Luke Ming Flanagan MEP

daireaire28

What's your opinion on Ming?

Will he change anything? Will he stand by his words?

Getting 124,063 votes is some achievement!


What do you people think of him? Has he done any good since he was elected into the Dáil?

Riskymove

daireaire28 wrote: »

Getting 124,063 votes is some achievement!


What do you people think of him? Has he done any good since he was elected into the Dáil?

let's look at this another way...Brian Crowley has been an MEP for years and got 180,000 votes this time

...what has he achieved in that time?

truedoom

no opinion.

Basically all i know is he wants weed decriminalized, and loves people cutting turf... Fair enough, but i guess he has more policies than that?

eyescreamcone

Ming gave back half his Dail salary

Will he do the same with his MEP salary?

MayoSalmon

eyescreamcone wrote: »

Ming gave back half his Dail salary

Will he do the same with his MEP salary?

Who gives a flying ****e...he can keep all of it, if he sorts them european technocrats out

Tabnabs

eyescreamcone wrote: »

Ming gave back half his Dail salary

Will he do the same with his MEP salary?

He doesn't, he gives away half his salary to his favourite causes. No different to the SF crowd, it still costs the taxpayer the same waste amount no matter what they choose to use their beer tokens for.

saucyleopard

Yeah, like Shatter gave away the tax payer's money last week. Great to be able to give away money that's not yours

daireaire28

Riskymove wrote: »

let's look at this another way...Brian Crowley has been an MEP for years and got 180,000 votes this time

...what has he achieved in that time?

What I mean is, for an Independent candidate he has done well for himself.

hairycakes

I liked his message that he is in favour of the European union but that at the same time they need to back off a bit, get back to the European community idea rather than the European union. Something about that resonated with me rather than the typical EU bashing.

I hope he can do something and feel he will try to change things and possibly with other EU countries voting in EU skeptics there may be more chance of it happening.

eyescreamcone

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Who gives a flying ****e...he can keep all of it, if he sorts them european technocrats out

He has 2 chances of sorting anything out.

He is but one of 766 MEPs

comongethappy

MayoSalmon wrote: »

if he sorts them european technocrats out

What does that even mean?

dlouth15

From the RTE news item.

Roscommon-South Leitrim independent TD Luke 'Ming' Flanagan is to contest the European Elections in May.

In a statement, Mr Flanagan said he would be running on an anti-European Union platform.

He claimed the EU had backed the bondholders against the interests of the Irish people during the country's bailout years.

Mr Flanagan said Ireland was on a road to giving up its sovereignty forever and would be best served without the euro as its currency.

Nothing particularly controversial there but nevertheless it's still a minority position within the EU parliament at present.

MayoSalmon

comongethappy wrote: »

What does that even mean?

Well in the context of the EU, we are currently led by an unelected technocratic president José Manuel Barroso.

Thankfully European sovereign nations are starting to see the corruption and undemocratic nature that the EU has become....Ming will be in great company in Brussels now:)

errlloyd

Jesus christ. The EU think nigel farage and marie la pen will cause problems. Wait till they meet ming.

oscarBravo

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Well in the context of the EU, we are currently led by an unelected technocratic president José Manuel Barroso.

Barroso was elected.

Thankfully European sovereign nations are starting to see the corruption and undemocratic nature that the EU has become...

What corruption? And how has it become undemocratic?

comongethappy

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Well in the context of the EU, we are currently led by an unelected technocratic president José Manuel Barroso.

Thankfully European sovereign nations are starting to see the corruption and undemocratic nature that the EU has become....Ming will be in great company in Brussels now:)

Barosso was elected though, by the council of state & his successor will have a greater democratic mandate, as this time being elected by the parliament.

"Get out the technocrats" seems like an empty statement, politicians exist & will continue to do so irrespective of Mings existance (who is just another politician himself).

MayoSalmon

oscarBravo wrote: »

Barroso was elected. What corruption? And how has it become undemocratic?

Ok Barroso has NOT been directly elected by the people of Europe.

