Clare Daly - she's bloody intolerable

SpaceTime

I'm delighted to see someone actually standing up, putting her neck on the line and giving Enda a good rollocking now and again. That's what democracy is all about - healthy, vigorous debate and it's something that the Dail often severely lacks.

I don't necessarily agree with everything she says, but I do respect the fact that she's more than able to take on the bland consensus that occupies the middle of the Dail and is quite happy to guillotine legislation through without proper debate.

Clare may be annoying to some people, but it's the cozy cartel (from several parties), group-think politics that landed us in an IMF rescue programme and left us with massive debts and in the past just handed over the reigns of the country to the most conservative aspects of the religious hierarchies.

Politics in Ireland needs other voices, I don't care how annoying they are, they're holding people to account and that's what matters.

So, I just hope she (and others) keeps rocking the Dail and ruffling feathers. It's very important.

Politics is all about the rough and tumble of debates, not about bland consensus.

Godge

TheSB wrote: »

Nobody should be fawning over the Obama's. This is the guy who has a file on YOU with all your internet history and telephone records; what you searched online, what emails you wrote, what you bought on Amazon, what type of porn you watch. He should have been told to fock off out of this country.

He probably has a file on you and Clare Daly now after that post. I really don't care who has a file on me. Why would they bother?

TOMASJ wrote: »

She was a breath of freash air on the radio today, well worth listening to if her speech is available online,
Wish some of the men in the Dail had as much balls

Fresh air? Most of what she said stank.

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

She may have raised a valid point in relation to Syria, but only following a quite broad, irrelevant rant before she finally got around to the question. The question related to the governments position on the arms embargo in Syria, although she already knew the answer as she mentioned Gilmores comments on the issue. In response to Kenny, she says the side she is on is that of Oxfam, which is basically the Irish governments position (that arms should not be supplied to the rebels). She also only mentioned Obama in the rant, no mention of anyone else, not even Putin who is arming al-Assad. This is more an anti-American agenda than humanitarian concern.

As for "prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head”, the UK hosted the summit north of the boarder, although some delegations stayed in the south, Michelle Obama and the Japanese Prime Minister were the only ones to come south on official visits. She also nominated Obama for the "hypocrite of the century award" while she gets digs in about Bonos (perfectly legal, although questionable ethically) tax affairs yet refused to criticise Wallace over his totally illegal actions. As for "very little questioning" of the fact that Mrs Obama had lunch with Bono, what questions are there to be asked about them having lunch? Most of this was irrelevant to Leaders Question Time and she just threw in these things to appeal to those who like to get angry over everything.

A good post but you know what is most relevant. You said she may have had a good point about Syria and you may be right and she may be right but as a demonstration of the effectiveness of what she said, who is talking about Syria? Nobody, they are talking about Claire Daly, Enda Kenny, Claire Daly, Michelle Obama and more Claire Daly. She was out to get publicity for Claire Daly and she certainly achieved her aim.

Pete_Cavan

Godge wrote: »

A good post but you know what is most relevant. You said she may have had a good point about Syria and you may be right and she may be right but as a demonstration of the effectiveness of what she said, who is talking about Syria? Nobody, they are talking about Claire Daly, Enda Kenny, Claire Daly, Michelle Obama and more Claire Daly. She was out to get publicity for Claire Daly and she certainly achieved her aim.

Thats my point. Daly asked a genuinely important question about US weapons passing through Shannon Airport but that question was hidden in a rant which also included;

1. "a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head” - despite the fact that Ireland didnt host the G8 and there was very little pageantry for us
2. "going to deck the Cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of stars and stripes to really mark abject humiliation” - not sure what she meant by this, was anything decorated in any way? And to what cabinet does she refer?
3. "bulletins by the State broadcaster to tell us what Michelle Obama and her daughters had for lunch in Dublin" - every major news outlet in every country she goes to covers Michelle Obamas

So she stumbled across one relevant question but it was surrounded by so much nonsense that it got lost and Enda was able to avoid that question entirely. Far from ruffling a few feathers, she let Enda off the hook and wasted her question to the Taoiseach in parliament. She knew what she was doing of course, it was just a PR stunt, start a rant and throw in a few things which are generally unpopular in this country (the service of RTE, Bono and his taxes, pandering to American tourists, etc) and people will think she is a straight talking politician not afraid to ask any question. When you see that none of the media coverage of this focuses on the US military's use of Shannon Airport, you realise how pointless it all was.

laoch na mona

at least she had the balls to criticise the government fawning over the obamas. I'm not a huge fan of hers since the wallace thing but fair play on this one thing.
It is about time people stood up and criticised American foreign policy, I don't think the bit about syria was well thought out though.

