Prime Time - Tuesday Night

[A face]

Did anyone see it ??

Did anyone believe it ??

Having watch RTE's Prime Time programme last night (9th May) I felt so utterly sickned by the mismangement of taxpayers money and the seemingly genuine disregard for any level of accountability that I was left with one simple question that I cannot answer:

How did the current government get re-elected ?

For those who did not see the programme, it detailed a series of public projects that were at best mismanged and utterly incompetent, leading to huge financial overruns.


I am unable to solve the question as to how with such knowledge of wasting public finances while there is a A&E crisis, while the National Children's hospital is in such a third world condition, while many parent cannot get their children places in primary schools, how is that current politicians every got elected.

To my mind many of these problems are not new. For example, corruption in politics has been widely documented. A good example is Michael Lowry.

Could someone please explain how this politician subsequently topped the poll in Tipperary as an independent ?

Fianna Fail corruption was known long before the last election.

Perhaps people are genuinely voting for this type of behaviour ?


It seems funny alright that within 80 years of a constiution being forger through the blood of good men, that the government see fit to wipe their árses with it, and the idea of our nation.

I mean how many people claim to be truly republican and love their country, while they will then go out and vote for some pr*cks who have already proved they are prepared to f*ck this country from the inside out for their own benefits.

[A face]

Seriously ... did anyone see that programme ?? Unreal !!

[hamish]

Yeh, A Face. I did and even at my cynical old stage I'm still gobsmacked at what's goes on. Add that to the Chain Reaction programme on Thursday night and you wonder how this country manages to function?

[Bluebeard]

I don't really know many people who would happily say that they did vote for Fianna Fail in the last election except maybe Conor74 (sadly missed). However, they appear to have got in owing to the following lines of thought:
1) Well I couldn't vote for the other shower
2) I didn't vote for Fianna Fail, but I voted for their candidate, because (insert random gobsh!te's name) is not like the rest of them
3) Well, they have the experience, that the other crowd don't have, and they have proven themselves in the past
4) I didn't vote at all - sure they're all crooks

Pardon the languauge, but essentially bullsh!t arguments.

[hamish]

I don't really know many people who would happily say that they did vote for Fianna Fail in the last election except maybe Conor74 (sadly missed). However, they appear to have got in owing to the following lines of thought:
1) Well I couldn't vote for the other shower
2) I didn't vote for Fianna Fail, but I voted for their candidate, because (insert random gobsh!te's name) is not like the rest of them
3) Well, they have the experience, that the other crowd don't have, and they have proven themselves in the past
4) I didn't vote at all - sure they're all crooks

Pardon the languauge, but essentially bullsh!t arguments.

Yep, Bluebeard, those were the usual excuses we heard every day, In my neck of the woods, we hadn't even a Labour party candidate, It was 2FF 2FG = take your pick!

[Gareth]

The Democratic System is in place to allow people who disagree with the current situation to get up and put themselves up for election so they can make the change. That in theory is the way it works. In reality, once elected most people fall into line and end up appearing to everyone else as just another politician.

The option is to change the system. To change any system in most cases requires a period of instability and generally a downturn.

Personally I find election time near next to impossible to justify my vote for whomever I vote for. No one really appeals to me. I hate the populist Sinn Fein vote. Drives me mad. FF and FG, PD and Labour, they all would muck in as one party with slight deviation in my mind. The rest are a strew of Greens, Independents etc to whom I have really little time for.

The question is, what do you want? I ask that seriously? What do you want?

[Bluebeard]

Its a good question, one that I think that many people may not have asked themselves seriously.

While personally I would be socialist in outlook, certainly more socialist than Labour, I would like to see something closer to a social democratic system - a la the system (admittedly flawed) employed in Scandinavian countries - than we currently have.

Unfortunately our two leading parties are Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, who not so long back were falling over themselves to be like Fianna Fail (and that worked how?) Labour have traditionally seemed unlikely to nail their colours (theoretically red) to their mast, and we can recall that their vascillations have been for the most part to their detriment - they should have cleaned up in the 2002 elections, but didn't as Quinn refused to say no to a FF/Lab coalition. If we are looking to our traditional three leading parties (taking the PDs as political wing of FF), essentially, FG need to have a positive and different identity other than that of not being FF in order for any genuinely different coalition to be made from the current option, though I'd still prefer FG/Lab as indeterminate as currently is (and as much as I detest / dislike them) to the current lot

SF and their rise is another huge matter, that demands a separate thread to discuss.

[paul_oshea]

i didnt see it, but i think people get lazy and when i say people i mean the voters, i mean hardly anyone in britain agreed with teh war in iraq yet they got back in for a third spell????

fair enough you might say that the opposition wasnt any better, but that doesnt matter if 75% of the people are opposed t a war and their leader still goes ahead and joins the war, then surely you wouldnt vote him in again!!!!

i just think people get lazy and just vote for whoever they see without really knowing who or what they are voting for. i know this is a very simple view but still.

[Fair_play_boy]

Today's news about the Abbey Theatre is not any better. The board apparently has been misled about the size of the debt, being nearer 2 Million than the 1 million they were led to believe. The director has resigned and the artistic director has left his post 7 months ahead of time.
This afternoon the Arts Minister was interviewed on Rattlebag about the scandal, and how the Abbey might recover from it.
I would have been happier if the Justice Minister was on, explaining how and when people would be placed under arrest for what apparently amounts to fraud.

[pete]

There are clearly huge deficiencies in the abilities of the Public Service Leaders to manage large budgets effectively. I won't even start to give examples but can be seen everywhere.

[Macy]

There are clearly huge deficiencies in the abilities of the Public Service Leaders to manage large budgets effectively. I won't even start to give examples but can be seen everywhere.

And presumably of their managers (i.e. the Government) to manage them. Then again, why would the bother reading papers relating to their department?

The Irish Public get the Government they deserve, same as the USA and Britain...

[Bluesky]

To summarise the situation with sweeping generalisations

This country is not run for the benefit of the people who live in it

The politicians/government do not work for us-we work for them

For me this explains why the standard of living is so poor in this country and why healthcare & education are disgraceful and why people like me spend hours in traffic and spent hours shuffling around Dublin Airport last bank holiday weekend