Crisis - Inside The Cowen Government

Skid

Don't know if we are going to learn any more about Calamity Cowen in this, but it's hard not to watch.

Part 1 of 2 just started on RTE1

SEPT 23 1989

They are all responsible for this disaster not just the drunken oaf

Skid

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

They are all responsible for this disaster not just the drunken oaf

True enough.

He did a lot of the damage himself, before he ever became Taoiseach.

steelcityblues

Think I will watch something else.

Can't stand this MTV type of documentary for short attention span types, where every contributor only gets a few seconds.

take everything

Should be fun watching the likes of O' Dea and Hanafin distancing themselves from the mess.

Skid

This business of 'Oh, we only found out at 2am, what could we do?' never washes with me.

They installed the regulator. They should have known he was completely incompetent. They should have known things were going tits up much earlier.

SEPT 23 1989

Skid wrote: »

This business of 'Oh, we only found out at 2am, what could we do?' never washes with me.

They installed the regulator. They should have known he was completely incompetent. They should have known things were going tits up much earlier.

They must have known weeks before that the whole thing was rotten

Holy Warlord

"It wasn't me, guv."

RINSE AND REPEAT.

Adamantium

RTE current affairs is becoming more and more like FOX news every week

Hermy

Anyone know the music in the background?

Holy Warlord

Hermy wrote: »

Anyone know the music in the background?

I think Nero used to play it.

charlemont

Its like watching a comedy, In which all the players are clowns.

Skid

Friggin Pensioners are still holding the country to ransom.

Disabled, blind, sick - everyone else is getting cut except pensioners.

SEPT 23 1989

Seeing as this is the most important subject in the history of the state they could have stretched it our to four parts and give all these traitors more time to explain their reasons for destroying my country

Hootanany

Wont watch it they got there come upance in the election please do not forget about these Clowns

irishh_bob

Skid wrote: »

Friggin Pensioners are still holding the country to ransom.

Disabled, blind, sick - everyone else is getting cut except pensioners.

when did ignoring the blind vote ever loose a TD his or her seat

Hermy

Skid wrote: »

Friggin Pensioners are still holding the country to ransom.

Disabled, blind, sick - everyone else is getting cut except pensioners.

The banks have had more money spent on them in the past year than the pensioners ever got.

the groutch

Skid wrote: »

Friggin Pensioners are still holding the country to ransom.

Disabled, blind, sick - everyone else is getting cut except pensioners.

completely agree, but that's for discussion another day in another forum

Skid

The camera shot changes every four seconds, combine that with the subject matter and it would make you sick.

Hermy

Skid wrote: »

The camera shot changes every four seconds, combine that with the subject matter and it would make you sick.

That's becoming the norm in all sorts of programmes - very off putting.

take everything

Did MM say the worst aspect of the last government was communications.
Economic mismanagement a close 2nd then i presume?

headmaster

My goodness, the pensioners are bloody well raking it in. Now is the time to cut their pensions and some of their other perks as well. There's people working in this country, with families and they're not getting what the pensioners are getting.

irishh_bob

headmaster wrote: »

My goodness, the pensioners are bloody well raking it in. Now is the time to cut their pensions and some of their other perks as well. There's people working in this country, with families and they're not getting what the pensioners are getting.

yes but those pensioners ( each and everyone of them ) stormed the beach at normandy , made ireland a leading light in global economic and social affairs and paid taxes at ninety nine pence in the pound

pragmatic1

charlemont wrote: »

Its like watching a comedy, In which all the players are clowns.

If only it was a comedy. Its more like a horror film.

pragmatic1

headmaster wrote: »

My goodness, the pensioners are bloody well raking it in. Now is the time to cut their pensions and some of their other perks as well. There's people working in this country, with families and they're not getting what the pensioners are getting.

The pensioners worked hard all their lives and are more than entitled to their money. The PS needs to wake up though.

furiousox

That programme contained nothing we didn't already know (unless you happened to be in fianna fail at the time!)
Guess what?
The bailout WASN'T a fantasy after all!
W..kers! :mad:

NinjaK

I bet if Sinn Fein was in power during that period they would be hammering them, they were slightly pro FF

mike65

Hermy wrote: »

Anyone know the music in the background?

Holy Warlord wrote: »

I think Nero used to play it.

Arf!

The use of many strings-a-sawing in RTE documentaries is quite distracting at times.

irishh_bob

pragmatic1 wrote: »

The pensioners worked hard all their lives and are more than entitled to their money. The PS needs to wake up though.

so did the pensioners in northern ireland , england , scotland and wales but they only recieve half of what thier counterparts in the irish republic trouser

pragmatic1

NinjaK wrote: »

I bet if Sinn Fein was in power during that period they would be hammering them, they were slightly pro FF

RTE. Slightly FF? They're blatantly pro-FF.

NinjaK

pragmatic1 wrote: »

RTE. Slightly FF? They're blatantly pro-FF.

I know in general they are.

JonathanAnon

Mary O'Rourke's contributions are sickening.... Her points about Cowan at the end were petty and personal... She's a bitter old woman..

Hermy

The wisdom of hindsight displayed by the FF'ers is galling.

telekon

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Mary O'Rourke's contributions are sickening.... Her points about Cowan at the end were petty and personal... She's a bitter old woman..

"Charlie McCreevey was a fine minister for finance..."

Deluded old bat. :mad:

JonathanAnon

Former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald has attributed Ireland's dire economic state in 2009, on a series of "calamitous" government policy errors by the then Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy, who between the years of 2000 and 2003, boosted public spending by 48pc while cutting income tax.

