This ties into the Budget thread somewhat but I think it's a valid standalone topic. The fact alone that we still have Fianna Fail in power should prove my point, but I'm sure people will argue that there aren't any valid alternatives out there. (I agree that they're all much of a muchness, but a look into history will prove that FG and Lab are traditionally the party to dig this country out of a hole that FF creates for us. It would have been nice if, for once, they were allowed to try running the country from the top instead of the bottom.) However in just the past week or so we've had two non-electoral issues crop up that prove the premise on their own imho.
College fees distractions. Batt O'Keeffe fires a comment into the atmostphere about fees. It's not a policy, not even a ministerial opinion per se, just a "thought". College students are up in arms, march on the streets, 6000 students in Cork alone. A week later the budget comes out and registration fees increase by more than 50%, and all is quiet on the western front. (At other levels, subs are gone, student-teacher ratios are increased, language support is reduced out of line with requirements. We don't hear anything about that either, except from the teacher themselves, and then not loudly enough.)
Medical card misdirection. Oh shame oh shame the world is ending, people earning enough to support their own health expenses are no longer entitled to a freebie. Of course there will be exceptions, but Gov.ie will back down. (Actually they already have.) Yay us, our exhortations, indignation and protests won on the day, we're the best population ever. Meanwhile, every one of us has been hit with 1% more tax - it's not a levy, it is an income tax - by a government singularly incapable of managing it. (I don't object to more taxation per se, I object to giving it to these muppets.) They included the people least able to pay it, in fact those people will end up paying more than the rest of us. Are we out in the streets about that? No, not a one of us.
Fianna Fail pulled it off once again. They waggled the fingers on one hand and the population followed the fingers like hypnotised sheep, drooling and smiling to themselves. Meanwhile the other hand grabbed our jocks and knickers and pulled them up over our heads, in a full-blown national atomic wedgie. And they'll do it again next year, and probably the year after that, in time to start softening us up for another election.
There should have been a vote of no confidence last week. The government should have fallen. We should be facing into elections.
Collectively, we're up there with the Austrians. We're dimwits. We're retards. We should be in a home, receiving special care.
Sorry to be so negative, but seriously, god help us. We're idiots.
adam
College fees distractions. Batt O'Keeffe fires a comment into the atmostphere about fees. It's not a policy, not even a ministerial opinion per se, just a "thought". College students are up in arms, march on the streets, 6000 students in Cork alone. A week later the budget comes out and registration fees increase by more than 50%, and all is quiet on the western front. (At other levels, subs are gone, student-teacher ratios are increased, language support is reduced out of line with requirements. We don't hear anything about that either, except from the teacher themselves, and then not loudly enough.)
Medical card misdirection. Oh shame oh shame the world is ending, people earning enough to support their own health expenses are no longer entitled to a freebie. Of course there will be exceptions, but Gov.ie will back down. (Actually they already have.) Yay us, our exhortations, indignation and protests won on the day, we're the best population ever. Meanwhile, every one of us has been hit with 1% more tax - it's not a levy, it is an income tax - by a government singularly incapable of managing it. (I don't object to more taxation per se, I object to giving it to these muppets.) They included the people least able to pay it, in fact those people will end up paying more than the rest of us. Are we out in the streets about that? No, not a one of us.
Fianna Fail pulled it off once again. They waggled the fingers on one hand and the population followed the fingers like hypnotised sheep, drooling and smiling to themselves. Meanwhile the other hand grabbed our jocks and knickers and pulled them up over our heads, in a full-blown national atomic wedgie. And they'll do it again next year, and probably the year after that, in time to start softening us up for another election.
There should have been a vote of no confidence last week. The government should have fallen. We should be facing into elections.
Collectively, we're up there with the Austrians. We're dimwits. We're retards. We should be in a home, receiving special care.
Sorry to be so negative, but seriously, god help us. We're idiots.
adam
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