We heart corruption

luckat

After all the tribunals, after all the revelations...

KdjaCL

luckat wrote:

After all the tribunals, after all the revelations...

The rich heart staying rich.


kdjac

bemmet

The people have spoken
Live with it
its called democracy

sioda

Its called democracy but its not. Democracy imho allows ALL persons entitled to vote but in this case they were not. Holding an election on thursday in a major college exam week marginalises a large number of the electorate who must stay in college to do their exams.

DaBreno

sioda wrote:

Holding an election on thursday in a major college exam week marginalises a large number of the electorate who must stay in college to do their exams.

Very true. To be fair, its a valid critism I have against FG/Labour that they didnt lay into Bertie over this. Its an attack on Democracy to do such a thing and its more than Students that got caught out on this.
Very Disappointed in our Taioseach, more so in our Media and Political parties for not hammering him on this. If it were GW Bush, we would have a field day on this site.

DeepBlue

Voters only have one vote.
If they are concerned about issues like the economy, jobs, health, crime, transport, etc etc........and corruption then they have a choice to make in how they balance up all the factors influencing their vote.
I guess the lesson is that the voters will tolerate some level of corruption unless it's completely obvious and "in your face".

shamblertine

it was completely obvious and in your face. And didn't Berties approval rating rise after the financial scandal?

As long as the economy stays the way it is no one else has a chance, no matter what Bertie does

spudington16

We also heart a thriving economy, and a diverse society. Get with the programme.

luckat

The way the economy is is 43% of it powered by construction. We're not making, we're not exporting, we're cannibalising. It's not sustainable.

spudington16

sioda wrote:

Its called democracy but its not. Democracy imho allows ALL persons entitled to vote but in this case they were not. Holding an election on thursday in a major college exam week marginalises a large number of the electorate who must stay in college to do their exams.

This is ridiculous. Given the polling places were open from early in the morning til late enough at night I can't imagine anyone using exams or study as an excuse; it only takes a few minutes.

DaBreno

spudington16 wrote:

We also heart a thriving economy, and a diverse society. Get with the programme.

"That money was just resting in my account! It was a routine relocation of funds!"

Lol....?

spudington16

luckat wrote:

The way the economy is is 43% of it powered by construction. We're not making, we're not exporting, we're cannibalising. It's not sustainable.

While our dependence on the construction industry is far from ideal, we are a well-qualified, skills-based economy that many MNCs are happy to invest heavily in. Ireland is also ranked 4th in the HDI rankings, and we have a great standard of living. Our exports are high, and unemployment is poles apart from what it was several decades ago.

nesf

sioda wrote:

Its called democracy but its not. Democracy imho allows ALL persons entitled to vote but in this case they were not. Holding an election on thursday in a major college exam week marginalises a large number of the electorate who must stay in college to do their exams.

Students could have very easily registered in their college constituency and used the postal vote. Saying it's not a democracy because a bunch of students didn't bother to check their options and ensure they could vote is just silly. It's not nice for people who couldn't vote but blaming the Government for something they failed to do is just childish.

Tom Dunne

sioda wrote:

Holding an election on thursday in a major college exam week marginalises a large number of the electorate who must stay in college to do their exams.

Hang on, correct me if I am wrong, but didn't the likes of students have the option of registering to vote at another address? So that's no excuse.

I for one am disgusted at the thought of Bertie & Co back again. Was it Vincent Browne who said that in another country, if there were this many questions around a party leader's finances, he would be long gone? I suppose the fundamental problem is the lack of an alternative.

Goblin_insane

sioda wrote:

Its called democracy but its not. Democracy imho allows ALL persons entitled to vote but in this case they were not. Holding an election on thursday in a major college exam week marginalises a large number of the electorate who must stay in college to do their exams.

How pray I ask was I able to vote despite being in college and it been an exam week ? The above is not an excuse if people wanted to vote they would have found a way.

Raphael

sioda wrote:

Its called democracy but its not. Democracy imho allows ALL persons entitled to vote but in this case they were not. Holding an election on thursday in a major college exam week marginalises a large number of the electorate who must stay in college to do their exams.

If you can't make it to the polling station, there's always Postal VOtes. My brother made his vote by post as he's working in Limerick, there were stands in my college spreading the knowledge about them & offering people the chance to sign up for them.

