Are Irish people on average to the left of English people??

enricoh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119370180#Comment_119370180

There's an industry of pen pushers now that for every sector in farming. If you have a mixed farm you will be tortured with jobsworths out inspecting and reports to be filled etc. The price of machinery now makes it very expensive to go at a few different strands of farming.

I think rte sets the tone for the country and rte are run by unions, government are always under pressure to spend more and generally do. Think we owe 250 billion now and are the third most indebted country in the developed world. Our vote buying days are drawing to a halt ( at least temporarily!) in the next 6 months methinks.

Sam Russell

I would blame the supermarkets that have wiped out the rural convenience shops and reduced them to supplying the 'emergency shop'. How can they be profitable while competing with the major supermarkets with their supply chain dominance, market muscle, and below cost offers?

Farmers do (and never have) been their own best friends. The Tuam Potato factory closed because the price of potatoes on the open market rose above the contract supply price and the farmers sold on the market. The potato factory closed soon after. Chasing the quick profit (by a minority) has led to such things.

[Deleted User]

Are Irish people on average to the left of English people??

That depends on the exact location and position of everybody.....

Quantum Erasure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563871#Comment_119563871

im gonna presume overall, there'll be more people facing the sun (ie. South) than facing away, (even if we weigh the evening sun a whole lot more than the morning sun, given that the average irish person would be north west -ish of the average english person...) that Irish people are, on average, to the RIGHT of English people

completedit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119366147#Comment_119366147

Ah yeah the English well known for their directness.

fash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119362581#Comment_119362581

Other part of the Green party problem is that the sustainable way of living (more dense housing & apartments in cities, more village nucleuses & fewer one off housing in the countryside) is very much against "the order of things" in Ireland.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119569739#Comment_119569739

Well, one-off housing costs a lot in service provision, the need for vehicles for transport and resulting lack of public transport. The supermarkets have killed all the local shops - 90% of shopping supply is through five supermarkets - Dunnes, Tesco, Musgraves, Lidl, and Aldi. They compete with each other (after a fashion - price matching and meaningless special offers).

There is significant centralising of services - water, broadband, electricity, schools, hospitals, etc. Post Offices (because the business is not there as people go shopping in the big towns and use that PO) are forced to close.

Even if housing was concentrated on the towns and villages, it would be better. One-off houses are generally built on sites donated by daddy or mammy and the house self built, like all those houses in Donegall with mica problems.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119362375#Comment_119362375

Paddy wouldn’t mind paying taxes if they were getting quality services for their tax investment.

Paddy wouldn’t mind paying taxes if they had a say as to how taxes are spent.

Paddy wouldn’t mind paying taxes if not so much of it was fecked away on the needs and wants and comforts of others..

we are most certainly to the left of the English people, for how long ? As Rom Massey says.. ‘ remains to be seen ‘

fash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119570579#Comment_119570579

I fully agree with the Green party position in this: dense cities & thriving towns support good public transport, walkable & cyclable towns & cities & more effective public services (parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, community centres etc) - it is far more pleasant, a more sustainable way to live & more suitable for lifetime housing etc. (& The standard way of doing things in most of Europe) - it's just that many Irish people strongly disagree.

hotmail.com

Conservative elements run deep in Ireland.. closing clubs at 2.30 is madness for a modern country, no rail link to our main airport, most schools owned by the Catholic Church, abortion only legalised 4 years ago, attitudes to gay people softening much later than the UK etc etc.

Whilst Ireland has made many improvements, we've still a long way to go to catch up with the UK.

Sam Russell

I think the Irish people do not fit into the European political classification of right vs left. Perhaps more right vs wrong.

Because of a STV multi seat voting system, the rogue TD gets elected - whether rogue within the party, or rogue party, or rogue independent. And the we get rogues elected who should be imprisoned.

We have a more blended politics, where the major parties that have been in Gov since the foundation of the state have been broad parties with philosophies that overlap - and actually follow the broad public views. Those views have broadly morphed to the left over the last 50 years, and the politics have followed those broader views.

hotmail.com

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119572849#Comment_119572849

Yeah let's just say it. Ireland is perfect!

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119573153#Comment_119573153

Ireland is far from perfect.

We have had monumental missteps over the last 100 years of the state's existence. But we have got a few things spectacularly right.

