What’s your most controversial opinion? **Read OP** **Mod Warning in Post #8023**

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123941854#Comment_123941854

Not to mention the waste.

I know for a fact so much of it is dumped daily.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123934425#Comment_123934425

Japanese domestic racing in the early 90s had lots of wealthy sponsors, which is the reason he and several other Western drivers were over there in the first place. Needless to say their economic crash ended that.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123934450#Comment_123934450

Who are they going to shoot though?

No point having a gun if you can't use it - and there's no way they will ever be allowed to shoot unarmed suspects. FFS as it stands I'd expect them to be filling in forms for a week if they use their pepper spray.

Then there was that incident where a detective was overpowered by a mentally ill man and shot dead. Another one where a gun fell out of the back of a Garda car. More guns = more potential for things to go badly wrong. Keep them to when they are needed.

cj maxx

The Irish stance of ' neutrality ' is a complete cop out of our duty to uphold our principles .

I'm not saying we should join NATO or build aircraft carriers but to have a functioning military that can at least patrol our national territory is the very basic the state should endeavour to achieve . We are the security bare arse of Europe , and of thedemocratic way of life Europe enjoys .

Our political parties are nothing but glorified county councillors who , like everything else they do is to is outsource their responsibilities . Healthcare .to private companies and security the UK ..

This isn't a right wing rant but being all smiles on the international stage and doing fcuk all at home is embarrassing . We are rightly proud of our resistance to the British and won our country only to do fcuk all with it only sell out on it it create a political class that ride us blatantly . Which brings me on to them or as they're known the Senate .

Even our new Presidents first statement was airy fairy ramble with no substance.

Hotblack Desiato

We absolutely should join NATO but moral cowardice and wishful thinking is the order of the day. For example that vatnik head case we just elected as President.

Greyfox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123942574#Comment_123942574

We are neutral because we have brains. If you are a rabbit you know you can't fight against a rottweiler. If we increased our spend on defense we'd probably spend 800 million euro on weapons worth 70 million euro.

cj maxx

Neutrality is fine . But we are so neutral it's ridiculous . Wokism is so ingrained ìn our psyche its like we are a school kid in the playground who rather than call bullies out just try to pacify everyone. . We have as much clout on the international stage as a feather . It's a big bad world and we are too terrified from 800 years of being picked on to take a stand for our values which coincidentally are much the same as as the local bully . Flying a French flag on your Facebook page after a terrorist attack is all well and good but quite frankly is very not worth a **** for safeguarding our society. Yes nothing is black and white but we have to pick and choose our enemies as much as our friends . Locking the door of your house while leaving the window and back door open while a noble thing will not save your belongings and family

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123942563#Comment_123942563

You're obviously not going to shoot someone breaking the 80K speed limit but the point is they need a gun for when it's required . Perhaps you're stuck in the past where you idea of policing is you give them a boot up the hole and a bollixing but that as they say is about as useful as tits on a bull now .

ruwithme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123942574#Comment_123942574

" we " fair play to you

cms88

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123941854#Comment_123941854

It also imo give the parents who already don't look after their kids even more of a reason not to.

Ozymandius2011

The solution to polar bears facing extinction may be air drops of food, or putting them in a zoo. But for Antarctica being full of penguins, that would be a better home for them.

Of course the better solution would be to tackle climate change, but America is not going to do that.

Jack Daw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123942689#Comment_123942689

Switzerland is neutral yet it spends 3 times as much of it's GDP as us on Defence.

We have 7.5k active personnel they have 147k, pro rata to match up with the Swiss we should have around 75K active personnel.

Our lack of interest in having a proper armed forces is embarrassing for what is supposed to be a sovereign nation we're a sovereign nation who cannot in any way defend our own sovereignty. It's particularly embarrassing when our politicians spout off on global issues around war when we don't even make an attempt to be able to defend our own country yet they think they have the right to comment on military issues in other parts of the world.

Cordell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123942977#Comment_123942977

Actually moving the bears (or the penguins) is a much more sensible measure than the current ones, where we cripple our economy chasing the pipe dream of stopping the climate change, all while outsourcing the heavy industry and it's CO2 footprint to countries who don't give a single flying fukc.

Dealing with the inevitable climate change effects is a much more pragmatic and realistic approach.

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123943490#Comment_123943490

Put better than I ever could

csirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123937037#Comment_123937037

The teams that win in any era are those that play best under the rules, equipment and conditions that exist at that time.

Put any of todays teams against a team from the 1920s in a game played under 1920s rules, on a boggy waterlogged 20s pitch with players wearing 1920s steel capped football boots and the 1920s team would win easily.

Likewise, take a 1920s team and put them up against a PL team from today under todays rules and conditions and they'd be played off the park - thats if most of them werent first red carded for physicality that was allowed in the 20s.

Iscreamkone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123943623#Comment_123943623

The 1920s teams could not live with today’s players speed, physicality and skill. It would be like playing an underage team.

Greyfox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123943490#Comment_123943490

We don't need to defend our country as we are not in any danger of been attacked. We have real issues like the housing crisis that are far more important than throwing money where its not needed

Jack Daw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123943917#Comment_123943917

Every country needs to be able to defend itself or make some sort of effort about it.

Most countries aren't in danger of being attacked 99% of the time, but they still have an army.

The argument about the housing crisis might be ok to make if the government actually were rapidly trying to fix that but they don't even fix that either.

You could at least make some argument of justify not spending enough money on an armed forces if everything else within the country was running perfectly and we had no housing crisis , no issues with the health system etc but the government can't even get that right either.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123943937#Comment_123943937

My argument would be that Ireland is so strategically important in between the UK and the US, that both of those countries would need to defend it to keep themselves safe in a global conflict. The UK already intercepts Russian submarine and aircraft fairly regularly (so I've heard anyway).

So we can keep sponging off them. And if either of them ever tried to invade us, we wouldn't have a hope of defending ourselves even of we spent 10% of GDP on defence.

I hate this argument because it is very weak and we're subletting out defence to other countries. But I think it pretty much reflects reality.