There are other options than voting in person, and while a Thursday vote was a pain, there are people who chose to bitch and moan about it, and people who just got over it and took the alternative. And the people who bitch and moan without actually doing anything to get over it are a waste of space, tbh. The same sort of people who complain about the government and don't bother to vote.

sioda

Hang on a sec so yeah they could register to their college area but why should they. I mean if you are from Limerick and your are in college in dublin you more than likely have no interest in local Dublin politics as against wanting to be involved with the politics of your local area thus if you cant get home you cant vote.

Its no where near childish. As a adult in this country you are entitled to a vote but you should not have to sacrifice your education for your right to vote

It our right to bitch about it I mean if their was a fair election to be held it should not be held on an obviously bad day

ashyle

Sure whatever fools voted them in, they deserve it. I'm emigrating. Willie O'Dea, 19000 votes?? Psah

ashyle

sioda wrote:

Its called democracy but its not. Democracy imho allows ALL persons entitled to vote but in this case they were not. Holding an election on thursday in a major college exam week marginalises a large number of the electorate who must stay in college to do their exams.

so a college exam runs from 7.30 to 10.30pm yeah ?

McSpud

You get the government you deserve.

O'Dea & Roche got massive votes. Corrupt politicians such as Lowry & O'Flynn will probably be elected. :rolleyes:

You have to admire Bertie. He refused to answer questions his "dodgy" finances on the basis that the Tribunal was not concerned with it. The more devious of them all indeed.

nesf

sioda wrote:

Hang on a sec so yeah they could register to their college area but why should they. I mean if you are from Limerick and your are in college in dublin you more than likely have no interest in local Dublin politics as against wanting to be involved with the politics of your local area thus if you cant get home you cant vote.

Its no where near childish. As a adult in this country you are entitled to a vote but you should not have to sacrifice your education for your right to vote

It our right to bitch about it I mean if their was a fair election to be held it should not be held on an obviously bad day

And by making an adult's decision to go to college in Dublin you have to accept the very real possibility that it most likely means that you will end up having to vote in one general election there. Your decisions have repercussions, the world won't magically alter to change this, deal with it.

sioda

But you should not be forced to vote in a consituency that means nothing to you

eoghan.geraghty

sioda wrote:

Its no where near childish. As a adult in this country you are entitled to a vote but you should not have to sacrifice your education for your right to vote

It our right to bitch about it I mean if their was a fair election to be held it should not be held on an obviously bad day

As an adult, entitlements bring obligations. I'll spell it out

P-O-S-T-A-L V-O-T-E

You didn't even need to sacrifice the price of a postal stamp

PCros

Ok I'm a college student and it took me 50 seconds to write 1-4 on my list, put it the box and walk out.

Get over it, the student/exam thing is a load of crap!

DaBreno

Hmmmm. A lot of posters with Dublin locations laying into Sioda. Easy to vote in your own city. Not so easy if your from an area known as The Rest of the Country. Have any of ye gone through the process of changing a vote registration? I have, not so easy Tbh. Espically if you exams that same week.

Mr. Presentable

sioda wrote:

Hang on a sec so yeah they could register to their college area but why should they. I

Because they want to vote, duh! If you have the option and choose not to take it, how is it someone elses fault. Look, most of us are/were students once, but ffs act like an adult and take responsibility for your actions/inactions. You didn't vote. What do you want, to be chaffeured to the polling station and told who to vote for? Effectively you chose not to vote.

Fin.

syngindub

its a landslide

shamblertine

tom dunne wrote:

I for one am disgusted at the thought of Bertie & Co back again. Was it Vincent Browne who said that in another country, if there were this many questions around a party leader's finances, he would be long gone? I suppose the fundamental problem is the lack of an alternative.

Its all about style over substance. Kenny didn't have a chance of getting in because he was too short. Just like the conservatives in england had no chance for years because they always had bald leaders.

nesf

DaBreno wrote:

Hmmmm. A lot of posters with Dublin locations laying into Sioda. Easy to vote in your own city. Not so easy if your from an area known as The Rest of the Country. Have any of ye gone through the process of chaning a vote registration? I have, not so easy Tbh. Espically if you exams that same week.

