefits that are unsustainable in their current format. I have not seen one argument against it, instead we just see personality attacks and ad-hominons. I suppose thats easier than coming up with an answer about future state pension liabilities.


  • #18
    Permabear
    Closed Accounts Posts: 39,022 ✭✭✭✭Permabear


    This post has been deleted.


  • #19
    My name is URL
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,069 ✭✭✭✭My name is URL


    Himself and Myers displayed some mighty mental gymnastics on tonight's Prime Time debate. Was surprised to see McDowell on the opposing side though!


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