RTE Conspiring Against the Left

P. Breathnach

On Pat Kenny's programme this morning, in order to have a balanced debate between left-wing and right-wing thinking, RTE has handed the left-wing torch to Joe Higgins. Yet again. He gets a lot of air-time.

Higgins has two good qualities for public life: the ability to plan and deliver some good lines, and the energy of a Duracell bunny. But if you want to destroy the credibility of left-wing politics in Ireland, all you need is make Joe their spokesman. He is the master of daft solutions.

Sad Professor

Can't be more daft than McEvaddy.

dave-higgz

Well to be fair he's not the only eejit on Pat Kenny this morning. Ulick McEvaddy is talking through his arse

mike65

Strange, who would the OP have on to represent the left? He is a socialist and what most of us understand to be a socialist. Labour don't count these days.

Dasilva94

Well it looks like the 'Stickies' aren't running the place anymore. As was once alleged.

Het-Field

P. Breathnach wrote: »

On Pat Kenny's programme this morning, in order to have a balanced debate between left-wing and right-wing thinking, RTE has handed the left-wing torch to Joe Higgins. Yet again. He gets a lot of air-time.

Higgins has two good qualities for public life: the ability to plan and deliver some good lines, and the energy of a Duracell bunny. But if you want to destroy the credibility of left-wing politics in Ireland, all you need is make Joe their spokesman. He is the master of daft solutions.

Unless Labour take a sharp turn to the left (unlikely due to their recent popularity thanks to their shift to the right), Higgins is the best the left have got. Most of the rest are just rabble rousers.

P. Breathnach

I agree that Ulick McEvaddy is also unreasonable. I think the idea of behaviour being honourable is beyond his comprehension.

Higgins is an old-fashioned Marxist socialist who eschews Stalinism. But he is quite unrealistic about what can work in today's world.

I don't think the left should be regarded as exclusively the domain of those who advocate state ownership; it's a broader church than that. While mike65 says that "Labour don't count these days", you find many people posting here who do regard Labour as socialist (most often, posters whose sentiment appears to be right wing). I don't think that the Irish Labour Party is particularly socialist, but I think it is on the left in Irish politics. If you want somebody much further left than Labour, Richard Boyd-Barrett springs to mind: I think he has a broader, deeper, and less simplistically doctrinaire view than Joe's.

I think the hard left in Ireland, a very small constituency, can distort public perceptions and queer the pitch for the softer left.

Het-Field

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I agree that Ulick McEvaddy is also unreasonable. I think the idea of behaviour being honourable is beyond his comprehension.

Higgins is an old-fashioned Marxist socialist who eschews Stalinism. But he is quite unrealistic about what can work in today's world.

I don't think the left should be regarded as exclusively the domain of those who advocate state ownership; it's a broader church than that. While mike65 says that "Labour don't count these days", you find many people posting here who do regard Labour as socialist (most often, posters whose sentiment appears to be right wing). I don't think that the Irish Labour Party is particularly socialist, but I think it is on the left in Irish politics. If you want somebody much further left than Labour, Richard Boyd-Barrett springs to mind: I think he has a broader, deeper, and less simplistically doctrinaire view than Joe's.

I think the hard left in Ireland, a very small constituency, can distort public perceptions and queer the pitch for the softer left.

The problem resides with the mass divisions in the hard left. Take Dublin South Central in the 2007 General Election. Candidates from the Workers Party, the People Before Profit Alliance, annd Independent Socialist (Joan Collins) all ran against each other. Between this hard left alliance over 4,000 votes were racked up. This hard left alliance also had to contend with two Labour Party candidates (with Eric Byrne being one of the most left wing activists in The Labour party) , and Aengus O Snodaigh of Sinn Fein (need we say more). With the exception of the Workers Party, all managed to, individually, beat both PD candidates, while Collins outflanked the Fine Gael Running mate. As such, it is quite conceivable that a Hard Left Candidate could be elected, if the division between the sides are repudiated. If the Independent Socialist Network, and Socialist Party decided to be quite difficult in 2012, then the swing to the left in DSC could be completely blown to pieces.

The left need to find peace, and unite, or alternatively they will remain subsets of the one ideology, and will lose any chance of making an impact.

silverharp

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I agree that Ulick McEvaddy is also unreasonable. I think the idea of behaviour being honourable is beyond his comprehension.

Higgins is an old-fashioned Marxist socialist who eschews Stalinism. But he is quite unrealistic about what can work in today's world.

