Has Pat Rabbite and Labour Sold Out on us?

Ald

As a left wing leaning voter I'm appauled by their decision to go with the decision to sell State Assets at low points in the economic cycle or indeed at all. Pat Rabbite announces today that they are to sell off a minority stake in the ESB. Surely, given the news on interest rate cuts today and the possibility to negociate the deals of the EU/IMF deal they could have had it drawn out a bit longer but no they are hardly a wet day in office and the first sell off announcement comes from a Labour T.D.

Anybody else put off by this? I know I'll never vote Labour in the near future. SELL OUTS!

super_furry

No, they're just facing up to the financial realities that the state is currently in.

tim_holsters

I stopped voting Labour years ago. I don't work in the public sector you see.

thebman

I don't understand why they don't see the assets that we don't want and don't perform as the public want like CIE which has a lot of assets but fails to utilise them to provide the service the public want IMO.

Also I don't see why we own a TV station.

At least power generation is crucial to the economy. The above two could be privatised with either little effect on services or a major improvement after privatisation. Admittedly rail might need to remain in state ownership as it is harder to introduce competition on rail but bus companies in state ownership is ridiculous IMO. The loss making services should be bundled with the profit making ones and licenses sold to operate on the routes IMO with minimum service standards.

anymore

Seems to me the political wing of the public sector unions is jsut trying to find ways to continue keeping the public sector in the style to which they have become accustomed. the price demanded fron the ESB unions will be that their members are further enriched.
No Pat and Co are being totally consistent with the Labour party's core principles.

Denerick

I'm still amazed that people have the energy to be disappointed when politicians inevitably let them down. Accept the world for what is, rather than lament what it should be. Or better still, run for office. You'd quickly find that realities will batter all the uninformed idealism out of you.

headmaster

Didn't know this until now. I'm absolutely delighted and now these cable pullers will find out what the right wage will be in the private sector, it's bloody brilliant. I'll be voting labour and so will plenty more.

hmmm

Who's going to be interested in buying a minority stake in a public sector organisation? As a consequence, to appease Labour and their union friends, we're going to get far less for this stake than we would have got if the network and generation elements were split.

Dirk Gently

Ald wrote: »

Anybody else put off by this? I know I'll never vote Labour in the near future. SELL OUTS!

welcome to reality. Labour are, and only ever were before, there to make up the numbers for FG governments (and even FF governments when needed). They talk pretty from the comfort of opposition but inevitably "sell out" when in government. Little or no difference between lab/fg/ff except that the former two are seen as less corrupt, mostly on account of not being in a position to be corrupted as much as FF have throughout the years.

Foghladh

Ald wrote: »

Anybody else put off by this? I know I'll never vote Labour in the near future. SELL OUTS!

Now you know how the Greens felt in coalition! A junior member of any partnership can be a dangerous place. Labour ministers hold the positions of Education and Social Protection as well, both areas likely to feel pain in future cuts. I don't think it'll be the last bit of unpopular news coming from a Labour mouth

jimmycrackcorm

Ald wrote: »

I know I'll never vote Labour in the near future. SELL OUTS!

Labour are the minority party in government so it's not up to them. Even if they voted against the proposals Fianna Fail would vote in favour. Whether you voted for Labour previously or won't in the future, is by and largely irrelevant because we will probably never have a left leaning government.

N8

Has Pat Rabbite and Labour Sold Out on us?

In a word ...

Yes


This country's political class from top to bottom have sold us all out FF FG (New) Lab, SF and many independents - thay have f_cked us all.


We need political revolution ... what a pity we have such a bunch of non entities (inc norris) as presidential candidates... someone with some balls and aligned with none of them and a true representative for the people having now to endure the decisions of the political class and the elite would win hands down ....

Fulton Crown

What a load of crap !

The decision to sell State assets was made months ago as part of the IMF bailout.

Some left wing crusties still dont get it ...we are broke...i.e we has no money...the sort of thing you need to pay the public"service".

Watch the Greeks over the next few weeks...reality will finally dawn when the public service cannot be paid.

Sure the beards will huff and puff and arrogant superbeards like Ogle will use their muscle.

But the Govt must face them down.....not like that craven goon Ahern and pintman Cowan...who is now as his real level a country town solicitor.

Dob74

Ald wrote: »

As a left wing leaning voter I'm appauled by their decision to go with the decision to sell State Assets at low points in the economic cycle or indeed at all. Pat Rabbite announces today that they are to sell off a minority stake in the ESB. Surely, given the news on interest rate cuts today and the possibility to negociate the deals of the EU/IMF deal they could have had it drawn out a bit longer but no they are hardly a wet day in office and the first sell off announcement comes from a Labour T.D.

