Would Constantin Gurdiev make a good politician?

Butch Cassidy

In the latest issue of Village Magazine Gurdiev has put froward a programme for reform based on rightist ideas.

Here's some of them :

Agenda for reform: a rightist programme.



Changes to political and governance systems

Transparency, accountability and social partnership

The core changes to the political and governance systems must put transparency and accountability to the front. This will require the creation of systems of disclosure and control that are not susceptible to being tampered with by individual office holders. It also requires ending Social Partnership – delegating all authority and responsibility for developing, implementing and monitoring economic and social policies solely to the Legislative and Executive branches of the State.

In terms of transparency, the default setting must be public disclosure and unrestricted free access to all data not subject to State-secrecy considerations. Sensitive data should be published – with the exclusion, if necessary, of sensitive information and identifiers until the time when it can be published in full.

Accountability requires that performance and productivity metrics should be designed and refined through experience for all branches of the public sector. All earnings in the public sector should be linked to individual productivity.


Stop the Government providing services
Reforms should include the separation of the provider of services from the supplier of services. This means that the Irish State should aim to be a purchaser of services, e.g. healthcare and care for the disabled, for those who cannot afford them. But the State should not own service-providers. Instead, public services can be supplied by mutual, private for-profit or non-profit providers. Transition to such an arrangement will require significant training and logistical support for current employees.

Changes to fiscal systems

There is a need to rebalance the burden of taxation in the economy to deliver on three core objectives. First, the taxation system should be fair, transparent and protected from abuse. Second, it should involve participation from all agents in the economy. Third, it should not attempt to pick winners and leave in its wake the losers.

Income and corporation taxes
With these objectives in mind, I would suggest adoption of a flat-rate income-tax with a single personal standard deduction plus a children’s allowance, potentially linked to the level of unemployment benefits. All discretionary tax-breaks should be removed, including any tax incentives for farming and any other economic activity. Non-residency limits should be set to reflect the needs of Irish citizens working abroad and commuting home – e.g. a maximum 124 days annually to cover all weekends plus standard vacation. A move to a single rate income and corporate tax would deliver full equalisation in taxation between workers, entrepreneurs and businesses.

Indirect taxes
The existing Byzantine system of indirect taxes and levies should be simplified so that all such charges should be based on ‘the user pays’ principle and be fully ring-fenced to cover the cost of the service provided and to mitigate adverse externalities (e.g. environmental degradation etc) generated by these services.

Welfare
There is a need for strong, but life-time capped, welfare provisions. This would provide sufficient insurance cover for all able-bodied working-age adults to a cumulative maximum of 7 years over a life-time. Provision of welfare supports to those unable to work due to health or family circumstances (e.g caring for a disabled relative etc) should be exempt from life-time limits.
The basic social-insurance pension reform should ensure that the elderly are covered by a sufficient safety net, but that the working-age individuals are also encouraged to privately invest in their pensions.

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Apparently Gurdiev is hated in govt. circles and considering he's been a prominent figure in media constantly criticising them on their policies it's not hard to see why.

Morgan Kelly has predicted we'll see the rise of a right-wing group and history does tend to show that during crisis/recessions there does be a split of ineffectual populism that leaves everybody fairly unhappy - we saw the PD's rise during Ireland's last recession that had much political turmoil - which might give way to a traditional left/right divide.

Constantin is a charismatic figure, angry taxpayer, middle class..... it's hard to see how many could not connect with him and his ideas. As far as I remember he was linked to Ganley & Libertas. So with lots of complaint about the lack of "leadership" or quality figures telling the truth could Constantin step up to the plate?

I suppose there could be the George Lee factor and many will have felt burned by that experience anyway but I think Gurdiev is more focused (and angry) than Lee. Couldn't see how he would fit in to any of the current parties tbh.

As someone more interested in "left" ideas to do with equality I actually think a more honest approach put forward by CG could be welcome to Irish politics because the current glut of false promises can't go on surely? At some point people will surely realise that being sold the sun, moon & stars policy of "low taxes & quality services" is just not possible.