I'm from Cork and I don't get to vote in the constituency that I'm originally from and follow most closely because, bluntly, there are little to no opportunities for people like me where I'm from originally. Voting in Cork North Central versus voting in Cork North West mightn't seem that big a deal but the politics of this constituency were as foreign to me as any of the Dublin constituencies before this election.

sioda

De Breno thanks and I have attempted the postal vote and it is a pain.

PCros

DaBreno wrote:

Hmmmm. A lot of posters with Dublin locations laying into Sioda. Easy to vote in your own city. Not so easy if your from an area known as The Rest of the Country. Have any of ye gone through the process of chaning a vote registration? I have, not so easy Tbh. Espically if you exams that same week.

Its nothing to do with country folk at all! Postal vote....whats wrong with that????????????

Mr. Presentable

DaBreno wrote:

Have any of ye gone through the process of chaning a vote registration? I have, not so easy Tbh. Espically if you exams that same week.

What are you saying, you only moved to digs near college last week? You started college since the end of April? There's been a campaign for the last year to get people registered for their vote - were you out of the country?

ps. Not studying English, I presume

nesf

sioda wrote:

But you should not be forced to vote in a consituency that means nothing to you

You chose to go to college, you chose a Dublin college. Life's a bitch but you'll never get everything you want so you have to deal with it.

Blackjack

nesf wrote:

Students could have very easily registered in their college constituency and used the postal vote. Saying it's not a democracy because a bunch of students didn't bother to check their options and ensure they could vote is just silly. It's not nice for people who couldn't vote but blaming the Government for something they failed to do is just childish.

Spot on. If people were bothered enough about the democratic process, they'd make sure ahead of time that they were eligible to vote, as opposed to leaving it to the last minute to be disappointed they could not.

Tom Dunne

shamblertine wrote:

Its all about style over substance. Kenny didn't have a chance of getting in because he was too short. Just like the conservatives in england had no chance for years because they always had bald leaders.

WTF? Because he was too short? Keep smoking that stuff.

It was because he is an incompetent buffoon, not because he is 5'10". He is not a statesman, he is not a leader, he is just too unpolished to run this country.

Having said that, I still voted FG.

spudington16

spudington16 wrote:

This is ridiculous. Given the polling places were open from early in the morning til late enough at night I can't imagine anyone using exams or study as an excuse; it only takes a few minutes.

Hypothetically
If I my exams were one week later
1:I don't have a car
2:A bus home to Carrick on Shannon would take approximately 5 and a half hours on thursday(have to go through Athlone and the Longford)
3:I would have had an exam today at half nine
4:Last bus leaves Carrick on Shannon for Galway at half 12 on Thursday.
So I would have had to take a day and a half off study to vote.
You say that it is ridiculous that students don't have a few minutes to vote.
I say that it is ridiculous that the government hasn't done anything for Leitrim in last four year.
Thank God John Eliis the money swindling waster who did nothing for Leitrim did not get in.

sioda

If you dont live permanetly in the consituency you are in why would you want to vote as it realistically has no effect on you. As against voting for soneone in your home consituency can effect your life.

BTW I voted

luckat

What horrifies me is that yes, this is democracy, and the democratic will of the Irish people - my people - has expressed itself by voting in a party some of whose most prominent members have been exposed as having taken bribes.

This isn't the kind of person we should be trusting to represent us.

Some of the people I'm seeing smilingly accepting the expression of the democratic will are not those I'd shake hands without counting my fingers afterwards.

mickoneill30

sioda wrote:

Hang on a sec so yeah they could register to their college area but why should they. I mean if you are from Limerick and your are in college in dublin you more than likely have no interest in local Dublin politics as against wanting to be involved with the politics of your local area thus if you cant get home you cant vote.

Its no where near childish. As a adult in this country you are entitled to a vote but you should not have to sacrifice your education for your right to vote

Probably needs to be repeated for the slow. POSTAL votes???? What exactly are all these students studying in college if they're not able to figure out how to vote? Mustn't be anything too complicated.

For those of you whinging about lack of democracy and conspiracys here a link to the form http://www.meath.ie/LocalAuthorities/ElectionsElectoralRegister/ElectoralRegister/ElectoralRegisterForms/File,3906,en.pdf

Now save that for the next time you're voting in 5 years. Hopefully you'll have finished your courses by then.