Pete_Cavan

laoch na mona wrote: »

at least she had the balls to criticise the government fawning over the obamas. I'm not a huge fan of hers since the wallace thing but fair play on this one thing.
It is about time people stood up and criticised American foreign policy, I don't think the bit about syria was well thought out though.

Enda was at a meeting with all the G8 leaders and Gilmore met Michelle Obama when she arrived in Ireland, apart from that there was no other Irish government involvement- hardly "fawning over the Obamas".

COYW

RandomName2 wrote: »

Maybe in relation to her, but surely the point still stands?

The point stands but she is the last person in the Dail who should be making such a remark. It'd be like an old school FF'er getting up and complaining about cronyism in politics.

Floppybits

COYW wrote: »

The point stands but she is the last person in the Dail who should be making such a remark. It'd be like an old school FF'er getting up and complaining about cronyism in politics.

This would mean not one person in Dail can stand up and make remarks on anything because lets face it they are all as bad as each other in there whehter its FF, FG or Labour.

walshb

Alias G wrote: »

I think she is spot on here. The media fawning over Michelle Obama was nauseating. And it would be more than welcome if Boner paid some tax here although he is entitled to use whatever legal loop-hole to avoid paying tax that he likes.

Best of luck to Bono and his tax avoidance. I'd do the same myself. But, I wouldn't then go lecturing the nation on their commitments to 3rd world aid.

walshb

TheSB wrote: »

Nobody should be fawning over the Obama's. This is the guy who has a file on YOU .

A little OTT that.

hfallada

TDs in Ireland are a bit of a joke and wouldnt cut in most countries. There is a reason why we dont have any major players any of the European institutions because a lot of the MPs here are teachers and would lack the skills to work else where. Like Enda was a teacher and I wouldnt trust him with running a corner shop. I think if the leader of the country was a business man/women, Obama would have been another guest.

Irish people have a serious lack of choice when it comes to elections. You never see a politician in Ireland and go isnt he/she great. However people like Edmund Honohan are amazing in the central bank and it seems only the **** goes to the dail.

clairefontaine

She made good points.

I cringe when I see the irish sycophancy over the obamas. It's like something Ricky Gervais would stage.

How is it not embarrassing?

Slydice

I think it's interesting that there are over 1 million views for a video clip of her Obama speech over on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnJCvKA-oEU

Hootanany

RobAMerc wrote: »

Does anyone find this woman totally intolerable ?
I hear her spouting idealistic nonsense constantly always with a huge chip on her shoulder towards anyone that earns above the minimum wage.
She is also consistently making up figures to support her argument and seems to have little or know knowledge or at least ill conceived ideas.

I wonder how she sleeps at night when she earns 100k per annum and most of the people who voted for her are on the bread line ?



Mod Addition

By all means feel free to criticise Ms Daly's policies and views, but lets have no more of this cheap and petty namecalling nonsense.

Either make your point in a reasonable and adult fashion, or find somewhere else to make it

Cheers

DrG

How much do you earn and what party

Pete_Cavan

clairefontaine wrote: »

She made good points.

I cringe when I see the irish sycophancy over the obamas. It's like something Ricky Gervais would stage.

How is it not embarrassing?

What is embarrassing about American tourists going to Trinity College, Riverdance and Glendalough? Watch back RTE News from Monday and Tuesday of last week and count how many Irish state representatives you see, two - Gilmore meeting Michelle and her daughters at the airport and President Higgins meeting them at Riverdance. This is hardly "slobbering" or "sycophantic falling over them". The media heavily covered the Obamas visit but this has nothing to do with the government and certainly isnt a matter for Leaders Questions in the Dail. Daly blow everything out of proportion and people who like to get angry about everything assumed she was correct and started bitching too. It was nothing more than a rant to gain publicity and, like I said, the one good point she made got lost in all the nonsense.