Tim Robbins

As someone more interested in "left" ideas to do with equality I actually think a more honest approach put forward by CG could be welcome to Irish politics because the current glut of false promises can't go on surely? At some point people will surely realise that being sold the sun, moon & stars policy of "low taxes & quality services" is just not possible.

Constantine is a superb thinker. But he does not have the patience for politics. He'd be good under a list system or as an official adviser.

thebman

He tells like it is (i.e. unelectable in Ireland).

He should say he'll increase unemployment benefit by 90% in 3 years based on magical growth figures to run for office in Ireland.

I don't think he wants to be a politician either TBH.

ei.sdraob

he doesnt know Irish, thats him and people like him ruled out of politics here...

he tells things as is, we cant have that in our politicians big picture thinking does not get one elected, fixing potholes on the other hand...

irishh_bob

read an article about him in the irish times a few weeks back in which it described him as never making the slightest effort to dumb down or make his area of expertise more accessible to the masses , listening to david mc williams is easy , you have to work hard when constantin is speaking and i dont just mean in terms of his thick ( james bond like ) russian accent

love the guy , you could only have guys like him in goverment under a list system

bring it on

nesf

He's too far to the right I think to be particularly electable. Irish voters seem to heavily favour the centre, just look at Labour's stead march rightwards over the past 15 years for example.

mikemac

He'll have to serve his time on the back benches

Doubt he would do it

Slideshowbob

Listening to him on News last night I thought he would make a great politician.

Seems to know what he is talking about. Imagine him as Min for Finance?!!!

kaiser sauze

He tells it like it is, so, no; we can't have the natives becoming informed now, can we?

Monty Burnz

kaiser sauze wrote: »

He tells it like it is, so, no; we can't have the natives becoming informed now, can we?

+1 exactly

He's the exact antithesis to Fianna Failure - he's intelligent, educated, good at his job and he tells the truth. On the other hand he probably wouldn't try to get favourable treatment for a rapist in prison, or some social welfare for someone who shouldn't be getting it.

In summary, the Fianna Failure voting morons of this country wouldn't vote for him in a fit.

ISAW

kaiser sauze wrote: »

He tells it like it is, so, no; we can't have the natives becoming informed now, can we?

I don't think he is an Irish citizen. That would mean he is ineligible for national politics.

kaiser sauze

ISAW wrote: »

I don't think he is an Irish citizen. That would mean he is ineligible for national politics.

We are not discussing his citizenship.

ISAW

kaiser sauze wrote: »

We are not discussing his citizenship.

As far as I know if you want to get elected nationally in Ireland you have to be an Irish citizen. Otherwise we are in the "Arnie for President" territory where a constitutional change is necessary.

kaiser sauze

ISAW wrote: »

As far as I know if you want to get elected nationally in Ireland you have to be an Irish citizen. Otherwise we are in the "Arnie for President" territory where a constitutional change is necessary.

Like I said, we are not discussing his citizenship, please desist from derailing the topic.

ISAW

kaiser sauze wrote: »

Like I said, we are not discussing his citizenship, please desist from derailing the topic.

Im not derailing the topic.
The topic is whether he would be a good politician in Ireland. I'm just pointing out that if he isn't an Irish citizen it is about as usefull as discussing whether Arnold Schwarzenegger would be a good US President. He can't be without changing the constitution! AS such constitutional change is germane to the topic since that would be necessary to enable him to take up such a national elected office.

Kiki10

ei.sdraob wrote: »

he doesnt know Irish, thats him and people like him ruled out of politics here...

he tells things as is, we cant have that in our politicians big picture thinking does not get one elected, fixing potholes on the other hand...

Jez at this stage ill vote for cowen to fix the nasty pothole outside my door!:rolleyes:

kaiser sauze

ISAW wrote: »

Im not derailing the topic.
The topic is whether he would be a good politician in Ireland. I'm just pointing out that if he isn't an Irish citizen it is about as usefull as discussing whether Arnold Schwarzenegger would be a good US President. He can't be without changing the constitution! AS such constitutional change is germane to the topic since that would be necessary to enable him to take up such a national elected office.

