Why do we keep voting in brutal governments?

We are hardly spoiled for choice in the quality of our politicians

Who would you like?

Why don't vote in the Taoiseach and we did vote in Michael D

What is the alternative? Seriously? They are all a bunch of dehydrated cabbages.

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

.........

or the woman who set up Pieta House or someone like that?

That c**t ?

I made our lord the financial manager of pieta house

https://mobile.twitter.com/newsworthy_ie/status/1036994445118464000?lang=en



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JupiterKid wrote: »

The mid 1990s Rainbow Coalition was one of the best governments this country ever had. The laid a lot of the foundations for the Celtic Tiger and Ireland’s transition from one of Western Europe’s poorest countries to one of its richest.

And then we found out we were broke and owed billions.

Because ironically we don't have a choice.

Bad system, good idea 100 years ago but can't be taken seriously today.

We don't do at all badly in my view.

By comparison.

• USA - A terrible two party focused, funder driven media circus leading to disastrous healthcare costs and massive student debt as well as a huge number living in poverty.
• UK - An absolute sh*tshow for the last 3 years
• NI - Record for longest period without functioning legislative assembly
• France - For at least ten years the country has been dominated by various levels of political unrest and protests
• Italy - Has had 61 governments since WW2
• Australia - NO PM has served full 3 year term since 2007
• Belgium - Previous record for longest period without functioning legislative assembly
• Russia - Really??
• China - Great bunch of lads (as long as you don't look at all closely)

I don't know what exactly people expect from a Government or Taoiseach. Ministers are appointed but to lead entrenched civil service bodies and semi-state organisations which are made up of Joe Public. Every one in the country complains about the health service. 1 in 10 workers in the country work for the HSE (either directly or contracted). How many of them are willing to see changes which would affect their position?
We have such frequent elections and have so many people working for government organisations that we need to accept that we get the government which we, the people want to have.

I'm not excusing all parish pump actions, poor accountability, non-disclosure, dragging of feet or so on (of which there are plenty) but, it is much bigger than just saying we need a new Taoiseach. I rate Leo for the most part as a kind of 'meh' Taoiseach, but, he is intelligent and experienced in politics and we, as a country have done very well so far in the whole Brexit fun and games. We managed to not shoot ourselves in the foot having a pointless GE 18 months ago and those front and centre for us on Brexit have represented us very well. Also, the OP must forget that Michael D was a stalwart in the Dail for the greatest part of his career.

JupiterKid wrote: »

The current government are one of the most inept and out of touch in my opinion, and in my 44 years I’ve seen a lot of governments come and go, most pretty bad.

Leo and Co are arrogant, smug, shallow, utterly lacking in vision and imagination and their handling of the housing and health crises is nothing short of scandalous.

The mid 1990s Rainbow Coalition was one of the best governments this country ever had. The laid a lot of the foundations for the Celtic Tiger and Ireland’s transition from one of Western Europe’s poorest countries to one of its richest.

Not a pop at you or anything JK but this is exactly why we keep voting in politicians that make as though they could actually deliver on their promises of the sun, moon and stars.

Leo and Co while they are deserving of criticism (and I’m not a fan of politicians generally speaking), they are undoubtedly in touch with the general public and who is responsible for keeping them in power. Undoubtedly there have been a few PR gaffes, but for the most part they’ve put in a pretty solid performance of acting like they give a damn what people think of them.

A Government laid the foundations for the Celtic Tiger? How is that possibly a good thing? It led to people having access to credit they could only ever have dreamed of, and people are still smarting from the effects of it today living in an overinflated economy which is anything but one of the wealthiest countries in Europe! In reality it’s one of the most expensive countries in Europe.

The phrase “all fur coat and no knickers” comes to mind tbh, purely because Leo and Co know how to appeal to people’s egos in order to maintain their popularity - allow people to feel as though they are wealthy, and they won’t complain about the fact that the current Government are still doing what every Government before them has done in order to keep the economy afloat - essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul, and switching positions every couple of years while the policies of all the main political parties essentially remains the same.

Leo is grand. An affable enough lad for the job.

I don't like everything the current lot have done but they have steered the company fairly well out of the recession, despite some utter and complete bile from certain parts of the populace.

And more than anything, they gained my respect. When the UK started imploding, the two leaders basically came together and said "we don't agree on everything, but lets keep things on course, and lets present a united front until Brexit is done". Can you imagine the Conservatives and Labour doing the same in the UK if we were leaving.

kneemos wrote: »

Who would you like?

How about Colm Meaney? He's quite popular.

Not sure why anyone thinks Michael D would be a good Taoiseach, he made one promise when running for president, and didn't keep it. The job of the president is to look presidential, and he manages that well enough.

Politicians are politicians the world over, they are not experts in running a country or in the numerous committees or departments they run, their job is to get re-elected, and they do it fairly well (if they happen to run the country well on the side of that, then it's a bonus for them).

To look at it another way, the health service has had money thrown at it for years, with very little improvements, but does a decent job at keeping people alive when sick, there is much worse and much better systems in the world. To improve it would mean getting rid of everyone currently working there, and re-hiring from scratch (many of the same people, but many wouldn't get a new job), yet the time is currently spent negotiating with unions over increments and allowances as they all take turns to strike.

Housing is another basketcase, those calling for social housing and building today, were calling for an end to all construction 10 years ago during the recession, we had enough housing supply for a century, and why do we need developers to build houses. Every reaction to the system has been to protect those who don't pay their way, and they wonder why people don't want to rent or build houses. Every repossession is a house on the market for the current "homeless".

Deleted User wrote: »

It would constitute democracy.

You can't have management by committee. I think the structures we have are not at all bad. (I would like to see better use made of the Seanad).

Going for a directly elected Taoiseach would mean re-inventing our system as focus would shift to just playing to whoever you think is going to get that job.

It would inevitably lead to a populist character getting the job and I don't think there is any evidence that that would be a good thing.

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

about 10k homeless in Ireland with a population of 5 million

250 k homeless in Germany with a population of 82 million

That means one in 500 people in Ireland is homeless.

Whereas one in 328 people in germany are.

So more are homeless in Germany (and Sweden), not sure of your point.

Unemployment rate in 2012 = 16%
Unemployment rate in June 2019 = 4.4%

Expected GDP growth in Ireland is 8.3% in 2019

First budget surplus in 2018 in a decade.

I said it in another thread but if the current government were American especially Republican, Fox News and right wing radio, Youtubers, bloggers/vloggers etc would be proclaiming Leo an all time great..