It is no doubt that the EU suffers from a "democratic deficit". The parliament is not a proper representative body as it lacks the ability to propose legislation.

Only Barroso and his commission can do such...undemocratic to say the very least.

comongethappy

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Ok Barroso has NOT been directly elected by the people of Europe.

It is no doubt that the EU suffers from a "democratic deficit". The parliament is not a proper representative body as it lacks the ability to propose legislation.

Only Barroso and his commission can do such...undemocratic to say the very least.

The taoiseach is also not directly elected.

We elect members of the Dáil who vote on the role of Taoiseach.

There is no less degree of democratic separation between the election of Enda & the election of next commission president.

(Though I wouldn't mind a ballot on the role.... I also know its not appointed by dictat.)

And yes, parliament sourced bills would help, however the commission still needs the parliaments consent to pass a bill).

MayoSalmon

comongethappy wrote: »

The taoiseach is also not directly elected.

We elect members of the Dáil who vote on the role of Taoiseach.

There is no less degree of democratic separation between the election of Enda & the election of next commission president.

(Though I wouldn't mind a ballot on the role.... I also know its not appointed by dictat.)

And yes, parliament sourced bills would help, however the commission still needs the parliaments consent to pass a bill).

We de-facto elect a Taoiseach, but anyways I am not keen on that either as you can imagine.

Direct Democracy or pure democracy in the form of the Swiss is needed. The people should propose policies, laws and legislation simple as.

They already provide us with limited forms of direct democracy which is good but it should be expanded.

The success in Switzerland socially and economically is unparalleled in many nations. They are truly a pioneer in how countries should run their political affairs.

meglome

MayoSalmon wrote: »

We de-facto elect a Taoiseach, but anyways I am not keen on that either as you can imagine.

Direct Democracy or pure democracy in the form of the Swiss is needed. The people should propose policies, laws and legislation simple as.

They already provide us with limited forms of direct democracy which is good but it should be expanded.

The success in Switzerland socially and economically is unparalleled in many nations. They are truly a pioneer in how countries should run their political affairs.

I used to think we should have direct democracy. And each election that has passed during my life I've gotten more convinced that it's the last thing we should do. It works in Switzerland because of the Swiss, it would be disastrous here.

MayoSalmon

meglome wrote: »

I used to think we should have direct democracy. And each election that has passed during my life I've gotten more convinced that it's the last thing we should do. It works in Switzerland because of the Swiss, it would be disastrous here.

Hmm why?

meglome

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Hmm why?

Seriously?

We have been shown time and time again to support whatever politician or party that promises the most no matter how ridiculous it is. We got ourselves into this total **** by believing that you can have Scandinavian style services and low taxes. The level of debate here is shockingly low. Look at the number of posters in the recent election that claimed no water charges and no property charges when we're 11.5 billion in a hole. Only an idiot would believe we're not getting charged for property and water yet the people making those claims did very well in the election.
Norway has something like 500 billion dollars in a wealth fund from their oil. Do you honestly think we wouldn't have just cut taxes and blown most of it. We wouldn't be able to spend it fast enough. And anyone who tried to call a halt would be a called a begrudger and possibly told to commit suicide.

I could go on.

MayoSalmon

meglome wrote: »

Seriously?

We have been shown time and time again to support whatever politician or party that promises the most no matter how ridiculous it is. We got ourselves into this total **** by believing that you can have Scandinavian style services and low taxes. The level of debate here is shockingly low. Look at the number of posters in the recent election that claimed no water charges and no property charges when we're 11.5 billion in a hole. Only an idiot would believe we're not getting charged for property and water yet the people making those claims did very well in the election.
Norway has something like 500 billion dollars in a wealth fund from their oil. Do you honestly think we wouldn't have just cut taxes and blown most of it. We wouldn't be able to spend it fast enough. And anyone who tried to call a halt would be a called a begrudger and possibly told to commit suicide.

I could go on.

