Ming Flanagan

end a eknny · 29-06-2011 11:25PM

karma_ wrote: »

This post just doesn't make any kind of sense, nor is it based in any kind of reality.

read it again in the morning and it will make more sense. he only has one policy, that is the legalisation of cannabis and he was even man enough to stand up for his beliefs

karma_ · 29-06-2011 11:37PM

end a eknny wrote: »

read it again in the morning and it will make more sense. he only has one policy, that is the legalisation of cannabis and he was even man enough to stand up for his beliefs

This is what I'm referring to, this is not the only policy he has campaigned on. It's fairly insulting to those who voted him into office to portray it as such.

Oasis_Dublin · 29-06-2011 11:39PM

end a eknny wrote: »

ming was an still is in the lucky position that he could make any pre election promises and keep them because he was never going to be in a position to keep them

+1. Exactly, he is a nobody who can make idle populist promises because he will never be in ministerial position in government.

end a eknny · 29-06-2011 11:42PM

karma_ wrote: »

This is what I'm referring to, this is not the only policy he has campaigned on. It's fairly insulting to those who voted him into office to portray it as such.

but why vote him into office he was never be in any goverment ad therefore his policies are irrelevant. also he got a protest vote and he picked the usual vote getting hospitals turf and whatever bull culchies like to hear. to land himself a well paying handy number. maybe he is not as stupid as he looks and sounds

Jagle · 29-06-2011 11:44PM

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

Politicians can advocate drug use? I'm slightly confused.

why cant they? if they believe that one drug is no worse then another drug, in this example cannabis and alcohol/ tobacco why cant they express that opinion?

surely the public should know what the candidate of an election or their councilor/representative beliefs are.

Jan O Sullivan of labour is also in favor of its decriminalisation or its legalisation for medicinal uses

Vizzy · 29-06-2011 11:48PM

Ming's effectiveness( or lack of) will be evident when Roscommon General Hospital A&E Dept is closed.

Oasis_Dublin · 29-06-2011 11:50PM

Jagle wrote: »

why cant they? if they believe that one drug is no worse then another drug, in this example cannabis and alcohol/ tobacco why cant they express that opinion?

surely the public should know what the candidate of an election or their councilor/representative beliefs are.

Jan O Sullivan of labour is also in favor of its decriminalisation or its legalisation for medicinal uses

Well I don't care what my local candidate's views are on alcohol... unless they keep bringing it up and have a history of running purely based on the fact that they use alcohol.

None of the politicians I gave a vote to yelped on about their previous drug use, be it alcohol, cannabis or crystal meth.

karma_ · 29-06-2011 11:54PM

Vizzy wrote: »

Ming's effectiveness( or lack of) will be evident when Roscommon General Hospital A&E Dept is closed.

At least he will campaign for and be the voice of his constituency. Had a random FF/FG had been voted in instead, it is likely that the wishes of the constituents would take second place to the wishes of the party.

Jagle · 30-06-2011 12:00AM

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

Well I don't care what my local candidate's views are on alcohol... unless they keep bringing it up and have a history of running purely based on the fact that they use alcohol.

None of the politicians I gave a vote to yelped on about their previous drug use, be it alcohol, cannabis or crystal meth.

so why do you care if Ming voices his opinions

tayto lover · 30-06-2011 12:04AM

Vizzy wrote: »

Ming's effectiveness( or lack of) will be evident when Roscommon General Hospital A&E Dept is closed.

Well he won't be on his own there as at least two Fine Gael T.D.'s will be in the same boat.

Vizzy · 30-06-2011 12:16AM

karma_ wrote: »

At least he will campaign for and be the voice of his constituency. Had a random FF/FG had been voted in instead, it is likely that the wishes of the constituents would take second place to the wishes of the party.

He may do, and the best of luck to him and the people of Roscommon.

