Do you vote for your area or for your country?

wylo

It occurred to me from reading through some posts here that its possible that most people, including myself use their vote to vote for a party and not for their local politician who they trust most to do a good job.

But I know this isnt the case country wide because FFs success seems to stem from the success of the politicians 'on the ground'. My example is Willie O Dea. To watch him on television is emarrassing, and you know the rest of the country is watching without knowing why he is so popular. The truth is he is a fantastic local politician. It seems he will put his own people first, he is very contactable , and I have countless stories of him sorting out people with problems they have, from the likes of traffic light problems to people being denied social welfare.(Im not canvassing for him btw lol)

Anyway I will not be voting for FF in the next election, I never have done so, although I did indirectly by voting for greens, something I wont be doing again. But I have to admit it can be hard to avoid voting certain politicians because of the party there in.

Is there many people here that would vote a party they didnt want in because of politicians merits locally?

leitrim lad

for god sake poor old willie is in ff and he is there to stay and he might even make taoiseach

just vote ff and keep the country afloat, none of the rest of them have any policies anyway so theres no point in voting in someone whos twice as bad as whats already there, that would only make things worse than they already are.

Iwasfrozen

for god sake poor old willie is in ff and he is there to stay and he might even make taoiseach

just vote ff and keep the country afloat, none of the rest of them have any policies anyway so theres no point in voting in someone whos twice as bad as whats already there, that would only make things worse than they already are.

^ And here children, is a fine example of why this country is in a mess to begin with. :mad:

mikemac

Michael Lowry delivers for Tipp North but has a bad national reputation, probably on boards too. Will top the poll for years to come though

Does far more then the FF junior minister on the ground.
I don't know much about the FG backbencher, from the other side of the constituency.

RiverWilde

I vote for my country. Blind party loyalty has this country in the state it's in. This generates arrogance and corruption amonst politicans of a certain party in power. I wonder which one? Anyway, their record has been abysmal. So I won't be voting for them in the next elections. Hopefully nobody else will vote for them either.

Riv

leitrim lad

well river wild

there is as much corruption in fg, labour, and the greens as there is in ff,

and sf are built on corruption and violence

how many cheques did trevor sargent get ,and he made no secret of it either , he showed them to people before he cashed them

jimmycrackcorm

Beverly Flynn and Jim McDaid - two more politicians voted for local likeability.

RiverWilde

leitrim lad wrote: »

well river wild

there is as much corruption in fg, labour, and the greens as there is in ff,

and sf are built on corruption and violence

how many cheques did trevor sargent get ,and he made no secret of it either , he showed them to people before he cashed them

Mmmm, how many of them have been in power? Lets see, greens go into power with FF. That's their credibility shot to hell. Lets have another minister for lightbulbs.

Have labour and FG been in power of late? Eh, no.

Funny how the party caught with it's hands in the cookie jar so many times goes, well they're just as bad as we are. Sounds just a bit childish.

Riv

leitrim lad

em that was long before they got into power

and sargent made no secret that he was getting well looked after by his eco friendly developers, he produced the bloody cheqe at a dail meeting looking to know where he could get it cashed

because the dail bar was closed

Pride Fighter

wylo wrote: »

It occurred to me from reading through some posts here that its possible that most people, including myself use their vote to vote for a party and not for their local politician who they trust most to do a good job.

But I know this isnt the case country wide because FFs success seems to stem from the success of the politicians 'on the ground'. My example is Willie O Dea. To watch him on television is emarrassing, and you know the rest of the country is watching without knowing why he is so popular. The truth is he is a fantastic local politician. It seems he will put his own people first, he is very contactable , and I have countless stories of him sorting out people with problems they have, from the likes of traffic light problems to people being denied social welfare.(Im not canvassing for him btw lol)

Anyway I will not be voting for FF in the next election, I never have done so, although I did indirectly by voting for greens, something I wont be doing again. But I have to admit it can be hard to avoid voting certain politicians because of the party there in.

Is there many people here that would vote a party they didnt want in because of politicians merits locally?

Wllie O'Dea is not good on the ground, well he is and he isnt. The taxpayer pays for his constituency clinic helpers who help the people of Limerick. O'Dea has more than most, 6 helpers paid by you and me the taxpayer.

Pride Fighter

RiverWilde wrote: »

Mmmm, how many of them have been in power? Lets see, greens go into power with FF. That's their credibility shot to hell. Lets have another minister for lightbulbs.

Have labour and FG been in power of late? Eh, no.

Funny how the party caught with it's hands in the cookie jar so many times goes, well they're just as bad as we are. Sounds just a bit childish.

Riv

FG are rotten to the core in terms of corruption. Just look at Michael Lowry. But as you said they have not been in power of late.

But look at the end period of the Celtic Tiger economy, 2004-2008. The growth we had was attributed to shoddy building zoning deals and local level corruption in the County Councils. FG have nearly the same number councillors as FF. They were responsible for the economic mess the same as FF, but no one brings this up for some reason.

leitrim lad

pride fighter

the truest words i ever heard

RiverWilde

LMAO What is this? Tag team posting? LMAO

Ye still haven't gotten past the fact that FF are corrupt and have done nothing about it whilst in power. The sooner they are out of power the better.

Riv

leitrim lad

yes thats your opinion but you dont realise that ,if ff go out , you dont actually have anyone else who is fit to run a country, all they are any good at is throwing snarky comments at ff ministers

the opposition has no policies, and no capabilities what so ever to run a country thats why they are in opposition.

look what happened the last time fg got into power ,1 good year and they stepped down ,why you ask ,

well firstly because they bankrupted the country in their first 9 months in power,

secondly they doubled the national debt in good times for no apparent reason,

and thirdly they had no proper leader themselves let alone leed a country,

SeanW

Pride Fighter wrote: »

FG are rotten to the core in terms of corruption. Just look at Michael Lowry. But as you said they have not been in power of late.

One corrupt politician, who was promptly expelled from the party and was not welcomed back.

Compare that to FF (a whole cadre of dodgy politicians plus a known link to the property developers, their behaviour towards Bevery Cooper Flynn etc) and, well, it's difficult to make a comparison between FF and FG - or at least a comparison that is not logically bankrupt.

lmtduffy

leitrim lad wrote: »

well river wild

there is as much corruption in fg, labour, and the greens as there is in ff,

and sf are built on corruption and violence

how many cheques did trevor sargent get ,and he made no secret of it either , he showed them to people before he cashed them

links to labours corrupt activities?

Oh and here labour policy http://www.labour.ie/policy/

Davidth88

To get back to the OP's point , rather than sniping at each other ....

I lived/voted in a different country , with a different system for 30 years. There you really voted for your country ( even in the local elections ! ). And you never saw the local MP/Cllrs between elections , you certainly would not dream of phoning him/her up because of a problem with the traffic lights.

I have noticed here that politics is really very local , people contact their local TD/Cllr for almost anything , I have even done it !

I think this also leaves TDs/Cllrs open to corruption more , partly because they are more accessable , partly because they seem to have a huge say in things like local land zonings etc .

There are certain TD's who I am surprised get a vote from anyone , however they continue to get in because they do a hell of a lot of work ' on the ground ' therefore people like them. However ( and I am talking Ministers here ) they are obviously out of their depth in National politics and should stick to local issues !