ec18 wrote: » no ones denying how the commission is appointed. I'm just confused as to why you want to vote for a commissioner? Is it the principle that you want to be able to vote for everyone in political institutions?To be honest I'm not sure that the public at large would take the time to educate themselves firstly on the workings of the commission as well as it's purpose and on each of the candidates available in each of the countries to make it an informed vote and come out with a commission that was functioning
Psychiatric Patrick wrote: » So you are saying he did pass a fair judgement on you? He "let you off" - you got away with it?
jm08 wrote: » Michael O'Leary was Leader of the Labour Party and became a judge (I was up in front of him once for a parking fine which I had forgotten to pay which he let me off with just paying the original fine).
Loafing Oaf wrote: » The ex-judge at the shindig, Pat McCartan was a Workers Party TD in a former life
mick087 wrote: » Nonsense they should be accountable to its citizens as you full well know. 27 commissioners 1 for each country let the citizens of each country vote for for there commissioner. This unelected commissioner and president nonsense must change.
elperello wrote: » And who could say that they didn't bring the benefit of their experience in their former careers to their work on the bench? The idea of excluding anyone who has been involved in democratic politics from the judiciary would need a lot more consideration.
caveat emptor wrote: » This is very relevant because Phil Hogan can't be made to resign for bringing the office into disrepute. Even though our elected representatives nominated him.
caveat emptor wrote: » The commission structure makes lobbying very easy. 27 people to cajole vs a parliament / government. Very handy for big corporations to get legislation passed.
Loafing Oaf wrote: » I wonder who came up with that wheeze of the partition down the middle of the room (and then made the call to pull it back before the end of the night). Surely it must have been agreed in advance at some level between the Golf Society and the hotel. Obviously it's within the hotel's power not to go along with the plan even if it was initiated by the golf club so they must be at least partially responsible for any rule-breaking.
jm08 wrote: » It was a genuine mistake forgetting to pay the fine. I was quite unusual in the court in actually not having paid 1 fine, because most the people there had 100s of unpaid fines.
stockshares wrote: » Claire Byrne really going for it now. She's talking about "the extraordinary story of King Carlos of Spain." Is she getting her instructions directly from Denis O Brien? There's 80 extraordinary stories she should be talking sbout., Mainly Seamus Woulfe, Brian Hayes and Vulture Funds + why has Helen McEntee brought it legislation supporting Vulture Funds profiteering.
RandomViewer wrote: » No consideration, if your judgment is so poor that you join a political party you shouldn't be a judge . Funny how FG let someone from Official SF/The Workers Party be a judge?
Psychiatric Patrick wrote: » You realise you doing exactly the same thing?
caveat emptor wrote: » That's the point of it to be fair. It's called a 'commission' or a college. It's a government as it set's legislation. What's different about this government is that they are not voted into power. Big Phil got the nod. Every other country sends a representative who is not elected. The EU parliament (Luke Ming et al) are actually voted in but have no real power. You may think this is a great idea but some posters don't. This is very relevant because Phil Hogan can't be made to resign for bringing the office into disrepute. Even though our elected representatives nominated him. The commission structure makes lobbying very easy. 27 people to cajole vs a parliament / government. Very handy for big corporations to get legislation passed.
fly_agaric wrote: » It is not really because making it so our directly elected reps can remove the commissioner post fact as well as nominate him/her will obviously create chaos in the Commission, particularly if not every country always uses such a mechanism in good faith (...fat chance). The EU, as Eurosceptics remind us constantly often has a hard time getting anything done, especially responding to events rapidly with 26 member states arguing the toss. A change like that would probably make the whole thing ungovernable at some point and more likely to collapse. That is why there needs to be fairly strong ethics around it...but not one member state being able to recall " their" commissioner because he dirties his bib at home.
mick087 wrote: » That's not good if true.
fly_agaric wrote: » Maybe you should start another thread on .
Loafing Oaf wrote: » So news/current affairs programming should be all Golfgate all the time at the moment? And any presenter talking about anything else must be an establishment shill?
caveat emptor wrote: » So if Ursla decides to keep him in post then there is very clearly a difference in morals between our national government and the EU commission.
elperello wrote: » So you think just joining a party should exclude one from the judiciary? What's wrong with joining a party? I haven't time to go through them all just now but that would probably rule out about half the current crop. Not really all that funny it was just part of the deal at the time.
Jizique wrote: » I said many consider him a prick, didn’t say that I do
fly_agaric wrote: » You would characterise it like that of course. The EU institutions have generally had higher "morals" than our own political representatives over the years from what I've seen and have helped improved standards of governance here. e.g. I posted early on thread of Charlie McCreevy having to be told by the EU that taking up a director role after his period as Commissioner would cause conflict of interest. The way that politicians in this country have operated in the past + the way citizens here seem to generally be "okay" with that sort of thing (so long as he's "pulling" for us") probably meant he saw no problem at all with it.
ec18 wrote: » no ones denying how the commission is appointed. I'm just confused as to why you want to vote for a commissioner? Is it the principle that you want to be able to vote for everyone in political institutions? To be honest I'm not sure that the public at large would take the time to educate themselves firstly on the workings of the commission as well as it's purpose and on each of the candidates available in each of the countries to make it an informed vote and come out with a commission that was functioning
stockshares wrote: » Ursula has just said she will take into account other sources of info regarding Phil Hogan.
mick087 wrote: » Sometimes the truth hurts sometimes you don't agree with what someone says but by stating that im saying the same thing means you want someone to be quiet and agree with you.The sneer comments only show your own arrogance and serve no other purpose.