I heard other people whinging about finding out that their names were removed from the electoral register on the radio this morning. It was all a big conspiracy. There was a big ad campaign to check the register a few months ago. If people really don't have the brains to do a bit of research when they're asked over and over again to do so then I don't think we'll miss their vote too much.

PCros

Ok why didnt I cop this on earlier...if exams are getting in the way of voting etc why the hell are you on Boards all night???

I'm a student as a said, I did a bit of study, voted and went online for a bit.

Shouldnt effect anybody who has exams!

simu

Remember kids: go postal!

PCros

Deleted User wrote:

Hypothetically
If I my exams were one week later
1:I don't have a car
2:A bus home to Carrick on Shannon would take approximately 5 and a half hours on thursday(have to go through Athlone and the Longford)
3:I would have had an exam today at half nine
4:Last bus leaves Carrick on Shannon for Galway at half 12 on Thursday.
So I would have had to take a day and a half off study to vote.
You say that it is ridiculous that students don't have a few minutes to vote.
I say that it is ridiculous that the government hasn't done anything for Leitrim in last four year.
Thank God John Eliis the money swindling waster who did nothing for Leitrim did not get in.

POSTAL VOTE MY FRIEND!

Heres the form for next time!
http://www.dublincity.ie/Images/Postal%20Vote%20Ciccumstances%20of%20Occupation%20PV2%20English_tcm35-22806.pdf

Diamondmaker

luckat wrote:

The way the economy is is 43% of it powered by construction. We're not making, we're not exporting, we're cannibalising. It's not sustainable.

Its actually about 23% of GNP, but that is still a huge amount relative...

We actually have had some of the highest export levels in the EU and world, this slipping recently however.

Your facts are inherantly wrong but I agree with your last 3 words....;)

DaBreno

PCros wrote:

Its nothing to do with country folk at all! Postal vote....whats wrong with that????????????

Its just not that straight forward. It took me four weeks to change constituency including time to wait for the council to "act" and trying to catch my local Gardia to be in the station so they could stamp my form(not so easy). Of course they had better things to do than hand around and stamp forms, my point is nothing moves fast in our Beauarcracy.
I think we are hanging our students out to dry because a lot of them had other things more pressing to do.

Did Bertie give a reason for a Thursday vote?

nesf

sioda wrote:

If you dont love permanetly in the consituency you are in why would you want to vote as it realistically has no effect on you. As against voting for soneone in your home consituency can effect your life.

True but my home constituency does affect my life through my family and extended family and where I live in this constituency means that I'm more probably going to more affected by changes in South Central anyway. But the point is that you get your vote still, which is the important part of a democracy.

sioda

I get the feeling that everyone who is suggesting postal has not actually tried it

sioda

tom dunne wrote:

I for one am disgusted at the thought of Bertie & Co back again.

See i dont get this you say your disgusted but you voted them in

Stark

spudington16 wrote:

While our dependence on the construction industry is far from ideal, we are a well-qualified, skills-based economy that many MNCs are happy to invest heavily in.

That's a bit of a myth in my opinion. Corporation tax and IDA grants have far more of a bearing on location decisions than the promise of our super skills. I could guarantee that if you doubled corporation tax in the morning, most MNCs would be off to India and China faster than you could blink.

Arathorn

Im working in Dublin so didnt vote. Yes you are correct in saying I could have if I made an effort, 3 days to find some form from where I dont know, think you need it stamped by the guards etc, Point is yes students, workers away from home could have voted but you can be damn sure that it was made difficult enough to put off an awful lot of them and of course bertie knew this, hell a bit of rain last time was blamed for low turn out. Thur vote has an effect.

PCros

DaBreno wrote:

Its just not that straight forward. It took me four weeks to change constituency including time to wait for the council to "act" and trying to catch my local Gardia to be in the station so they could stamp my form(not so easy). Of course they had better things to do than hand around and stamp forms, my point is nothing moves fast in our Beauarcracy.
I think we are hanging our students out to dry because a lot of them had other things more pressing to do.

Did Bertie give a reason for a Thursday vote?

I'm a student aswell breno, why didnt you fill out the postal vote form instead of doing all that?

sioda

I think it comes down to it what would have been wrong to putting the election on a saturday. Or even more could the election not seriously be held over two days