Referendum on Gender Equality (THREADBANS IN OP)

It's a relationship between a husband and his mistress, and also between a family and their local postman. But at this stage it doesn't matter what it is anyway. As to why would single parents have not fallen under it, maybe someday somemone will give me a reason why, but so far ive not seen one.

I'm certain of how the law works, that's good enough for me.

Oh I know. I'm just putting out an awareness alert that Holly has gone to ground and that in itself, should be a warning sign. Her handlers have noticed the turning tide this weekend and are keeping her out of the limelight - It's only a few weeks ago she was banging on about 'pre-famine population in Ireland and we're not full' - y'know, schoolyard stuff.

Speaking of handlers and advisers of all the parties - They have to be the dumbest bastards of all (baring the people they're advising). They are the ones that should be reading the room and getting the pulse of the nation, but no, these highly paid muppets (that we pay for) seem to be simply 'Yes men' - If they were doing their jobs properly, the Govt would be on a very different tack.

Example -

Govt: Where are we going with the immigration situation?

Adviser: It's not great, so we recommend that we gaslight the fookers for a year and tell them they're racists

Govt: Will that work?

Adviser: It might

Govt: Well, did it work?

Adviser: No

Govt: What should we do now?

Adviser: Gaslight them more

Ireland has proven itself socially progressive( woke in your words) on many occasions. Your wet dream of a conservative party emerging and sweeping the board is just that - a dream.

How difficult is it to understand that the Irish people rejected badly worded proposals, and most of those are still broadly liberal in outlook.

No doubt you were on the wrong side of the last two referendums, but I am sure you conveniently forget that inconvenient fact in your rush to crow about this one.

That’s true. Poor optics also attacking a younger female politician but that’s him allover. He’s an atrocious Taoiseach. They’re going to be annihilated in June

Who's left you vote for lol.

I don't understand that post.

I agree.

What will be interesting is the next Sunday Poll that is published....in the last one they stated that Aontu were down 1 to 3pc I think....

Not for one second have I believed a poll published in this country over the last number of years, we saw during Covid how ridiculous they were and how they were used....I certainly don't believe any poll that suggests that the current major political parties are in or around the same support levels they received in 2020....that is a downright lie.

Remember, the idea of propaganda is not to convince you of an argument but to convince you that you are in the minority.

Before anyone calls me nasty names, I also knew any poll that suggested we were headed for a Yes vote was complete nonsense, as did many of us!

I think he means once you exclude the parties you are disillusioned with, then whoever is left no matter how ridiculous or awful is who you vote for.

That's the kind of corner I would be painted into if I was living in Ireland.

As I said before SF will be the main beneficiaries of a collapse in FFG since they have already done the hard work of building a solid platform of support.

Do they have a solid platform of support? I would have been one of those considering giving a vote to SF but there performance has been awful over the last while and they seem to be as disconnected from voters as FF and FG as was seen with them backing this shambolic referendum.

Agree!

She's an easy target/sacrificial lamb. Mind you, it's no ones business how anyone votes. but I think we can all agree that a TD campaigning for something they themselves will vote against is not a good place to be in.

I'd also bet that she wasn't the only Government TD to vote No/No. Willie O'Dea breaking ranks on the hate speech laws is good thing I suppose, at least he's being clear on his position.

All in all though, it's been the worst set referendums in the history of the state. 74%/68% against. The only other referendum with that much opposition was to lower the age of the presidency to 21 (Which was in fairness a very stupid thing to even propose)

Yes the polls I couldn’t reconcile. I don’t live in Dublin, I live in a large town in Leinster and a mix of rural and more liberal voters- no one I spoke to was voting yes. My brother was initially yes to the relationships one but quickly changed his mind once he read up more on it.

Actually the more info people had the less likely they were to vote yes which is the complete opposite of the governments yarn about not understanding the proposals. They were just crap proposals, end of story.

Govt support is way overstated in the polls as is especially SF

If she had of come out before the vote and said after reading all the material and listening to the debates that she as now decided to vote No/No, I don't think she would be as criticised as much even with the canvasing for a Yes/Yes vote previously. After all we can all change our minds.

Hello there new poster. What do you think of the carers and various carers' associations who called to vote NO then?

All fools, manipulated by the far right? Turkeys voting for Christmas?

Or people who can recognise a cynical ploy when they see one?

The polls on the referendum may not have been wrong though

They showed an initial high support for Yes/Yes

Then they showed this losing ground

They also showed huge undecided votes.

It's entirely possible the polls were correct and there was a large swing to No/No in the last few days of the campaign.

Not often I will agree with you but you are 100% correct on this. They need to stop this hedging and start making decisions and sticking with their convictions.

Sinn Fein's real problem is that they are basically a single issue party that is trying to develop a wider program so as to become a credible future government. In reality though, they don't have many fundamental convictions other than a united Ireland.

That's not meant as a criticism of them, more an observation.

But that's how they've gone from being Marxist Leninist in the 70s to full-on "progressive" now, while still having a certain right-wing catholic group amongst them too (less so now, as that generation dies off of course). But that's why they can, and will, flip flop to find whatever they think will win them votes.

Well, they missed a chance to listen to the grassroots there. Victims of their own success, I suspect: too many recent middle class recruits hoping to cash in on SF's popularity in the polls all the better to dictate to the great unwashed as usual.

I wouldn't disagree with much of what people have said here, but it still fundamentally doesn't change the fact that SF will be the main beneficiaries of a FFG collapse, and even more so if lots of independents stand.

Sinn Fein might be in for a rude awakening. It is too early to say. They are declining again in the polls and there does not seem to be any 'right wing' party capitalizing. It seems to be swings and roundabouts for the existing parties. However if SF does not expand their vote in the next election then I think they are done. I think there is a lot of nationalist people out there who are quite for now but will increasingly see SF as not representing Ireland's interests as they think it should be. I think they rethoric in favor of a United Ireland is saving them for now.

I think the issue here is that as public representatives they do have at least a moral obligation to show a better example when it comes to voting. They are not 'Seán Citizen'

How many times now are you going to warn us that if we don't vote for FF, FG or Greens then SF will be winners.

And now you are warning about the hazard of independents.

I hope you don't vote for FFG, just understand the likely outcome.