We have had some major scandals that have cost us dear. We have an appalling record of providing infrastructure. Our planning system is very slow and open to significant levels of corruption. Our banking system has let us down badly - not just in 2008, but throughout the last 100 years. They failed to support the nascent state when it needed credit desperately, and has hardly been a friend to the nation.

We are beginning to shake off the last effects of the subservience to the Catholic church which was built into the 1936 constitution where we allowed it to take control of our health system and the education of most of our children. There is still a way to go on this.

But, we are no longer dirt poor. We have an international reputation that is far from bad, with a place on the UN Security Council - for the third time.

We have climbed from being a net recipient of EU funds because we were 60% average income of the EU when we joined - to currently being a net contributor.

Thanks to T. K. Whitaker's approach, we looked out on the world with a broad welcome, rather than DE Valera's myopic inward vision of unhelpful self sufficiency. It is thanks to the inward investment of USA corporations, among others, that has allowed this. They benefited, but so did we.

I think we have done well for ourselves as a nation, and look forward to us continuing to do well. Let us hope we continue see to the world in 'Right vs Wrong, rather than Right vs Left'.

ELM327

I don't think the irish people are, but I think our representatives are. This is 100% a function of PR vs FPTP

paul71

I honestly think we are more to the center then to either right or left. In the UK a center does not exist and perhaps that is a result of FPTP.

mazdamiatamx5

On average, Irish people are to the left of the English, due to being better educated, less influenced by the far right foreign owned media that controls most of the UK media, and our history of colonisation and subjugation.

By international standards, the Irish electorate does not lean particularly left wing, voting mainly for centrist capitalist parties of various types - FF, FG, SF and so on.

growleaves

@Sam Russell 'Thanks to T. K. Whitaker's approach, we looked out on the world with a broad welcome, rather than DE Valera's myopic inward vision of unhelpful self sufficiency.'

I think it was insightful and creative at the time but, over sixty years later, we are still mostly dependent on foreign-based and owned industries and foreign investment. So apparently we are relying on this to serve as a permanent policy despite the real risk that it may only be temporary?

Should we not be using the dividend from a wealthy society to somehow create and build up parallel industries and infrastructure?

Germany has native machine-building, automobile, electrical engineering and electronics, chemical, and food processing industries.

Sam Russell

When Ireland opened up to foreign inward investment, we had low levels of third level education and not that high with second level - with most children leaving school with no qualifications at all. As a result of free second level education and significant increase in university take up, we are a target for FDI.

Most managers in these companies are Irish educated and trained. Many were trained by the foreign employer. This has given rise to many Irish led companies springing up and creating businesses providing local employment.

Foreign investment is not new. Ford and Dunlop established a long time ago in Cork.

saabsaab

I'd say that all irish parties are left of centre even FG.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119816651#Comment_119816651

What's your basis for this?

Hello 2D Person Below

On average, I'd say just about.

The English are more likely to be socialist but also more like to be very conservative.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119818418#Comment_119818418

Their policies at least as they are portrayed. All accept socialist ideas and Government intervention in the market. We don't have a right wing party as in the 'Tories' or the Republican party.

Murph85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119818418#Comment_119818418

I'd say European most generous welfare state. A outrageous marginal rate of tax over a pittance of an income... for a start

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119833007#Comment_119833007

Not seeing it. Governments everywhere interfere in markets. I wouldn't say this is a good way to define either left or right wing.

Hello 2D Person Below

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119833078#Comment_119833078

Ireland spends 16% of GDP on welfare. We don't even rank in the top 20 in Europe.

Murph85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119833183#Comment_119833183

Where can I see there stays? We have a tiny elderly population, that will skew figures..in terms of the amount paid out per week, including the other perks. Our amounts are ridiculous

tjhook

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119833183#Comment_119833183

Any expenditure will be tiny when compared to our GDP... It's our GDP that's out of whack.

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119833183#Comment_119833183

GDP is of no use as a denominator in most ratios in Ireland, it is massively inflated / distorted by MNC activity.

We have a high share of the population on welfare.

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119833183#Comment_119833183

Eurostat data on Social Protection expenditure per person, 2019

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/spr_exp_sum/default/table?lang=en

Ireland is in 9th place, as far as I can see, at 10,015 euro per person in 2019.

landofthetree

The Brits love their NHS.

They also have much better public transport and infrastructure.

They also have free schoolbooks and much better school facilities.

They would never let corpo pay only 12.5% like FF FG SF etc support.

Seems they are to the left of the average Irish Mé Feiner.