OK, since you just want to break down a topic to semantics, I am simply going to ignore you from now throughout this topic. If you cannot understand why you are derailing the topic, that is your deficiency.

Kiki10

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Listening to him on News last night I thought he would make a great politician.

Seems to know what he is talking about. Imagine him as Min for Finance?!!!

He'd be right up there with George Lee.... We need a method where politicians interpret what the people want, into required outcomes and give those plans for outcomes to people like these brain box's who can design plans to be implemented by the civil service.

Before anyone goes on about the staff requirements let me remind you 30% of the HSE have no clue what there job description is![Prof Drumm]
The numbers dint matter as much as the waste.

ISAW

kaiser sauze wrote: »

OK, since you just want to break down a topic to semantics, I am simply going to ignore you from now throughout this topic. If you cannot understand why you are derailing the topic, that is your deficiency.

Suit yourself. If you want to just have academic "what if" discussions about things that can't happen in practice it isn't realpolitik is it?

You may as well ask "would George Bush make a good Taoiseach". It isn't something that can really happen under Irish law.

Now if you are going to ask whether his policies or his personality would be of benefit to irish politics then that is a different question.

But then you would have to list the particular policies or what personality traits you think are valid.

Monty Burnz

ISAW wrote: »

Suit yourself. If you want to just have academic "what if" discussions about things that can't happen in practice it isn't realpolitik is it?

You may as well ask "would George Bush make a good Taoiseach". It isn't something that can really happen under Irish law.

Now if you are going to ask whether his policies or his personality would be of benefit to irish politics then that is a different question.

But then you would have to list the particular policies or what personality traits you think are valid.

Look at the title ffs. It says 'would [he] make a good politician?' - it does not say 'would he make a good politician in Ireland. Admit your mistake with some grace.

kaiser sauze

Kiki10 wrote: »

He'd be right up there with George Lee.... We need a method where politicians interpret what the people want, into required outcomes and give those plans for outcomes to people like these brain box's who can design plans to be implemented by the civil service.

Before anyone goes on about the staff requirements let me remind you 30% of the HSE have no clue what there job description is![Prof Drumm]
The numbers dint matter as much as the waste.

I think George Lee had his chance and can eff off now.

If there are really that many people with no idea of their job description in there I am willing to bet that this is one thing he (Gurdyiev) would try to sort out very quickly!

Keith186

I read the first post in his voice in my head. Hail Constantin.

Regarding him as a politican I would say no in the current state. If there was a new clean slate with new parties and ideas I would say yes, he'd be perfect.

ISAW

Monty Burnz wrote: »

Look at the title ffs. It says 'would [he] make a good politician?' - it does not say 'would he make a good politician in Ireland. Admit your mistake with some grace.

I was quite clear I was referring to national politics in Ireland from the get go!
If you are going to say would anyone in particular make a good politician anywhere in the world at any timeit really is even more waffle than the Bush or Arnie example.

ISAW

kaiser sauze wrote: »

I think George Lee had his chance and can eff off now.

You mean eff off back to his 150k plus a year State Job at tax payers expense rather than his 100k a year job in the Dail?

If there are really that many people with no idea of their job description in there I am willing to bet that this is one thing he (Gurdyiev) would try to sort out very quickly!

Aha! But that would not require him to be elected!

nesf

ISAW wrote: »

As far as I know if you want to get elected nationally in Ireland you have to be an Irish citizen..

Yup, Irish citizen and over 21.

Butch Cassidy

Yeah I wasn't making a case for him standing in the next election per se. It was more a what if scenario.

Maybe Enda will take him on as advisor

P. Breathnach

We have a terrible political culture. The responsibility lies between the voters and the politicians, because we tend to vote for people for bad reasons and the politicians play along with that. It needs to be fixed, and if it were, we might get some better politicians; we might even end up with some of the same politicians, but have them operate in a different way.

But I dislike the idea of identifying people who are in the public eye, and determining that they would do a better job. In recent weeks we have had people advocating Michael O'Leary, David McWilliams, and various other illuminati, and now we get Constantin Gurdgiev. I have my doubts about their suitability.