Personally I dont think Charlie gets enough credit for his hand in our economic problems... I think if anybody wants to know where public spending began seriously going off the rails, and where the roots of our 18 Billion Exchequer deficit lie.. they should look to Champagne Charlie

Hermy

Hermy wrote: »

Anyone know the music in the background?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH0b2TooTxY

mikom

headmaster wrote: »

My goodness, the pensioners are bloody well raking it in. Now is the time to cut their pensions and some of their other perks as well. There's people working in this country, with families and they're not getting what the pensioners are getting.

There's also pensioners in this country that never got what families today are getting when they were raising theirs.
We are lucky to be here at all with some of the shite conditions the older generations had to put up with.
I wouldn't begrudge them a cent.

P. Breathnach

mikom wrote: »

...
I wouldn't begrudge them a cent.

I see little justification for giving medical cards to pensioners who can comfortably manage to pay for their medical care.

GSF

No Bertie in a graveyard. No beautiful girl, ugly on the inside.

The production might be slicker but its missing some of that laugh out loud comedy of the TV3 show.

irishh_bob

mikom wrote: »

headmaster wrote: »

My goodness, the pensioners are bloody well raking it in. Now is the time to cut their pensions and some of their other perks as well. There's people working in this country, with families and they're not getting what the pensioners are getting.

There's also pensioners in this country that never got what families today are getting when they were raising theirs.
We are lucky to be here at all with some of the shite conditions the older generations had to put up with.
I wouldn't begrudge them a cent.

What kind of argument is that, how could people living in the 1950,s have earned as much as today's earners, your not comparing like with like

irishh_bob

P. Breathnach wrote: »

mikom wrote: »

...
I wouldn't begrudge them a cent.

I see little justification for giving medical cards to pensioners who can comfortably manage to pay for their medical care.

No but politicians see votes in it and know most people are sentimental about the elderly in this country, most people seem to associate being old with being poor regardless of a persons wealth level prior to their 66th birthday

ronan45

If someone could edit the show and put Laughter into the various interviews would be good

irishh_bob

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Personally I dont think Charlie gets enough credit for his hand in our economic problems... I think if anybody wants to know where public spending began seriously going off the rails, and where the roots of our 18 Billion Exchequer deficit lie.. they should look to Champagne Charlie

no this is incorrect , mc reevy wanted to reign in spending , FF got a bit of a kicking at the 2004 local and euro elections and bertie decided to become a socilist , charlie ( being the percieved thatcherite that he was ) was packed off to europe and replaced with cowen who had no mind of his own and was much more willing to do his masters bidding

telekon

irishh_bob wrote: »

no this is incorrect , mc reevy wanted to reign in spending , FF got a bit of a kicking at the 2004 local and euro elections and bertie decided to become a socilist , charlie ( being the percieved thatcherite that he was ) was packed off to europe and replaced with cowen who had no mind of his own and was much more willing to do his masters bidding

Are you sure this is the same Charlie "If I have it, I'll spend it" McCreevey we're all talking about?? What about the light touch regulation he advocated?

Surely that's more far more damaging then all the tax cuts and out of control spending Charlie revelled in...

JonathanAnon

irishh_bob wrote: »

no this is incorrect , mc reevy wanted to reign in spending

I dont think you can argue with the figures Bob.. whether he did it under duress, or most of it was Bertie's decision.. it was still his McCreevy's responsibility to be responsible with the country's finances... And it was McCreevy's decision to sign off on budgets that increased public spending by 48% in that period..

mikom

irishh_bob wrote: »

What kind of argument is that, how could people living in the 1950,s have earned as much as today's earners, your not comparing like with like

I was thinking more quality of life, healthcare etc......

Dirk Gently

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Mary O'Rourke's contributions are sickening.... Her points about Cowan at the end were petty and personal... She's a bitter old woman..

She pretty much blatantly said he drank heavily because his life was miserable. O Rourke is and always was a nasty piece of work hiding behind a superficial ordinary woman persona but she's as manipulative and tribal as they get. Looks like RTE are doing their best to absolve the FF party of their sins with this programme and lump the burden on Cowen and Ahern personally.

irishh_bob

mikom wrote: »

I was thinking more quality of life, healthcare etc......

question still stands

filthymcnasty

Skid wrote: »

The camera shot changes every four seconds, combine that with the subject matter and it would make you sick.

Just watched this on RTE Player. They should have had a strobe lights- type warning at the start. I was dizzy from the camera jumping about.

If anyone ever had any delusions of the FF character the sight of O'Dea , Hanafin and that spiteful **** O'Rouke queuing up to shop Cowen and distance themselves from the whole sorry debacle was pretty telling.

DeepBlue

It was an utterly pointless programme. Why was it commissioned? It added absolutely nothing to what was already well known.
Was its purpose to give former FF ministers opportunities to blame all our woes on Cowen and absolve themselves? Because that's pretty much all it tried to do.

Why does Mammy O'Rourke still get airtime on television? Because she never says no to a microphone? Wouldn't you think after the telecom eireann shares fiasco she'd have the good sense to keep her head down and her mouth shut?

According to FF all would have been ok if there had been more communication and if the optics had been handled better and if only Willie had been in Dublin instead of Limerick on the fateful night then all the disasters could have been averted. :rolleyes:

The sad thing about all this is that FF will be back in government after the next election. Talk of their demise has been massively exaggerated.

Skid

Bump ... Part 2 of this is on tonight at 9.35pm on RTE1

Part two of two. Assessing Brian Cowen's tenure and legacy as Taoiseach, and asking whether Fianna Fail can resurrect itself after its defeat in this year's election. With contributions by political adviser Alan Ahearne and Morning Ireland presenter Cathal Mac Coille