Anybody else put off by this? I know I'll never vote Labour in the near future. SELL OUTS!

+1
Why nationalise Banks and sell the golden goose.
If they jailed the top hundred bankers and broke the banks down into small pieces so if they go bankrupt again we could let them fail. Instead of allowing them to carry on as normal. How long before AIB needs another bailout? They made it from 1985 to 2008 well done boys give yourselfs a bonus.
The ESB makes profits every year, pays the gov a dividend and was one of the cheapest utilities til deregulation. This is going to be another enron.

Labour have sold out to the neo-liberal Fine Gael

anymore

Dob74 wrote: »

+1
Why nationalise Banks and sell the golden goose.
If they jailed the top hundred bankers and broke the banks down into small pieces so if they go bankrupt again we could let them fail. Instead of allowing them to carry on as normal. How long before AIB needs another bailout? They made it from 1985 to 2008 well done boys give yourselfs a bonus.
The ESB makes profits every year, pays the gov a dividend and was one of the cheapest utilities til deregulation. This is going to be another enron.

Labour have sold out to the neo-liberal Fine Gael

How can you say the ESB was oneof the cheapest utilities until deregulation ? There was no competition = what are you comparing it against ?

anymore

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Labour are the minority party in government so it's not up to them. Even if they voted against the proposals Fianna Fail would vote in favour. Whether you voted for Labour previously or won't in the future, is by and largely irrelevant because we will probably never have a left leaning government.

Why would FF vote in favour and losoe the support of what is left in the public sector which still supports them ?
One of thier paths back to increased electoral support to make the PS unions see that whatever abput the past, it is FG/Lab who will squueze the PS unions most. Whether this is true or not is irrlevant, it is perception that matters.

Sleepy

Labour sold out on us the day they allowed Public Sector unions dictate policy and made themselves the lap dogs of David Begg and his cretinous ilk.

Labour haven't sold out on their supporters though: they're still defending the Croke Park Agreement and, as mentioned above, if they can find anyone foolish enough to buy a minority stake in an extremely inefficient organisation (without the promise to screw customers by jacking energy prices even higher), you can guarantee the real winners will be the already spoilt rotten ESB workers.

I honestly don't see the point tbh. Yes, it makes economic sense to privatise the power generation arm of the business if not socially desirable to privatise the network maintenance side. Why not an out-right sale of the organisation. Enter private market reality and despite a few union tantrums, we'd end up with cheaper energy prices and would surely be able to get a higher return for the state from the sale (particularly if bundled with a promise to stand behind the new owners on any industrial action issues / even better a lay-off of all staff and sale of the assets to the new private company.

Boulevardier

I think Rabbitte has sold out on the issue of mineral rights, but I think he is acting under duress when it comes to the ESB.

At least we the public will apparently continue to have majority control.
If FG were in government on their own, it is likely that all the semi-states would be sold off to rapacious multinationals, with potentially catastrophic results for ordinary workers and consumers.

MizenHead

Ald wrote: »

As a left wing leaning voter I'm appauled by their decision to go with the decision to sell State Assets at low points in the economic cycle or indeed at all. Pat Rabbite announces today that they are to sell off a minority stake in the ESB. Surely, given the news on interest rate cuts today and the possibility to negociate the deals of the EU/IMF deal they could have had it drawn out a bit longer but no they are hardly a wet day in office and the first sell off announcement comes from a Labour T.D.

Anybody else put off by this? I know I'll never vote Labour in the near future. SELL OUTS!

Its Irelands New Labour - just look at Tony Blair and his brand of labour!!!

Vote SF for a change!?!

bmaxi

MizenHead wrote: »

Its Irelands New Labour - just look at Tony Blair and his brand of labour!!!

Vote SF for a change!?!

I agree that Labour have sold out their constituency and are embarking on the same path to self destruction as the Greens. I don't buy in to the whole business of having to go along with everything the larger party suggests, Labour are supposed to have an ethos of their own and were elected by a certain constituency to follow a certain line. We all realise that a lot of things are out of control of our Government but Labour needs to draw a line in the sand, "so far and no further" or many voters will indeed gravitate towards SF, to the detriment of every decent standard this country has ever stood for.

steelcityblues

Anyone with his/her eye on the ball knew Labour was going to protect the public sector big wigs.

They are a bunch of bourgeois socialists, who stopped caring for ordinary people long ago.