I don't think the left should be regarded as exclusively the domain of those who advocate state ownership; it's a broader church than that. While mike65 says that "Labour don't count these days", you find many people posting here who do regard Labour as socialist (most often, posters whose sentiment appears to be right wing). I don't think that the Irish Labour Party is particularly socialist, but I think it is on the left in Irish politics. If you want somebody much further left than Labour, Richard Boyd-Barrett springs to mind: I think he has a broader, deeper, and less simplistically doctrinaire view than Joe's.

I think the hard left in Ireland, a very small constituency, can distort public perceptions and queer the pitch for the softer left.

When anyone from the left speaks , all I hear is dont cut, leave state monopolies alone , expand social welfare. Its like listening to a whiney teenager asking for more money from his parents. I guess most people know they dont have any credability.

P. Breathnach

silverharp wrote: »

When anyone from the left speaks , all I hear is dont cut, leave state monopolies alone , expand social welfare. Its like listening to a whiney teenager asking for more money from his parents. I guess most people know they dont have any credability.

That post supports my point about how the left is seen in Ireland.

lostexpectation

one offered his services to kidnap people one didn't

FTA69

I'd believe that most Irish working people would have a degree of goodwill toward Joe Higgins, at least on a personal level anyway. Despite disagreeing with Trotskyism and the Socialist Party's flawed analysis of the national liberations struggle here, I'd respect Higgins and a number of other Socialist Party members. Unlike many of the dogmatic left Higgins delivered the goods on a number of hard issues, the main one being the exposing of the shocking treatment of the GAMA workers.

That and he was the only one who was mixing it up in Leinster House.

Dasilva94

P. Breathnach wrote: »

That post supports my point about how the left is seen in Ireland.

Would you say it's an inaccurate view?
If so what is inaccurate about it?

Varkov

I dont like lefties being pandered to, but any debate needs both sides of an argument equally represented, otehrwise whats the point?

loobylou

mike65 wrote: »

Strange, who would the OP have on to represent the left? He is a socialist and what most of us understand to be a socialist. Labour don't count these days.

Seem to remember a fella called Bertie in Dublin Central saying he was a socialist!!

Mr.Micro

loobylou wrote: »

Seem to remember a fella called Bertie in Dublin Central saying he was a socialist!!

He probably meant it as "friendly".:D

bmaxi

Whatever you may think of Joe Higgins' politics, he always stuck by his principles. There are not many in Dáil Éireann who can make that claim and even fewer who have any principles to stick by.

nuttz

Mr Walsh,

It would seem to me that just because RTÉ didn't have Joan Burton on the radio, you think it is unfair (considering she has been on some form of media everyday for I don't know how long). What of the PWC report (I don't see any thread on that here)? Did you see the politics program on TV3, even the often biased Ursula couldn't swing a line for the opposition? Did you see how timid Leo Varadkar was on that program? The green spokeman on that program seemed to sum up all the parties pretty well, i.e. they are all implicated in the Anglo mess in some way or another.

(awaiting the onslaught of pedaling a party line...)

The_Minister

P. Breathnach wrote: »

On Pat Kenny's programme this morning, in order to have a balanced debate between left-wing and right-wing thinking, RTE has handed the left-wing torch to Joe Higgins. Yet again. He gets a lot of air-time.

Higgins has two good qualities for public life: the ability to plan and deliver some good lines, and the energy of a Duracell bunny. But if you want to destroy the credibility of left-wing politics in Ireland, all you need is make Joe their spokesman. He is the master of daft solutions.

Having just finished rereading ICTU's economic 'plan', I think he represents them quite well.

silverharp

nuttz wrote: »

Mr Walsh,

It would seem to me that just because RTÉ didn't have Joan Burton on the radio, you think it is unfair (considering she has been on some form of media everyday for I don't know how long).

I cant listen to her for more then 10 seconds , I'm glad she doesnt help out on the Samaritans phone line, the suicide rate would rocket.

ateam

bmaxi wrote: »

Whatever you may think of Joe Higgins' politics, he always stuck by his principles. There are not many in Dáil Éireann who can make that claim and even fewer who have any principles to stick by.

His principles get confused sometimes. He wants an increase in wages which will only lead to a reduction in employment which will contradict his aim of creating employment.

He supports the taxi drivers too, very opportunistic.

With regard to RTE conspiring against the Left, both Ulick and O'Higgins were just as bad as each other. Ireland needs a Centrist policy, no extremists either on the left or the right.

