Margaret Thatcher-Ireland needs you!

Permabear · 06-03-2009 5:03pm #1

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Pherekydes · 06-03-2009 5:07pm

But she's nearly dead?!

Sir Oxman · 06-03-2009 5:08pm

You can fcuk right off.
Apologies to members of this forum.

nesf · 06-03-2009 5:13pm

There's no need for that, apologising to the rest of the forum doesn't excuse it.

nesf · 06-03-2009 5:14pm

She's also got no short term memory now, but I don't think he was actually looking to wheel her back out for one last hurrah.

irish_bob · 06-03-2009 5:15pm

I HEAR YA BROTHER

Permabear · 06-03-2009 5:16pm

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deadhead13 · 06-03-2009 5:17pm

Most commentaters cite thatcherism and reaganomics as the root cause of the the current global economic meltdown. Thatcher is the problem not the answer.

Permabear · 06-03-2009 5:22pm

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nesf · 06-03-2009 5:22pm

Which commentators?

Pherekydes · 06-03-2009 5:22pm

Oh, right. Thatcherite rabid greed-is-good policies led directly to the type of 'creative' accounting practices in the pursuit of filthy lucre and hence, to the ****hole we find ourselves in at the mo.

Her, and Reagan's, policies led individuals to the pursuit of personal profit at the expense of the greater good.

They are the last thing we need right now.

Cokehead Mother · 06-03-2009 5:22pm

Weren't they all for fiscal responsibility? Spend within your means, save for a rainy day and whatnot? I can't imagine Thatcher advocating mortgages six times the borrower's annual income...

ejmaztec · 06-03-2009 5:24pm

I suppose that the difference between her and Cowen is that she now forgets stuff, but Cowen doesn't forget what he didn't know in the first place.

I was under the Thatcher jack-boot in the UK and wouldn't recommend it

RayM · 06-03-2009 5:25pm

Damn right! The poor and socialists are to blame for this crisis.

As loony threads go, this one is barely a step above the monotonously frequent "Join me in starting a new political party" rallying call. Teh Interweb - it brings 'em all out...

johnnyc · 06-03-2009 5:26pm

I have to agree with you someone like thatcher would be ideal in the situation we are in get rid of the farce of semi state bodies esb,bord gas etc and to challenge the unions in the public sector, with substantial pay cuts and to pay towards there pensions

jimmmy · 06-03-2009 5:28pm

I agree. Someone to stand up to the unions. Someone to run the country like a business... someone to balance income with expenditure. We cannot keep on borrowing or spending 24% more than we earn. A house / business or country cannot go on like that.

Permabear · 06-03-2009 5:29pm

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ParkRunner · 06-03-2009 5:29pm

The social partners are just being ignored from the looks of things anyway. Over 100,000 people protested but FF are still going to do it their way. The mini budget should be announced about the time of the strike on March 30th so it seems the government are at last doing something.

The strike itself like the last one will probably result in no changes, in fact the government will be happy to have a day off from paying wages. Income tax increases (hopefully in a fairer manner than the pension levy) and a cut in social welfare are a must. Petrol, booze and cigarettes are also bound to be hit but I doubt people can afford to spend money on such luxury items anyway so the tax in-take will be negligible.

I was happy too to hear Mary Hanfin speak of a focus on social welfare fraud to stop welfare tourism. It is the greediness in this country which has brought it to its knees.

Pherekydes · 06-03-2009 5:30pm

And wasn't Haughey? While he himself bought his Charvet shirts in Paris. Fiscal responsibility without regulation is meaningless. We are now reaping the full 'benefit' of right wing policies of the 80's.

OhNoYouDidn't · 06-03-2009 5:30pm

This is all based on the immature supposition that Ireland is a socialist state.

The idea that the reasons we are in the mess we are in is socialistic in nature (a property bubble, unregulated banking sector, too much money being lent, financial engineering) is offensively wrong.

