David Norris

Grudaire

I quite enjoyed David Norris on Campus, did many other boardsies go to see him!?

Not sure I'd trust his economic policies, but he's great to listen to. How did the Q&A go, I had to leave before it started..

myk

Cliste wrote: »

I quite enjoyed David Norris on Campus, did many other boardsies go to see him!?

Not sure I'd trust his economic policies, but he's great to listen to. How did the Q&A go, I had to leave before it started..

What were his economic policies?

Grudaire

It was along the 'nice idea' route of economic thought. Stuff like taking nama land and giving the unemployed plots so that they could grow stuff.

Wolfe Tone

I miss everything, didn't even know this was on til it was over.


Did anyone ask him about his view on the men of 1916, seeing as if he becomes president he would have to oversee the 2016 celebrations? Potential conflict there as I believe he views them as terrorists, but would like confirmation of that.

Polarity

In regards to the Q&A, he gave an awesome little speech when someone asked him about his views on the US and how they would affect US-Ireland relations if he became president.

He basically said that he loves America and it's culture, but that the government under Bush were war criminals, particularly Cheney and Rumsfeld. He was really pleased with Wikileaks' recent release of Iraq war documents, and thought it was a shame that the US were critisizing it.

He got quite the round of applause for that.

rigumagoo

I went expecting a layout of the political and economic beliefs of one of the main contenders for the forthcoming presidential election.
What I got was a 45 minute lecture on this history of the Irish gay civil rights movement.
When he finally got down to business, Mr. Norris announced his support for nationalizing all major banks, confiscating their land and redistributing it to poor and homeless people. He then went on to chastise ratings agencies for giving Ireland the poor credit rating it absolutely deserves. This sort of ignorance of basic economics and callous disregard for property rights completely obliterated any interest I may have had in voting for him.
It's a shame too, because Norris is a very charismatic and likable individual. Notwithstanding, I simply could not have someone with economic views like this acting as the representative of my country to foreign heads of state and news outlets.
-
He also referred to Chinese people as 'chinks' after spending ten minutes lecturing us on why he finds the word 'queer' so offensive.

wonderfulname

rigumagoo wrote: »

I went expecting a layout of the political and economic beliefs of one of the main contenders for the forthcoming presidential election.
What I got was a 45 minute lecture on this history of the Irish gay civil rights movement.

You do realise it was an LGBT organised talk? He was simply speaking within the boundaries laid out to him at the start.

rigumagoo wrote: »

When he finally got down to business, Mr. Norris announced his support for nationalizing all major banks, confiscating their land and redistributing it to poor and homeless people. He then went on to chastise ratings agencies for giving Ireland the poor credit rating it absolutely deserves. This sort of ignorance of basic economics and callous disregard for property rights completely obliterated any interest I may have had in voting for him.

He actually said that that had been his stance at the start of this whole fiasco, and that he was trusting lenihan though feared he may be wrong to. He voiced a half baked idea that using some of the land which through default would become property of the state in that instance to allow the unemployed do something with themselves would be beneficial, which yes is a pansy idea but its being done already I've come across alot of allotments in old sites in the south inner city.
To be honest I dont think much of the opinion of a person who translates unemployed as poor and homeless but anyway..

rigumagoo wrote: »

It's a shame too, because Norris is a very charismatic and likable individual. Notwithstanding, I simply could not have someone with economic views like this acting as the representative of my country to foreign heads of state and news outlets.

I have never heard David Norris speak as he did at that talk, the conclusion I have come to is he was "speaking at our level". He is not going to talk to dignitaries like that, for every audience there is a different register.

rigumagoo wrote: »

He also referred to Chinese people as 'chinks' after spending ten minutes lecturing us on why he finds the word 'queer' so offensive.

He is of an age that for the majority of his life chinese people were called chinks and there was nothing offensive meant, he also gave quite a long winded apology.
Somebody asked him about his feelings on the word "gay" being used as an insult, he mused that the word queer was more of an insult, and someone responded hence dragging out that particular topic. If your going to give out about something, give out about it, and not your own edited version of affairs.

phantom_lord

rigumagoo wrote: »

I simply could not have someone with economic views like this acting as the representative of my country to foreign heads of state and news outlets.

He's running for president; his understanding of economics is pretty irrelevent for that role tbf.