111 thoughts on “Bath Separatists

      1. andyourpointiswhatexactly

        Yup.
        People flipping the bird at a bath. And the “shove the water meter up your f*ckin hole” sign.
        I stand by my hilarious Anchorman misquote.

      1. Jess

        Sorry Don, didn’t you get the memo? Let me quote from the protest charter of the internet section 1:

        No one is allowed to protest perceived unjust charges unless they live in a badger’s set and if they own clothes no better than stapled together discarded tayto packets.

        Also, nobody is allowed protest unjust regimes unless they have protested every single other unjust regime in the last 30 years, you must however not be seen at said protests, otherwise you are a career protester and are not credible. Also appropriate attire for these protests is smart casual.

        Nobody is allowed to protest perceived unjust government policy unless accompanied by an alternative manifesto, costed by the department of finance at your own expense.

        In summary, the approved forms of protest characteristics:
        1. Must take place indoors during non working hours, of anybody. Including those who work nights.
        2. Must not consist of any political slogans
        3. Must involve people who have attended other protests
        4. Must not involve people who have attended other protests.
        5. Must be made by elected TDs inside the Dail chamber, on the governments side of the house.
        6. Must have been made several years ago.

        I hope this eases your future discussion of political issues

        1. Don Pidgeoni

          Got it now. But it missing one extra point:

          “No one is allowed to protest perceived unjust charges unless they live in a badger’s set and if they own clothes no better than stapled together discarded tayto packets.”

          This then makes them stupid dirty dumb hippies who no one should listen to anyway making anything they say void!!

          1. Jess

            Yes if you are a stupid dirty hippie or from a lower socio-economic background then you must be middle class, while at the same time not being middle class, but dressing like one without looking like one.

            Its all very simple.

  1. El Cuno

    I notice all these protestors are able to afford matches. Maguire and Patterson are in the ha’penny place compared to them!

  2. Michael

    Look, I know having a water meter installed when the infrastructure in place leaves a lot to be desired is a bit of a joke but “shove your water meter up your f***** hole!” ugh you absolute scrote bags. Lucky for these skangers they aren’t installing lucozade meters.

    1. myownself

      yeah and calling people u don’t know ‘absolute scrote bags’ makes you so much classier and superior…..slow clap for you

    1. Liam from Lixnaw

      health and safety – never mind that they are parading their kids around an open fire though

        1. Jess

          All children should be wrapped in asbestos while being near any naked flame. This includes fireplaces, gas stoves and mass candles.

          1. paul m

            happy days. i remember as a nipper happily wearing my polyester superman jammies warming myself but inches away from the superser heater.

  3. William H Gross

    whats their beef? use water, pay for it. most if not all developed countries have same. theyre already paying for it implicitly via taxes. so now the family with 10kids or whatever rightfully pays more than the couple living in the apartment etc. personally think its about time.
    my issues would be more focussed on how Siteserve got the contract and was the tender process totally transparent (not holding my breath here). and then also , will be an utterly inefficient quango type organisation with big benefits (read: bonuses) and un-sackable mandarins etc again , i wont be holding my breath here…

    1. Niallo

      Sadly, we already do, rates were abolished in favour of an increase in tax.
      This has not been rescinded, so we will be paying on the double, just like with vrt on cars.
      Sure its a great wee country to pull a stroke in.

      1. Jock

        That’s a ridiculous way of viewing things. So do you pretend the government has no right to raise vat or income tax because ‘we already pay off it’? Things change.

        1. Niallo

          Not at all, of course they are right to source funding for local government to provide services, this was put in place by brendan howlin back in 96 when local authorities were to source their funding from motor tax.
          Meanwhile, we were still paying the tax 1977 tax levy on water which replaced rates (cant remember the amount) anyway this was very unpopular and the gov of the day were accused of double taxation, however, that 1977 tax oncrease is still inplace and is part of the ever increasing taxes we pay.
          need to cover the increased cost of water services ? Certainly, increase the tax level, its fair across the board.
          The problem is we wouldnt sit still for taxation being increased to a level to cover the hole that needs to be filled, so it has been introduced by another method.
          (Especially in the run up to a budget and susequent election)
          Oh, that and the fact that taxation cant ultimately be privatised might by worth a mention.
          But, I digress, this is all of course nonsense, must be something to do with the bottle of scotch i had for breakfast.

    2. Mayor Quimby

      Firstly GMC Sierra did not “wind the contract” 3 firms won the contract – various parts thereof

      http://www.moneyguideireland.com/water-meter-contracts-awarded.html

      The contracts to install the meters were split into 8 different regions – and just 3 companies have been awarded these lucrative contracts.
      The three Regional Managment Contractors are

      1 Murphy Group

      2. Coffey Northumbrian Ltd ( A partnership between Coffey Group and Nothumbrian Water. British company Northumbrian Water is owned by Cheung Kong Infrastructure, a company backed by the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing – who also owns 3 Ireland.)