Our elected representatives are the reason why this country needed a €67 Billion bailout...guess what I am willing to take the chance on the people doing a bit better.

marienbad

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Our elected representatives are the reason why this country needed a €67 Billion bailout...guess what I am willing to take the chance on the people doing a bit better.

Does not compute

MayoSalmon

marienbad wrote: »

Does not compute

Try compute this

http://www.financedublin.com/debtclock.php

marienbad

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Try compute this

http://www.financedublin.com/debtclock.php

And you think 'the people' would change that ?

meglome

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Our elected representatives are the reason why this country needed a €67 Billion bailout...guess what I am willing to take the chance on the people doing a bit better.

I'm sorry but our government is a reflection of it's people. The scary thing is Fianna Fail did mostly what they promised to do, we the electorate didn't think about what the consequences of those actions would be. We didn't care... taxes were down, wages were up and your house was 'worth' a million. We voted them in three times in row to complete the mess.

This is one of our biggest problems we think that it's our politicians that are the issue, when the issue is us.

Jim2007

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Well in the context of the EU, we are currently led by an unelected technocratic president José Manuel Barroso.

Lets see, the Commission is nominated by the council of ministers, the elected representatives of the 28 states involved. Furthermore, the commission and it's president must be approved by the European Parliament which you as an EU citizen elected. On top of this the the Parliament has the power to remove the commission, should it see fit and they also have the last word on most laws proposed by the Commission.

On top of this you have the court of auditors who provide budgetary supervision and are again appointed by your elected state representatives and approved by (an admittedly unbinding) vote of the European Parliament, which you elected.

Now all of this is in line with the way the administrative branch is appointed and supervised in most of the 28 states of the EU plus the USA.

So unless you are going to start arguing that none of these states have a democratic system, you have a very very weak case at best :rolleyes:

Jim2007

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Direct Democracy or pure democracy in the form of the Swiss is needed. The people should propose policies, laws and legislation simple as.

They already provide us with limited forms of direct democracy which is good but it should be expanded.

The success in Switzerland socially and economically is unparalleled in many nations. They are truly a pioneer in how countries should run their political affairs.

Well as both a Swiss and Irish citizen, I can tell you that you have not got a clue!!!

First of all there is the 'magic formulae' this is an agreement between the biggest parties in parliament on the allocation of government ministries among the parties. It makes no difference how we vote at a election time, the result will always be that the seven minister will be appointed until they decide to retire and then they will be replaced by another member of that party.

And then there are the constant referenda where we vote over and over again on the same issues but from different angles - we voted to retain conscription, but rejected the proposal to re-equip the the airforce and if we continue along this line we'll soon have a toothless defence force... we voted for the bi-lateral agreements with the EU, but have not rejected the free movement option, but since the whole thing is interlinked we have in reality rejected the whole thing - put since that was clearly a mistake the government has decided to continue with the agreements on a gentleman's agreement basis until such time as we have another vote and get into line with what the government is doing!

Take a drive from Basel to Zurich, for most of the journey you'll be flying along the motor way until suddenly you'll come to a dead end and are forced on to a small congested road. Why? well the people in that community first voted for the motorway and then when it was almost upon them they changed their minds and since they own all the land around there, there was no choice but to call and end to the project....

Like I said not a clue...

Jim2007

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Our elected representatives are the reason why this country needed a €67 Billion bailout...guess what I am willing to take the chance on the people doing a bit better.

The people elected the government and the people could have rejected those policies if they had wished to, but they did not. The country is in the state it is in because everyone is hell bent on buying property, they think it is a great idea...

To the Swiss buying property is considered very risky and rather silly, as a finical advisor the fasted way to loose a client is to suggest they buy property! When do you think the Irish will adapted that idea...

Another example, to a Swiss spending more than a month's salary on a wedding or more than about 50 CHF on a communion or confirmation is considered to very foolish from a financial point of view. Do you think that will soon catch on in Ireland.....

Expecting that the Irish will suddenly adapt a Germanic approach to their finances is not realistic...

daireaire28

Right this is getting a little out of hand and steering away from the original post.


Please all stick to my original post and don't fly off the handle, thanks!