My point is simple though,Ming and all the other independants are effectively powerless when decisions of this nature are made(unless they have the Gov caught by the family jewels ala Tony Gregory,Ml Lowry or Jackie H Rae)

Oasis_Dublin · 30-06-2011 12:22AM

Jagle wrote: »

so why do you care if Ming voices his opinions

I came across this topic while having a look at the politics forum. I came across two posts which had to be replied to. Now here we are.

When Luke mingen Flanagan tries to do the right thing (save a hospital) and fails, he is applauded for trying. He has tried to right a wrong that is out of his control (ie FG/Lab close the hospital) When Enda Kenny tries to do the right thing (undo FF's attempt to destroy Irish sovereignty) and fails, he's lampooned as a holier-than-thou type character who cares about nobody but himself. He has tried to right a wrong that is out of his control. (ie FF signed away Irish sovereignty for their €140,000 pensions)The double standards are alarming.

The politicians I vote for don't glamourise their drug use, as opposed to mingen Flanagan. Each to their own.

Permabear · 30-06-2011 01:10AM

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Oasis_Dublin · 30-06-2011 01:31AM

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Right, our political system isn't perfect. That's not what is up for discussion here. For the local politician, the right thing to do is to attempt to keep the hospital open. Thus, discussing mingen at this point, the right thing to do for him to fight for the local hospital.

Permabear · 30-06-2011 01:47AM

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matthew8 · 30-06-2011 02:04AM

Permabear wrote: »

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He went way down in my estimations recently. Anyone who wants to know more about him should watch "dole eireann" or "the life and crimes of citizen ming".

flas · 30-06-2011 03:18AM

i dont think people actually know much about the whole roscommon hospital situation from reading some of the comments here? the whole issue is they want to save a&e in the county, so people wont have to be brought to galway, which is reasonable enough of a claim in this day and age. for instance if your mother or father was having a heart attack, and they lived 5 minutes away from an a&e that was just closed and had to travel an hour to the nearest hospital and died on route, would you not think it would be a vital service to the county?

I myself think that a&e's should be kept around the county but that specialist and full hospital services should be centralised.

im originally from longford, where there is no hospital, closest one is mullingar, always has been, but if you break your leg or break your arm you go to tullamore, which is not a fun hour and twenty minutes drive!

Sticky_Fingers · 30-06-2011 04:01AM

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

Well I don't care what my local candidate's views are on alcohol... unless they keep bringing it up and have a history of running purely based on the fact that they use alcohol.

None of the politicians I gave a vote to yelped on about their previous drug use, be it alcohol, cannabis or crystal meth.

The main flaw in this argument is that unlike legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco your life can effectively be ruined if you indulge in cannabis, not on health grounds but purely on the whim of the legal system. Highlighting the absolute craziness of the status quo is IMO a good thing and if more politicians were willing to discuss their own experiences with drugs (I wager their are quite a few upstanding members of the house who could tell a story or two) it would help strip away some of the nonsense and hysteria surrounding the issue.

Oasis_Dublin · 30-06-2011 12:30PM

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

It's highly disingenuous of anyone to claim that non-ministerial TDs are anything other than people attempting to satisfy local constituents. We all would like it to be national politics but we both know it isn't like that now. We may as well deal with the situation as it actually stands and not as we would like it to be.

Oasis_Dublin · 30-06-2011 12:32PM

Sticky_Fingers wrote: »

The main flaw in this argument is that unlike legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco your life can effectively be ruined if you indulge in cannabis, not on health grounds but purely on the whim of the legal system. Highlighting the absolute craziness of the status quo is IMO a good thing and if more politicians were willing to discuss their own experiences with drugs (I wager their are quite a few upstanding members of the house who could tell a story or two) it would help strip away some of the nonsense and hysteria surrounding the issue.