Oneiric 3

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

It was nothing more than a rant to gain publicity.

Which unfortunately represents the mentality of this country. Speak your mind and you will get shot down, accused of trying 'to gain publicity' with anything you had to say being dismissed as a 'rant'.

Didn't agree with everything Clare had to say, but she made some excellent points. Nothing nobody didn't know already but at least she had the balls to say it, and boy did she say it well! We need more people like her in the Dail.

Pete_Cavan

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

Which unfortunately represents the mentality of this country. Speak your mind and you will get shot down, accused of trying 'to gain publicity' with anything you had to say being dismissed as a 'rant'.

Didn't agree with everything Clare had to say, but she made some excellent points. Nothing nobody didn't know already but at least she had the balls to say it, and boy did she say it well! We need more people like her in the Dail.

What "excellent points" did she make? She complained about USA wanting to supply arm in Syria but ignored 3 other G8 leaders also want to/are already supplying arms (UK, France and Russia), she complained about our governments position on arming Syrian rebels although her position is the same as that of the government, she complained about the government "slobbering" over the Obamas which amounted to one member of the government (Minister for Foreign Affairs) welcoming Michelle Obama to Ireland, she complained about Mr Tax Exile (who's actions are perfectly legal) but would not criticise Mick Wallaces premeditated tax dodging, she complained about media coverage of the Obamas visit which is not a matter for the Dail.

So where were all these "excellent points"? As I already said, the one important question she asked was regarding the US militarys use of Shannon Airport but this was lost amongst all the noise and was ignored. She would have been better off asking a simple and concise question on this issue and then let lose if she didnt get a decent answer. At least then it could be said that she is asking tough questions that the government dont want asked. If she had some subtlety she might be useful in the Dail but not if her questions at Leaders Questions, by virtue of the way they are asked, allow the Taoiseach to sidestep the issue.

The most obvious evidence that it was purely a rant for publicity is that everybody is talking about the rant itself in its all encompassing grandeur, and nobody is talking about any particular point that she made.

Oneiric 3

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

What "excellent points" did she make? She complained about USA wanting to supply arm in Syria but ignored 3 other G8 leaders also want to/are already supplying arms (UK, France and Russia)

But she was specifically addressing America's supply of arms to Syria so I don't see the problem here. I noticed Enda Kenny brought up the same argument, yet did this solely to ignore her question on his stance on the American arms supply. Classic example of political sophistry.

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

the one important question she asked was regarding the US militarys use of Shannon Airport but this was lost amongst all the noise and was ignored. She would have been better off asking a simple and concise question on this issue and then let lose if she didnt get a decent answer. At least then it could be said that she is asking tough questions that the government dont want asked. If she had some subtlety she might be useful in the Dail but not if her questions at Leaders Questions, by virtue of the way they are asked, allow the Taoiseach to sidestep the issue.

Had she asked the question, without the 'noise' as you put it, she would have got the same response and fobbed off with the excuse that she did not address other G8 members involvement in the same because these are safe and comfortable targets for the Irish Government - which if anything just served to reinforce her point.

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

The most obvious evidence that it was purely a rant for publicity is that everybody is talking about the rant itself in its all encompassing grandeur, and nobody is talking about any particular point that she made.

She got people talking because of what she said, not because of her 'rant'. She got people taking because she spoke what a lot of people were already thinking. That is the whole point of politics. The only rant and hollow soundings I heard in that particular debate came from Enda Kenny himself.

Pete_Cavan

Oneiric 3 wrote: »

But she was specifically addressing America's supply of arms to Syria so I don't see the problem here. I noticed Enda Kenny brought up the same argument, yet did this solely to ignore her question on his stance on the American arms supply. Classic example of political sophistry.

Had she asked the question, without the 'noise' as you put it, she would have got the same response and fobbed off with the excuse that she did not address other G8 members involvement in the same because these are safe and comfortable targets for the Irish Government - which if anything just served to reinforce her point.

She got people talking because of what she said, not because of her 'rant'. She got people taking because she spoke what a lot of people were already thinking. That is the whole point of politics. The only rant and hollow soundings I heard in that particular debate came from Enda Kenny himself.

