FF/FG/Green Government - Part 3

What a ridiculous comment.

Listening to Holly Cairns on the Gavan Reilly and friends podcast. She had a harrowing time as a female politician, my heart really goes out to her. No one should have to put up with that shite. It was also quite telling that she gave a reason why the public is acting so aggressively against politicians, basically alluding to the fact that people feel they've nothing to lose anymore. They've made life so bad for us people are reacting. I'm telling yis lads, things are going to get worse. It's not good.

Talk about circling the wagons:

Why do I get the feeling others in this circus masquerading as a government have something to hide?

Though watching the news it would appear amnesia is endemic in both the Irish & British governments.

Sorry, care to shed light on your comment? I’m not sure how to interpret it: is it becoming repetitive as in more of the same or You complaining about this story not being ‘put to bed’?

Zahawi in London admitted in London that He did pay a tax of mega money, meanwhile here English forgets He has houses, Troy- has so many houses it appears he forgot some& now Donohue who imho comes across as smug and is ‘always right’ is in trouble too. As far as I’m concerned, ANY politician covering up needs to be exposed.

End of!

FG down 4%. Some people will be so upset.

Regards...jmcc

I find it mind boggling that FF ( according to this poll ) have gained 4%.

Not surprising FG % is falling like steel girders. There was very little of note in the recent budget for their core base- in fact they whalloped on more taxes to company car users, plenty of whom would be traditional FG voter base.

My January pay slip showed nothing of note anyhow. PRSI how up slightly I think. From what I can make out I’ve seen a truly amazing €20 per month reduction in PAYE- Pascal is such a financial genius indeed.

So much for Leo’s “Rewarding those that get up in the morning” claptrap. This is a hard left high welfare high tax shambles of a government- and FG support it.

Thank you. There was some BIK included in my payslip for this month which may have had an impact on the net figure so. I would be paying at the higher rate

I see that opinion polls have become newsworthy again, surprise, surprise.

As always, some fluctuations in support, but the key point was once again missed completely by the experts.

Just past the midpoint of the electoral cycle and the government are at 49% in the polls. By any historical standard, here or abroad, that is the type of support that leads to them being re-elected.

If he was intending to do that I'm convinced he would have given some indication round the taoiseach/tanaiste handover, thus heading off any risk he would be dragged out of the FF leadership kicking & screaming...

Superb analysis jmcc. Thanks

Interesting stuff from the Oireachtas committee yesterday

Healthcare is held back by paper-based records as funding yet to be approved for switch to electronic system – HSE - Independent.ie

He told the Oireachtas health committee that a business case made to the Department of Public Expenditure in 2018 to fund the extension of digitalisation was turned down on the grounds it was necessary to see how the system works in the new national children’s hospital first although it will not be ready until next year.

He said that in 2018 and 2019 the HSE sought approval procurement national electronic health record system from the Department of Expenditure and Reform.

“This work would have included an electronic health record for acute and community services and provided a portal for patients to access their data.“

Approval was deferred in 2019 until a review of the outcomes of the new national children’s hospital which was approved, was completed.

---------------

That's the FG legacy...

What are you talking about?

Great summation JMCC.

let’s hope You ain’t far out. I was a labour supporter all my life. After the Gilmore/Burton shenanigans I’d have thought they’d be dead & buried. How anyone gives them a vote has very short memories.

As for the greens? I won’t waste any space on them.

The Greens have a kind of identity crisis at the moment. The topics for which they've campaigned for decades have become mainstream and have been adopted by the major parties. The implosion of Labour in 2016 also ensured that the Greens picked up a lot of water melon (Green on the outside and Labour on the inside) supporters and votes. Some of them split from the Greens to form their own party (Green Left) but haven't been heard from since. The Greens have a dedicated and almost ideological support base that will keep voting for Green candidates but it is not a Left wing party. The SocDems are beginning to pose a big threat to Labour and Bacik and co are desperate to get their claws into SocDem votes. The problem is that SocDem voters are often younger and despise Labour. The upcoming Local Elections will be interesting.

Regards...jmcc

Another record broken by the FFG government. Well done.

Homeless figures hit record high in December (rte.ie)

Homeless figures hit record high in December

More than 11,600 people including almost 3,500 children were accessing emergency accommodation during the week leading up to Christmas, according to the latest homelessness figures.

This represents a record high in numbers for the sixth consecutive month.

Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, he said that the December figures were particularly shocking when respite is usually offered during a Christmas period so numbers tend to be lower.

IMHO Blut2, you’re anything but ‘far right’, more thinking sensibly.