If the Irish right are not right wing enough for you, thats fine. Please stop calling them socialist.

is_that_so · 06-03-2009 5:31pm

Like Haughey, Thatcher occupies that limbo between good things that were done and all the really unpalatable stuff. In some ways Thatcher was a sweeping brush that shook the archaic mixture of Victorian industrial relations and the pseudo revolutionaries that the seventies turned out. She also took on the miners and broke them , a dubious episode in my view, but in all of that had the gall to start a war to win an election. She was also part of what eventually became the Anglo-Irish agreement. Whatever else she may have done she had an absolute belief not only in herself but also in her ability to carry it out, something she exercised with utter ruthlessness. Sadly there's ne'er a one on this side of the pond that could claim anything like that in any of the parties. These days a decision is run through three spin doctors, social partners, RTE and then leaked so that the government can back-pedal and claim they never meant to do it anyway.

OhNoYouDidn't · 06-03-2009 5:31pm

Interesting that you picked on two private companies in ESB and Bord Gais.....

deadhead13 · 06-03-2009 5:32pm

What, You haven't heard that being expressed over the past year?

The death of reaganomics and thatcherism has pretty much been the theme of the coverage of the credit crunch.

OhNoYouDidn't · 06-03-2009 5:33pm

Come on, even the Wall Street Journal wrote an obituary for neo liberal economics, and even DonegalFella can't call them socialist.

Permabear · 06-03-2009 5:35pm

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ParkRunner · 06-03-2009 5:35pm

Which are exempt from the pension levy!

http://www.finance.gov.ie/documents/publications/other/2009/faqlevy4mar09.pdf

RayM · 06-03-2009 5:36pm

Has anyone suggested Michael O'Leary as a possible Taoiseach yet? Come on - it has to happen. It's that kind of thread.

Permabear · 06-03-2009 5:36pm

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Mena · 06-03-2009 5:37pm

I've got to agree with Donegalfella here, we need someone to kick the snot out of the unions first and foremost. Can't see much progress being made until then.

Thing is, does such a person even exist in Ireland? Not like anyone would ever vote Michael O'Leary in

P. Breathnach · 06-03-2009 5:38pm

It is good to see that even in times of such economic gloom the Irish liking for gallows humour is still with us.

This new saviour would see off the coal miners. There'll be trouble in Arigna and Castlecomer.

06-03-2009 5:39pm

even the mention of that womans name :mad:

Permabear · 06-03-2009 5:40pm

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cherrypicker555 · 06-03-2009 5:42pm

Its unsustanable, the dole is more then the UK minimum wage after tax, dole in the republic for an adult is 200 euro, dole in the UK is 55 pounds a week.

Teachers and guards are taking home 12OO Euros a week, as I said it cannot be sustained.

Even the army is the best paid in Europe, 80percent of its budget goes on wages, pensions and compo.

Soon 20 percent will be on the dole.

UK minimum wage.

For workers aged 22 years and older

* £5.52 per hour before tax

Dole in the republic is 200 euros a week.

OhNoYouDidn't · 06-03-2009 5:45pm

Thats not a definition of socialist.

Sure the US Federal budget is $2.9tn. Does that make them approx 400 times more socialist?

That has to be the weakest political definition ever.

A large chunk of that is bailing out a failed property lending bank. That aint socialist, thats crony capitalism.

No, its what happens when the financial market is left unregulated. That is neo-liberalism and it created a good old fashioned capitalist bust.

And a Republican. And a Catholic. And. And. And.

I seriously hope you are on a wind up.

johnnyc · 06-03-2009 5:45pm

give me a link that says esb is a private company?
I have it from another source

The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) is a semi-state electricity company in the Republic of Ireland. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concern in a liberalised and competitive market

heres the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_Supply_Board

Permabear · 06-03-2009 5:51pm

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Capt'n Midnight · 06-03-2009 5:55pm

Is there a need to kill off what's left of our manufacturing industry ?

Do we want interest rates of 17% ?

Do we need someone to piss through billions worth of oil and gas , look at Scotland ?

Do we need the suicide rate in economically depressed areas to be massively increased ?

Do we need to start a war before negocitations have finished ?