      3. GMC / Sierra – a joint venture between GMC Utilities and Sierra.
      Sierra is part of Siteserv – which was recently bought by a company linked to billionaire Denis O’Brien. There was some controversy about the purchase because it involved the write off of large debts to Anglo Irish Bank – read more about that here .

      1. Dhaughton99

        Andy, who i know, who is holding the sign is a plasterer and has been working since leaving school.

        1. Jock

          I’m sure his accounts are spotless and he’s never underdeclared his income.

          We constantly here this double taxation argument from people in tracksuits out protesting at 2pm on a Wednesday.

          1. Pretendgineer

            You spelled ‘hear’ wrong. You must be uneducated therefore you’re not allowed to protest or express your opinion on something.

            I don’t agree with the anti water charge protesters but the amount of class based belittlement of the protesters sickens me.

          2. Anne

            Tis awfully dark in those pics for 2pm.

            I would advise that you never go near a gym, you’d be disgusted altogether. Tracksuits everywhere.

      1. Nigel

        No, because the money disappears into the general pool of taxation and only a fraction of what is needed makes it to the water infrastructure. Specific water charges mean our water infrastructure is no longer dependent on the vagaries of political will, attention and competency. Which is why we need more service charges, not less, which should have been implemented during the boom, but wasn’t. Though it would have ended up being even more of a goddamn boondoggle than it actually did if a flush Fianna Fail government had implemented it, so tiny blessings.

    1. ReproBertie

      It’s not double taxation. We don’t pay enough to maintain or upgrade the water system so more money is needed. This was those who use the system most pay the most.

      We pay for the health service through central taxation but if you attend A&E you are presented with a bill. Is that double taxation?

    2. Mayor Quimby

      Your logic is flawed. People with their own wells paid the same tax and had to pay for their own water.

      It’s garbage to say its double taxation. Just like your country cousins never had bin collection but paid the same tax. You must be thinking of rates which were abolished in the 70s

    3. offMooof

      The protests stopped being just about a water charge sometime this week, if the government hd any sense they would have stooped evictions and installations this week. Two evictions were attempted here and in Cabra (I think) but no balif was going to face down a front garden with 50 people in it.
      We’re being asked to walk through a city littered with sleeping bags as the weather chills, there are families doing their shopping with their ESB bills in their hands so they don’t spend too much. Families with that horrible ungry 80’s look about them. We have to just accept people emigrating, 20% of our children going to school hungry and to turn a blind eye to Direct Provision.
      42% of Europes debt? Fuk that, seriously it’s not a morally ambiguous debate here. Some sections of society are supposed to quietly slink back to the 80’s with the guards doing their best to poke at cltural sore points. Coming into our estates topush us off our paths so Irish water can install meters people don’t want. After another few austerity budgets what kind of foce will they need to push measure though? There is a feeling of lets stop this now before it takes a violent revolution nobody wants a police state like america where its outright class war. They aren’t even hiding it behind economics anymore.
      Somebody is gonna get shame all over them.

      1. offMooof

        And the oil for fuks sake the oil. Statoil is Norwegian and with their 90% taxation on oil revenues one Irish field represents over 4k a year for each citizen of Norway, thats half the debt and a functioning health system and a less psychotic approach to vulnerable people in say DP.
        Its a social contract, we can leave the deal and I’d imagine most of Coolock and now Clondalkin will be shutting down the city on Saturday. forget the middle class civility shame appears to be a good motivator for Europe and they should be ashamed..42% c’mon Angela

    1. andyourpointiswhatexactly

      It’s a real casual finger, too. Mine are usually JABBY and ANGRY. It’s more a divil-may-care finger.

    1. Mani

      Sure that can’t be trus since they never wash
      ahahahahahahahahahah
      ahahahaha
      seriously though, you’re alright.

  4. Dubloony

    At the risk of whatever….

    The Dublin water supply has a spare 1%-2% capacity of potable water at most.
    We need to reduce use and the one way that is done is for everyone to pay. If you use less, you pay less.
    If you manage to use under your allocation, then you get a rebate – you get paid for using less.
    I haven’t seen the protesters go on about that.
    Infrastructure in Dublin is based on crumbling Victorian pipes.
    Around the country, the systems are totally inadequate, see Boyle Co. Roscommon for over a decade of boil notices.
    Inis Óirr has water shipped in containers over the summer when they had no water on their island.

    If everyone pays, there will be money for fixes to infrastructure so everyone eventually wins.

    But that requires some sense of civic engagement that sees more than an individuals needs.
    As for Irish water, the model used in Wales should have been implemented, its a non-profit organisation. It needs a sense of service to the community and seriously needs to up its game.