Personally, I’ve always wondered ( & again I’m totally against racism ) just how those gypseys with long skirts/dresses are allowed in. They seem to be nearly always pushing a pram with a baby in tow. Quite simply, I just wonder what they have to offer Ireland.

As for Albania, aren’t they trying to join the EU?

But sorry, I am diversifying. Apologies!

Another bad poll for FFG. This one is by RedC.

Regards...jmcc

Purely my perspective on reading this feature.

if I was a shinner, I’d be disappointed with the share. Surely after the turmoil that Troy, English & Donohue caused, I’d have assumed SF would gain more.

If I was a FF supporter I’d be gutted that my party was stuck on 15%.

As a FGer, I’d be thinking that someone’s head has to roll.

As for labour, I regard them as history.

The greens🙄. They really have to change strategy if they want to avoid becoming another PD party. For me ( & this is only my view ) their answer to everything is tax tax and more tax. Also, their ‘leader’ really needs replacing.

I am glad to see the SD’s climbing. My only fear is they repeat in the next election the same error that SF made in the last election - not field enough candidates.

Purely my view based on the latest poll.

The problem, to keep in mind with these breakdowns is that the Margin of Error skyrockets because the poll was only around 1K people. RedC's methodology and sampling always underestimates FF support. Sometimes it can be by about 5% or more. Despite FF's demographics being older than other parties, some of those demogaphics consistently vote. Support doesn't matter if those supporters don't vote.

FF has a major problem with Dublin support because a lot of that is now shifting to SF. There's a sense that FF only takes care of its cronies and grovels to FG at every opportunity under the useless Martin. If it is to have any hope in Dublin, it needs to dump that wannabe FGer.

The SocDems are interesting in that they are Labour without the baggage. It will take them at least two election cycles to adjust but they may benefit from the anyone but FFG/Lab vote. That gain will put the fear in the Labour because under Bacik it has not seen any increase in support. Labour was making noises about merging with the SocDems but the real reason is that the Labouriites want to get their claws into SocDem votes so that they can maintain their snouts in the public trough.

There's a realignment happening beneath the surface of Irish politics. RedC's opinion piece on how Immigration is on the way to becoming an election issue is worth reading. The last major protests in Ireland were the Water Tax protests. There are now sporadic protests happening and it is probably only a matter for time before they go mainstream. The Water Tax protests led to the rightful obliteration of Labour in 2016 (from 37 seats in 2011 to 7 in 2016). These protests, unless FFG does something quickly, will lead to an implosion of FFG seats and their replacement with single-issue Indpendent candidates. If this treds starts to play out, the first signs will be the "Undecided" % increasing in various polls along with the non-response rate (people telling pollsters to feck off) increasing.

Regards

I'd agree about FF, I think the years in government with FG have resulted in them being viewed as consistently more and more economically right wing as they've just fallen into line with FG on most issues. Thats playing a big part in SF eating the urban working class vote that used to reliably back FF. It'll be interesting to see if coming into the next election, or if under a new leader, FF move back towards emphasizing their more centrist/populist economic policies or not.

If/when the migration protests gather speed like the Water Tax ones (which does seem to be happening) I disagree that it will hit FF and FG that hard though. I think both parties will follow public opinion on the matter, neither is ideologically committed to open borders.

Its Labour, the SocDems and the Greens, all of whom are on the record calling for more open borders, who're likely to be really hit by the issue. They're all committed to open borders as a concept, and are still regularly in the media defending letting in more international protection migrants as of last week - when FF, FG and SF all have the common sense to be saying nothing about it currently, because they can see the public anger rising.

Time for this lot to go isn't it?

Housing and Health alone are so bad. While we aren't seeing mass protest against the government directly, we're seeing dispersed protest again health, and pro and anti immigration. And that awful violent attack on a homeless shelter in Dublin is disgusting.

I think the general mood is that they've failed terribly and their time has passed.

They haven't made any substantial changes to the awful policies which put us in this position, and if we leave them in power for another two years we'll be further behind.

I think a lot of people, who are not directly affected, have been unaware of how bad housing has been. In part because everything is a 'crisis' these days. And the immigration protests are just bringing it to the fore.

I'm not naive enough to believe that SF are going to wave a magic wand and fix everything overnight. But it's been clear for a long time a number of measure could have been taken around increasing the supply of houses and have been ignored whether because of ignorance, incompetence, or greed/corruption.

While I'm at it, what options are there for getting rid of this lot? Are there other mechanisms other than a vote of no-confidence? Can the president step in? Petition? Do governments ever just resign because they're just not up to the job?

But they fixcccccsssssshhhhheeeeeeedddddd the road.

The spirit of Bertie lives on!

How'd that work out the last time?