Remember George Lee? That didn't work too well, did it?

It's not that long ago that Sean Fitzpatrick would have been regarded as a great gain had he transferred from running a bank to running a country.

LostinBlanch

kaiser sauze wrote: »

I think George Lee had his chance and can eff off now.

Damn right he can, IMO if he hadn't thrown his toys out of the pram and waited a couple of weeks until he retired then we would have a new government by now. FF fcuked up by not getting their numbers right for a money bill and needed the Ceann Comhairles vote to save them from an election. If Lee was there that would have been it, game over for FF. Election, new govt and an end to FF coverups with the banks etc.

Lee is also culpable for the situation we now find ourselves in.

Thanks George. :mad:

Kiki10

P. Breathnach wrote: »

We have a terrible political culture. The responsibility lies between the voters and the politicians, because we tend to vote for people for bad reasons and the politicians play along with that. It needs to be fixed, and if it were, we might get some better politicians; we might even end up with some of the same politicians, but have them operate in a different way.

But I dislike the idea of identifying people who are in the public eye, and determining that they would do a better job. In recent weeks we have had people advocating Michael O'Leary, David McWilliams, and various other illuminati, and now we get Constantin Gurdgiev. I have my doubts about their suitability.

Remember George Lee? That didn't work too well, did it?

It's not that long ago that Sean Fitzpatrick would have been regarded as a great gain had he transferred from running a bank to running a country.

The political system here is fine and a hell of a lot better than most country's inc the UK. Our big problem is we dont read the instruction leaflet before using our political machine. If we had listened to the Brains of the country like G Lee & E Hobbs etc 10 years ago we wouldn't need Gurdgiev's[valued] help today. The economy would have been cooled & regulated, if it was an election issue .
Sorry lads but we all told our politician's what we wanted and they gave it. Democracy means we are the decision makers. We will have to take responsibility some day for the running of our country via what is our vote.
The thing we can kill em for is mismanaging and lying about the problems in our country.

P. Breathnach

Kiki10 wrote: »

The political system here is fine and a hell of a lot better than most country's inc the UK. Our big problem is we dont read the instruction leaflet before using our political machine....

I made no comment on the political system: I was critical of the political culture.

Dannyboy83

Kiki10 wrote: »

The political system here is fine and a hell of a lot better than most country's inc the UK. Our big problem is we dont read the instruction leaflet before using our political machine. If we had listened to the Brains of the country like G Lee & E Hobbs etc 10 years ago we wouldn't need Gurdgiev's[valued] help today. The economy would have been cooled & regulated, if it was an election issue .
Sorry lads but we all told our politician's what we wanted and they gave it. Democracy means we are the decision makers. We will have to take responsibility some day for the running of our country via what is our vote.
The thing we can kill em for is mismanaging and lying about the problems in our country.

I think it's rather unfair to compare Eddie Hobbs, who is essentially a PR man/media guy with a bit of personal financial/investment know how

or G LEE, who is primarily an investigative reporter with a bit of an economic background

to Constantin Gurdiev, who is an actual economist.

==
I agree he wouldn't be cut out for politics, but he would do well as an advisor, on a team of advisors.
Can he work as part of a team? no idea
On the bright side, there is no wondering what you're getting into if you take his advice (I happen to agree strongly with a lot of his suggestions)

eamo12

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

In the latest issue of Village Magazine Gurdiev has put froward a programme for reform based on rightist ideas.

As opposed to the leftist ideals of the current government and self described socialist Bertie, destroyer of Ireland and bagman for the unions? Yeah, bring it on.

ISAW

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

Yeah I wasn't making a case for him standing in the next election per se. It was more a what if scenario.

Maybe Enda will take him on as advisor

So what you really mean is that "politician" does not mean elected by the people but a pal paid by those in power? Isn't that part of what caused the problems? So if "politician" can me people who are not elected isn't a bit Humpty Dumpty? Mind you there are more people appointed to state boards than elected and we even do have some Senators appointed. In the US the President ( who is elected) can appoint a whole unelected cabinet.

kaiser sauze

LostinBlanch wrote: »

Damn right he can, IMO if he hadn't thrown his toys out of the pram and waited a couple of weeks until he retired then we would have a new government by now. FF fcuked up by not getting their numbers right for a money bill and needed the Ceann Comhairles vote to save them from an election. If Lee was there that would have been it, game over for FF. Election, new govt and an end to FF coverups with the banks etc.