    People chose to abolish rates in 1977 when FF swept to power on the back of it. There’s been no real investment in water infrastructure since. So here we are again, mé féiners all out protesting. short sighted as always.

    I want my meter!

    1. Clampers Outside!

      “If you manage to use under your allocation, then you get a rebate – you get paid for using less.
      I haven’t seen the protesters go on about that.”

      Are you nuts, have you read what the allocation is? When it was worked out on various tv and radio programmes, they came to the conclusion that you’d be able to flush a toilet in a house with 4 or 5 people, ONCE A DAY or there about.

      If you’re going to make a comment like that, at least try to make one worth making.

      BTW, I think water should be paid for too… but I’ll still protest tomorrow, because there are lots of things I want too, like having it run as a non-profit utility.

      1. Niallo

        Clampers, Dubloony,

        Your both right, if instead a once off charge (a big one) were levied to repair the water system (which leaks like a sieve) then the capacity problem is solved at the same stroke as most of the upkeep costs.
        I would be in favour of that, instead what we are getting is a state utility to milk us and they will ultimately do little to upgrade and repair the existing system, the money (if any of it is left after bonuses are paid) will be ploughed into a project to bring water to dublin from the shannon.
        You see if im wrong.

        1. aretheymyfeet

          The money will be used to upgrade the water system but not so much that it will work completely efficiently. It has to still be overly expensive and not fully effective. That then justifies privatising it to “avoid wasting tax payers money” we will be told. A private corporation, possibly a big name international group with “international experience in this field” will then purchase the water system. The company will claim they need to invest in its upgrade and so charges will in the short term rise to cover this (tax payer paying once more). Nice profitable contracts flow from such projects. The public will still at the end be left with a water system that doesn’t work particularly well and is overpriced (think the British Rail system). The water company will really only be answerable to major shareholders (the identity of whom we may never know as is the norm across the corporate and financial world) and their profits. This route is so well worn across the world this aspect of the water issue is quite notable for its relative absence from debate in our media.

    2. CousinJack

      spare 2% after the 50% that is lost through leaking pipework (around 80% of leagae being on form local authority mains system). Fix the pipes before telling us there a water shortage, which there isn’t.

      1. Pretendgineer

        If only there were a revenue stream that was directed to a body in charge of repairing the infrastructure…

    3. Clampers Outside!

      “People chose to abolish rates in 1977 when FF swept to power on the back of it.”

      I’ve never heard such a ridiculous interpretation of events in my life.

      Fianna Fail were a dieing party and when the opposition said they would reduce water rates, FF jumped at a vote catcher at the last minute and promised to abolish water rates altogether just to win favour and get into power… it’s what Fianna Fail will ALWAYS do when they have room, they are not known as the ‘giveaway govt’ for nothing.

      People didn’t simply ‘choose’… they were thrown a sweetener by a corrupt party to win votes and the election. Nothing more.

      1. Dubloony

        and people keep voting for them on the back of it. Same mentality exists, now just moving to SF, PPF & co.

    4. Clampers Outside!

      And on the last note…. while in govt, as far back as the early 80s, Fianna Fail (& the other govts in for a few years) have been told on a regular basis to fix the water.

      But, FF didn’t have the money, because they turned off all revenue from the rates.

  5. YourNan

    this Trevor Conlon, judging by his FB page comes across as foul mouthed wannabe ‘RA, Eirigi thug. I wouldn’t waste much time on the likes of him.

    1. Mayor Quimby

      Yep. That and he likes Mrs./ Brown’s boys. Clearly the kind of Republican Intellectual we should take our cues from.

      http://www.sundayworld.com/top-stories/crime-desk/forces-of-evil
      McDonagh was accompanied to the meeting by his associate Trevor Conlon and a female connected to Geraghty. Republican sources claim he has also formed an allegiance with Dean Evans, who is in Portlaoise awaiting trial for the murder of former dissident republican Peter Butterly, who was shot dead earlier this year.

      1. Pretendgineer

        Of one protester maybe. Crass generalisations are not borne out if they are proven about one person (or insinuated by a red top rag.)

  6. Mayor Quimby

    Trevor Conlon??
    http://www.sundayworld.com/top-stories/crime-desk/dissidents-raise-cash-to-grow-group

    James McDonagh is the leader of the IRV group and has made a number of visits to Portlaoise Prison in recent weeks to speak to former Real IRA members who have joined up with IRV.

    These include Declan Geraghty who is serving a sentence for firearms possession.

    He was accompanied to the prison by Trevor Conlon whose cousin Colin John Conlon was jailed for five years in 2007 for possession of an improvised explosive device at the M1 motorway at Cloghran, Co Dublin on November 25, 2005.