FTA69

Every party in Ireland is on the centre. Have a look at Italy or even Germany for an example of an actual left-right divide. The whole left-right thing is barely even a political cleavage in Ireland.

nesf

P. Breathnach wrote: »

On Pat Kenny's programme this morning, in order to have a balanced debate between left-wing and right-wing thinking, RTE has handed the left-wing torch to Joe Higgins. Yet again. He gets a lot of air-time.

Just to echo what others have said but the McEvaddy is just as unrepresentative of the less dogmatic right as Higgins is of the left. They're just putting in two extremists who are guaranteed to disagree with each other just for some drama.

P. Breathnach

nuttz wrote: »

Mr Walsh,

I imagine you mean to refer to me, even though that is not my name. I think it bad manners to refer to me by any other name than the one I use to identify myself here.

It would seem to me that just because RTÉ didn't have Joan Burton on the radio, you think it is unfair

I see no reasonable basis on which you can infer that.

What of the PWC report (I don't see any thread on that here)?

If you want it discussed, open a thread an put up views for consideration.

Did you see the politics program on TV3, even the often biased Ursula couldn't swing a line for the opposition? Did you see how timid Leo Varadkar was on that program? The green spokeman on that program seemed to sum up all the parties pretty well, i.e. they are all implicated in the Anglo mess in some way or another.

No, I didn't see it. Does that make me a worse person? What evidence did the "green spokesman" adduce?

(awaiting the onslaught of pedaling a party line...)

I don't have a party line to peddle. I am not a member of any party, nor have I given support to any party other than in the form of a vote. If I were a party member or activist, I would have disclosed that.

P. Breathnach

nesf wrote: »

Just to echo what others have said but the McEvaddy is just as unrepresentative of the less dogmatic right as Higgins is of the left. They're just putting in two extremists who are guaranteed to disagree with each other just for some drama.

I sure picked the wrong day to make my observation.

In mitigation, I did not hear the start of the programme: Joe Higgins was introduced within a minute or so of my turning on the radio. I missed most of McEvaddy's contribution. Of course, as the day wore on I heard more and more of it. He made Higgins seem like a moderate.

nesf

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I sure picked the wrong day to make my observation.

In mitigation, I did not hear the start of the programme: Joe Higgins was introduced within a minute or so of my turning on the radio. I missed most of McEvaddy's contribution. Of course, as the day wore on I heard more and more of it. He made Higgins seem like a moderate.

Yup, old Joe is a rational centrist compared to McEvaddy.

Dotsie~tmp

McEvaddy and Higgins both wheeled on to give vaguely amusing sound bites. Axe grinding which nobody actually listens to. I hope.

newtlover

the way rte have treated that scumbag bertie over the years was a disgrace

they should be shut down

DublinWriter

Although I dismiss most of Joe Higgins policies as being too left-wing and naive, I respect him and his party for two reasons:

a) When he was a TD, he only accepted the national industrial wage as payment and donated the balance of his TD salary to charity.

b) I personally know many who work in his party, including one Brian Greene. I ran into Brian in a Maxol garage many years ago late on a rainy Friday night in Dublin. After a tough day at his day-job, and getting his (by now!) numerous kids fed, washed and to bed, he was off to meet with a bunch of Polish workers who were being exploited and being paid far below the minimum wage by a large Irish company.

While I disagree with their policies, they have integrity and commitment in my book.

bmaxi

ateam wrote: »

His principles get confused sometimes. He wants an increase in wages which will only lead to a reduction in employment which will contradict his aim of creating employment.

He supports the taxi drivers too, very opportunistic.

I would regard those as aims rather than principles.
What I'm saying is, he isnt two faced or speaking out of the side of his mouth. What you see is what you get, unlike the usual creeping, fawning hypocrites who toe the line whatever their personal convictions may be.

The Raven.

The Pat Kenny Show with Ulick McEvaddy has already made it into the Wikipedia. Apparently callers to the show thought it was some kind of joke, and said that McEvaddy should ‘consider a career in comedy.’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulick_McEvaddy

In light of what has happened at the Anglo Irish Bank, what kind of ‘principles’ can this man have? He said he would have done the same as the wreckless scoundrels he calls ‘heroes’, if he was invited .

FTA69

DublinWriter wrote: »

a) When he was a TD, he only accepted the national industrial wage as payment and donated the balance of his TD salary to charity.

I'm nearly positive the rest of that money is given to the Socialist Party, not a charity. The Sinn Féin TDs take the average industrial wage as well.