There is no flaw in the argument. Enda Kenny or Michael Martin did not run on manifestos in previous elections based on the idea that they consumed alcohol or smoked weed. Mingen Flanagan has. After that, he's a populist rhetoric merchant. He needs to put on a suit and tie as well!

nacho libre · 30-06-2011 01:23PM

Vizzy wrote: »

Ming's effectiveness( or lack of) will be evident when Roscommon General Hospital A&E Dept is closed.

Yes. It seems on this issue and turf cutting he got the votes of people who normally wouldn't vote for him. There will be a lot of disappointed people that it's being downgraded. I don't think him fighting the good fight will be enough to stop votes leaking away. I suspect FF, now that they can side with populist opinion, will win back some votes over this issue in the area.

Permabear · 30-06-2011 02:21PM

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tayto lover · 30-06-2011 02:40PM

The so-called "Centres of Excellence" should have been up and running BEFORE the local hospitals had their services cut and were run down. As usual the Government did it arseways.

Sticky_Fingers · 30-06-2011 02:57PM

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

There is no flaw in the argument. Enda Kenny or Michael Martin did not run on manifestos in previous elections based on the idea that they consumed alcohol or smoked weed.

Flanagan did not run on the basis that he we should be voted in just because he smoked weed, he ran so that he could hopefully have some small hope of changing the drug laws. To paint him as a chancer who just uses his drug use as some sort of vote getting affectation is unfair considering his stance has in all likelihood turned away many who would otherwise supported him.

Oasis_Dublin · 30-06-2011 03:00PM

Sticky_Fingers wrote: »

Flanagan did not run on the basis that he we should be voted in just because he smoked weed, he ran so that he could hopefully have some small hope of changing the drug laws. To paint him as a chancer who just uses his drug use as some sort of vote getting affectation is unfair considering his stance has in all likelihood turned away many who would otherwise supported him.

To be fair, I was explicit in my uses of the term "previous elections." He has been well known for sending weed to TDs and putting hash leaves on his election posters. I don't believe this to be true of other politicians.

flas · 30-06-2011 10:59PM

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

haha, no. did you really get that from my post? wow! no, i was simply saying that every county town in the country should at least have an a&e service and that some fully fledged local hospitals that are simply no need for them they should be centralised to the biggest centres of population.

mikom · 01-07-2011 12:27AM

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

He has been well known for sending weed to TDs and putting hash leaves on his election posters.

A hash leaf?

Is that like a heroin seed?

autonomy · 01-07-2011 12:35AM

Yeah it's not unusual:
luke 'ming' flanagan
brian 'clown' cowen
enda 'EU' kenny
bertie 'Eh Eh I don't know who gave me that money Eh' ahern

eagle eye · 01-07-2011 12:44AM

nacho libre wrote: »

Yes. It seems on this issue and turf cutting he got the votes of people who normally wouldn't vote for him. There will be a lot of disappointed people that it's being downgraded. I don't think him fighting the good fight will be enough to stop votes leaking away. I suspect FF, now that they can side with populist opinion, will win back some votes over this issue in the area.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that if the hospital doesn't stay as it is that there will be one FG td at most if any in that constituency after the next general election.

I can also tell you that those tds can expect to be visited and have their houses picketed over this.

You can take a lot of things off Roscommon but if you touch their hospital they get serious. Sean Doherty was a poll topper his whole career and then lost his seat over that hospital, Terry Leyden likewise.

As for Ming, I think everybody knew that he was not going to be in government when they were voting him in. He has speaking rights in the house and is active in the Dail and I'd think that people are happy to have a pro-hospital and bog voice of dissent.

I'll have a bet with you if you want to escrow money. I'm willing to bet any amount(that I can afford) that Ming Flanagan will be re-elected in the next general election. If you give me a price I'll take him to top the poll.

eagle eye · 01-07-2011 12:49AM

Permabear wrote: »

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He is a voice for the people of his constituency in Dail Eireann. If TDs did what you say they should they would never be re-elected.

At least be realistic about things.

Ming Flanagan

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