  7. Buzz

    Good on them for protesting but do they really want their children in 20 years’ time looking at a photo of their father beside a sign that says ‘shove you water meter…’

    1. aretheymyfeet

      This is now essential.

      We already pay for our water supply by way of general taxation but due to years of neglect and lack of investment by successive elected governments, the system is a wreck. Therefore, through waste or lost water due to decayed and damaged piping etc.. the State is disproportionately losing money from the supply of water and taxes are literally going down the drain. It makes sense to invest money in such an essential resource. This I agree with.

      The problem I have is that this measure was imposed by the Troika as part of the bailout terms. The troika follow neo-liberal Friedman economics or predatory capitalism, the sole purpose of which is the creation of wealth as effectively and efficiently as possible, the distribution of which is of little concern (actually that’s not correct, the money is sucked up from the productive areas of the economy to the upper echelons of society, the so-called “wealth creators”, as opposed to the fictional trickle down effect the world was sold for two decades). The charging for water is simply the first step on the well worn path to privatisation of the water supply. This is a core principle of Friedman economics.

      I anticipate that in the next couple of years the State subsidisation of the water supply (i.e what we pay for water now from our taxes) will gradually be reduced and routed to other areas of spending, this will lead to the taxpayer picking up more of the tab directly in the form of higher water charges. This will obviously not be popular amongst voters who will then be convinced that privatising the water supply will create greater “efficiency and cost reductions for the consumer”. The supply of the second most important resource to life after oxygen will fall into the hands of privateers (perhaps someone like Mr O’Brien or possibly one of the large US financial firms buying up land and water supplies all over the world in preparation for the next resource battle, food supplies. Note many of these financial groups have been buying up NAMA loans in the greatest asset stripping exercise the State has ever seen. These Financial entities are also complicit in the creation of the financial crisis to begin with. It’s worked out very well for them it appears). Such an entity will have no responsibility to the public. Only profits and shareholder dividends matter, as required by law. A private business who finds that the customer will not or cannot pay the bills is not obliged to supply a product. Are we looking at a situation where the poorest in our society could be denied a basic life sustaining resource such as water for failure to pay what could be very high rates by the time this all comes to fruition? If that was me, I’d be asking what’s the point in having a society so if not to protect your most basic rights and necessities? If you want to know how terrorists are created, cut off water to the poor for failure to pay extortionate prices set by profiteers and watch what happens.

      1. offMooof

        Well said, we really just need to stop threading this idealogical path now before it takes a violent revolution. Nobody wants a future like America where economic policies have been replaced with military hardware.

        1. Niallo

          Thats where they like to keep us, on the tipping point between giving a sh1t and outright revolution.
          the irish public is at best lethargic.
          The point where we, as the length of the comments on this thread will attest, will merely talk things to death and no action or reaction will take place.
          It takes a real atrocity to provoke even a mediocre reaction from the paddy…
          No danger of seeing big phil hanging by his bootheels in the oul sod anyway.
          Takes a drunk to have moments of clarity about drinking water.
          But, dont mind me, i’m spouting nonsense.
          Now wheres that bottle of (soon to be cheper than water) scotch.

      2. Anne

        What? They’ll be people who can’t afford to pay this charge?
        People struggling to stay afloat as it is.
        Who are these people? Why didn’t someone mention this before?
        I thought they were just scumbags in tracksuits with fancy phones who don’t want to pay.

    1. anomanomanom

      How so…Maybe areas have done. One particular area in Dublin 8 burned over a 1000 of the letters in protest. Filmed it and sent it Irish Water. No harm or damage done.

  8. The Insight

    If they could focus all that passion and energy into improving their lot in life they might find they’d be better off all round. All consumed in the victim culture. Very easy to point fingers of blame at “The Government”, “The Bankers”, “The Rich” etc. – much harder to acknowledge that some of the fault might lay closer to home.

        1. offMooof

          Shame on YOU! and the EU! You’ll be hearing that a good bit over the next while, plenty of people are going to get shame on them.

          1. The Insight

            Well it’s a good thing I’ll have lots of lovely water to wash the shame off me, whatever the feck “shame” is. Is it a euphemism for something or are you saying that the feeling of “shame” will actually be put on me (and “plenty of people”) sometime in the near future?

    1. Kieran NYC

      +1

      As the economy gets better, there’ll be fewer targets to point the finger at, and the cries of victimhood will become less convincing.

        1. Anne

          He is a bit all right, isn’t he?
          Comes on here late every night all the way from New York, when the rest are asleep, and miss his little nuggets of wisdom. Oh well.

          1. Kieran NYC

            I know you were being mean, but for the sake of my hangover, I’ll pretend you were being nice and hugs-full.

            Mmf!

  9. Will.ie

    Funny, cant seem to see a Tax payer among them… I wonder are they are aware of USC or have ever seen a payslip.

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