Right, so maybe instead of saying she made good points, perhaps you could give an example of some of these. Even your own posts on this focus more on Endas "sophistry", "fobbing off" and "hollow soundings" rather than anything Daly actually said.

Oneiric 3

Not really much point wasting effort explaining her points to someone who already dismissed them as nothing more than "complaints" and "rants"

Sierra Oscar

Another great contribution from Clare today in the Dáil over the Edward Snowden controversy.

DipStick McSwindler

This post has been deleted.

Sir Humphrey Appleby

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

Another great contribution from Clare today in the Dáil over the Edward Snowden controversy.

Absolutley, she really plumbed new depths by dragging the fact that Tony Cascarino, who didn't find out that he was adopted and therefore ineligable to play for Ireland until he was in his 30's, was granted an Irish passport prior to that, into a discussion as to why we will not consider a request by the on the run traitor Edward Snowden for asylum here!

Classy,real classy!

laoch na mona

Old and grey wrote: »

Absolutley, she really plumbed new depths by dragging the fact that Tony Cascarino, who didn't find out that he was adopted and therefore ineligable to play for Ireland until he was in his 30's, was granted an Irish passport prior to that, into a discussion as to why we will not consider a request by the on the run traitor Edward Snowden for asylum here!

Classy,real classy!

hardly a traitor and if he is a traitor America doesn't deserve patriots

SpaceTime

She made it onto RT (Russia Today) news too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D0bUrhTVBg

I always find that channel kind of weird, they are *very* critical (and often quite justifiably) about everyone else while sitting in Moscow and not saying boo about Putin and what's going on over there. At least, that's my experience of watching it anyway.

Sir Humphrey Appleby

laoch na mona wrote: »

hardly a traitor and if he is a traitor America doesn't deserve patriots

There is no question that he is a traitor, whether people believe his trechary was justified is a different matter.
The point is Claire the Clown shoulwed herself up as a gombeen again yesterday by attempting to draw comparisons between him and Tony Cascarino!

bumper234

Old and grey wrote: »

There is no question that he is a traitor, whether people believe his trechary was justified is a different matter.
The point is Claire the Clown shoulwed herself up as a gombeen again yesterday by attempting to draw comparisons between him and Tony Cascarino!

How is he a traitor? He exposed the US governments illegal practices. I asked this question in another thread so i will ask here also.

Re the Anglo tapes...if it turns out a guard is responsible for the leaking of these tapes would you consider him/her to be a traitor?

SpaceTime

SpaceTime wrote: »

She made it onto RT (Russia Today) news too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D0bUrhTVBg

I always find that channel kind of weird, they are *very* critical (and often quite justifiably) about everyone else while sitting in Moscow and not saying boo about Putin and what's going on over there. At least, that's my experience of watching it anyway.

Abby Martin sits in Washington DC.

SpaceTime

Deleted User wrote: »

Abby Martin sits in Washington DC.

The channel doesn't though.

Quote from Wiki on it ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network) )

"RT, also known as Russia Today, is an international multilingual Russian-based television network. It is registered as an autonomous non-profit organization[2][3] funded by the federal budget of Russia through the Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation."

dublinman1990

The notion of Clare Daly thinking this scenario of trying to do this in the front of the Obamas is not a valid image at all.

I didn't get the image of ourselves of wearing little green hats to make them look happy. I don't think that Ms Obama & her daughters would get that either.

It was a leisurely two-day trip paid for by the Obamas. It cost us nothing at all to put in the effort. I think the idea of Michelle Obama paying for the trip was the right thing to do.

The Irish Government would make a right dog's dinner of it with very little value for the taxpayer considering all the security and organisation put into it by the Federal Government.

Clare Daly should realise that a state visit would cost us even more money by the bucket load as this was a cheaper bargain without any major financial loss.

It was clearly a publicity stunt for Clare Daly. And a wasteful one at that.

Galwayguy35

SpaceTime wrote: »

She made it onto RT (Russia Today) news too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D0bUrhTVBg

I always find that channel kind of weird, they are *very* critical (and often quite justifiably) about everyone else while sitting in Moscow and not saying boo about Putin and what's going on over there. At least, that's my experience of watching it anyway.

Kind of like the Russian version of Fox News so.