Lee is also culpable for the situation we now find ourselves in.

Thanks George. :mad:

I think blaming Lee for that is a myopic statement.

oppenheimer1

Monty Burnz wrote: »

+1 exactly

He's the exact antithesis to Fianna Failure - he's intelligent, educated, good at his job and he tells the truth. On the other hand he probably wouldn't try to get favourable treatment for a rapist in prison, or some social welfare for someone who shouldn't be getting it.

In summary, the Fianna Failure voting morons of this country wouldn't vote for him in a fit.

You're being rather selective there, if he was so good at his job he would have noticed housing was in a bubble and not bought his house at the top of the boom. He is not infallible.

Kiki10

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I made no comment on the political system: I was critical of the political culture.

Well I agree the culture was corrupt. The idea of voting for a family name is like putting diesel into a petrol engine. We have a great method of voting people in by consensus. All those safe guards are striped and over ridden when people vote for an unknown person because there relatives held the post. That is British royal decadency, operating inside the shell of democracy. The greatest insult is these people call them selfs republican.

The truth is there grandfathers were the local solicitor or doctor who where deemed and rightly so at the time [by the poorly educated communities who left school aged 8] to be the most educated that could be put in the Dail. What has happened that has made us vote for there spawn who are more like 'dumb young & living off mum'

adjudicator

This is the man who advocated dregulation of a raft of industries, when he wrote in The Irish Times in 2002, including the banks !
Some of his ideas may be welcome, if watered down, but beware of which side his bread is buttered on.

Permabear

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ei.sdraob

Permabear wrote: »

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Don't you need to know how to speak Irish to run for Dail? i was under that impression somehow.

I don't think Gurdiev is naturalized (yet) and he stays quiet on the issue. You need to live and work here for 5 years straight and then wait another 3 years for the so efficient public servants to approve the applications, add another 2-3 whenever they find anything wrong with application. Was he in Ireland since about 2001?

Bottle_of_Smoke

Didn't realise you had to be an Irish citizen to be a TD. That's daft, a few years of residency should be enough.

Anyway yes I think he'd make a good politician in theory, but I'd imagine harder to be so straight forward when you're in the system.

In case anyone's interested if you go to the Vincent Browne page on the TV3 website Mario Rosenstock does a hilarious impression of him which is uploaded alongside recent Vincent Browne episodes

Permabear

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Permabear

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p1akuw47h5r3it

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHTNTptUEe8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k03XT-GVMLI&feature=channel

Apres Match ones are by far the best, I dont think Mario's ones are as good

p1akuw47h5r3it

Well he is talking sense on Vincent browne at the moment anyway, would like to see him as an adviser of some sort in Goverment.

jimmycrackcorm

I didn't recognise him as I was expecting him to look like the Mario Rosenstock version.....

hinault

I'm not sure that CG would make a good politician.

CG comes across as a technocrat - he's interested in the minutae of statistics and figures.
Don't get me wrong this has it's place but it is a different art to (Irish) politics.
The man up the road votes (unfortunately) for the guy who can arrange to get the pothole fixed.

CG on receiving the pothole fix request would have to do a cost/benefit analysis before deciding if the pothole ought to be fixed.

Don't get me wrong I like CG but he would go mad having to deal with the great unwashed:D

sollar

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

He would have noticed housing was in a bubble and not bought his house at the top of the boom. He is not infallible.

About 70% or 80% of the population will now tell you now they knew the crash was coming and anyone that bought from 04 to 08 was stupid. It sure didn't feel like 70% or 80% back then. Virtually nobody was forcasting a crash except a few.

Plenty complained about the prices though... maybe thats what they are confusing with predicting the crash with now.

nickobrien1985

I had Constantin as a lecturer, nice guy but he's nuts