Referendum on Gender Equality

The concept of a citizen's assembly has some merit, but the way they are operated in this country discredits theme somewhat.

Political parties have a huge local resource to tap into, by consulting their local grassroots organisations to establish what the current public mood is. Unfortunately not many of the major parties have any interest in the knowledge that can be gleaned from their grassroots.

I guess The Dail is the ultimate Citizen's Assembly and, if the members were doing their jobs, their would be no need for these flawed institutions.

This is disgusting lies. Nobody is advocating for paedophiles.

So, look at ways of improving the functioning of citizens' assemblies, then. Work cross-party to figure out how they can more accurately gauge the public mood.

It's sort of a truism to say an institution is flawed since human beings are flawed and so will any organisation of them be. It's about minimising those flaws, or at least trying to do that first, before saying a thing should be gotten rid of entirely.

I'd much rather the citizens' assemblies we have here and sober attempts to build political consensus than the deepening divisions in the UK and especially the US. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I've no interest in discussing what is a durable relationship, it's irrelevant at this point. My point was that Leo was correct when he said a lot of people didn't understand the words in the proposal. And attempts to almost rewrite history and claim that wasn't the case and everyone understood is wrong.

How would you propose to reform them?

Not really. He should be asking Yes voters why they made that choice as well. Instead, it's the "No" voters that have to explain themselves

There have been a handful of citizens assemblies. There are hundreds of jury trials every year. Not knowing anyone who has sat on one is not indicative of anything other that the are rare

Nope, too busy posting here. 😉

The more Leo and other government apologists repeat their belief that the public just didn't understand, the bigger the hole they are digging for themselves.

Listening to Joe Duffy there is a lot of anger from some of those who voted Yes and now realise they were duped into it by believing the spin.

Mary Lou saying that Sinn Fein will run another referendum to remove the women's place in the home from the Constitution shows they really have no idea why c70% of the citizens voted No. Most, if not all, women knew they were voting to keep women and mothers in the Constitution and are fully aware it is a protective provision and definitely not an insulting and archaic imposition.

The NWCI have never in all their existence called for support for stay at home mothers. Even yesterday the head of the organisation said words to the effect that they will learn from this vote and push for more state funded childcare for working women. It's about time they tried pushing for more state support for stay at home parents.