Part of Maggies legacy was to leave the conservative party unelectable for a generation. Lots of corruption there. And look at how well the party continues to do in Scotland or Wales. The rich benefited more than the poor, we don't need that.

Unions here haven't gone on strike in 20 years, and in the present climate when everyone realises there is no money they are unlikely to.

ParkRunner · 06-03-2009 5:59pm

Regardless of what the unions do, the cuts will be made. It is only the CPSU who have gone on strike so far, the lowest paid civil service workers. The unions are the ones too fighting SR Technics to provide a decent redundancy package to those due to lose their jobs in the coming weeks.

Sir Oxman · 06-03-2009 6:13pm

As others have succinctly pointed out, Thatchers legacy was nothing but utter greed and divisiveness in Britain, maybe the OP has had his wish already in this country.

Yes, we need strong leadership, we've needed it over the past twenty years but found the dominant clan in this country very, very wanting as did the British with her ilk.

What we most definitely do not need is a despotic, megalomaniac on a personal mission to ultimately lead us down the old, same path again* (and that's all she ever did to our nearest neighbour - a grubby, greedy, mean-spirited auld harridan)

*we are already at the end of the same road she paved, we don't need or want version 2.0a

Soldie · 06-03-2009 6:39pm

We certainly need someone to stop the rot.

We have a bloated and overpaid public sector.
We have a an extremely generous dole.
We have a cripplingly high minimum wage.

This, along with unlimited other examples of gross misspending of public funds.

To take two very recent examples:

1) Prime Time recently did a piece on FÁS funding a 'Meals on Wheels' service in Castlebar - but the reality was that the service was completely inefficient and a large portion of the funding was lining the pockets of a corrupt former FÁS official. Why is our tax money funding this?

2) Noel Dempsey's recent aviation experience drew attention to the fact that the Air Corps is being used as a private taxi service for government ministers. If helicopter transportation is a necessity, then a private company could private the same service for a fraction of the cost. Why is our tax money funding this?

If misspending of funds is permeating through to this 'trivial' level, then I don't consider it tenuous to assume that it's rampant and is happening practically everywhere the government is sticking it's nose 'for the greater good'.

It seems to be that everything the government has a hand in is run inefficiently, with funds misspent. This has always been true, but is more noticeable now because we're completely skint and don't have the overflowing 'Celtic Tiger' coffers to cover it up.

It's perverse that our government's priority is to milk more money from the public to fund this inefficiency, as opposed to stopping the inefficiencies first.

We need to limit the government's ability to meddle, or this cycle of boom-bust cycle coupled with gross misspending will only continue ad infinitum.

P. Breathnach · 06-03-2009 6:45pm

Prime Time did not allege, let alone prove, that funds went into lining anybody's pockets.

Soldie · 06-03-2009 6:54pm

My apologies for the inaccuracy - I was going large by my memory and should have double-checked that. I still contend, though, that funds were misspent - i.e. funds were provided for a service that in reality was not provided.

dlofnep · 06-03-2009 6:59pm

Ireland needs Maggie Thatcher about as much as Ireland needs convertible cars.

Permabear · 06-03-2009 7:08pm

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06-03-2009 7:11pm

Did you fall asleep on the :rolleyes: button?

cm2000 · 06-03-2009 7:14pm

at least then we can charge the public service a toilet levy

Camac Hibs · 06-03-2009 7:26pm

Appeasement of the Socialists? In Ireland?! Give us a break.

Its thatcher and her likes laissez-faire every man for himself anarcho-capitalism that has got us into the fine mess we are in today. We can and should have higher aspirations for ourselves as a species.

aare · 06-03-2009 7:34pm

Whatever one might say about the current Government, I am personally satisfied that sacrificing people and institutions to the amibitions of a woman with senile dementia, and a bad haircut, would not represent a significant improvement.

Permabear · 06-03-2009 7:47pm

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Camac Hibs · 06-03-2009 7:50pm

Nonsense - thats just dogma.

Permabear · 06-03-2009 7:52pm

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Margaret Thatcher-Ireland needs you!

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