Rory Connolly tweetz:
Clever series of posters from Soc Dems on Church St, Dublin 7.
Meanwhile…
Disgruntled Red writes:
Why are the Soc Dems being studiously ignored by most media [besides BS], particularly RTÉ? Is it because they’re the first plausible alternative to the Labour Party and therefore a long-awaited possible ray of light for default Labour voters (myself included) who’ve only ever voted Labour because of what that party should be, but never has been? Is Labour kacking its collective pants? I’m letting on not to know the answers already.
Anyone?
Yesterday: Hear Our Voice
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Went to read the SD’s manifesto yesterday and was largely underwhelmed. It’s great to see a new, leftist party emerge, but policies like their policy for the arts (summary below from https://socialdemocrats.ie/policies/our-policies-a-z/):
“For too long, successive governments have largely ignored the Arts as an afterthought, a peripheral concern to which little time, money or creative thought should be devoted.”
isn’t really a policy. It’s just a statement. If you read more into their arts policy on their manifesto it’s pretty weak (it reads like they are ignoring arts as an afterthought).
I like their healthcare ideas, but they have other ideas that don’t seem to have much planning behind them. e.g. “we’ll shut down Irish Water” but won’t say how they will pay for the water infrastructure. They know they can’t be a majority party, so they will never be held to that promise. And although IW should definitely be shut down, a clear plan needs to be made as to how water will be managed.
Unimpressed so far…although desperation and lack of choice will probably make me vote for em anyway. Just not expecting anything fantastic.
You obviously haven’t read the Green Party manifesto. I think it was written by Warldorf and Statler
I did. I also paid close attention to their wonderful web-page design…
But that doesn’t mean the SD’s aren’t sorely lacking in policies. Objectionist politics is the most hateful thing I can think of. “Give us votes because we hate the other guys, just like you!” It’s senseless – Sinn Féin have been playing that game for 20 years.
I like a lot of what the SDs are putting forward, but I don’t think they are providing a viable alternative to Labour for a left-wing vote (People Before Profit are doing a little better for me) – but I have high hopes for them and hope they can get their act together over the next few years.
What he said……!
Those are just links on that page. Click through for: https://socialdemocrats.ie/policies/support-the-arts/
From my original comment:
“If you read more into their arts policy on their manifesto it’s pretty weak (it reads like they are ignoring arts as an afterthought).”
Have you read the arts policy? It’s virtually non-existant, and starts talking about tourism half-way through.
Martin, the money Irish Water takes in does nothing except cover the cost of running Irish Water.
From my original comment:
“And although IW should definitely be shut down, a clear plan needs to be made as to how water will be managed.”
I know.
But that doesn’t mean the infrastructure isn’t 40 years out of date. So a plan needs to be made on how to manage this. I would start with government-run water charges for businesses only at a rate based on usage. But that’s just me.
Their policies may not be the most detailed, but that’s because they’ve existed for only seven months, and most of the candidates have been onboard for substantially less than that. There’s so much that needs to be formulated yet, but the Manifesto indicates the direction those policies will take. Still a better and more realistic Left party than the alternatives.
blushirt controlled media is trying to stifle the forces of change
Ahh yes everything is the blueshirts fault, blaming the blueshirts for everything has become the rallying cry of this election for those too ignorant to actually try and debate the issues. Also the establishment are at fault too for keeping everyone down…….. fight the power, rage against the machine, stick it to the man…… is there an echo in here?
face it, you blew it and are now whinging that the voters aren’t giving ye enough love. You treated the citizens of this country with contempt as you added further taxes and misery to their lives. Reap the whirlwind blushirts, reap it and know fear.
Ah dav, they are the highest polling party in the country. The voters are still on board (the majority, which is all that counts). Blame the media or whatever, but the fact is FG are still popular in a lot of quarters. They have fecked over young people, poorer groups etc., but they have made life easier for the middle-class that were afraid of losing their jobs/houses/businesses, so a lot of people are happy with what they’ve done. That’s plenty of people in Ireland to re-elect you.
And much as I hate their politics, FG are a damn-sight better than FF and I’d take them back any day before I’d let Bertie’s wolves huff and puff again.
Hilarious, keep on fighting the establishment, you’ll get there one day tovarish
Labour voters like you sicken me. Read Ruairi Quinn’s piece in the times today. The party is full of principled people actually trying to make a difference and they get absolutely crapped on all of the time.
I read Ruari’s piece – he basically blamed the working classes for Labour’s plight because they ‘don’t necessarily support Labour Party policies’. James Connolly and frank Cluskey must be positively whirring in their graves.
I remember Donnelly being interviewed by Moncrieff last week. I may be paraphrasing the question slightly, but he was asked what politician outside his own party was he impressed by. He said labour T.D. Arthur Spring. Had a lot of kind things to say about him.
I think there are some principles that were inherently wrong in Labour’s last five years, but they are definitely offering the most coherent and fair plan for government of any of the parties. It’s very hard for me to vote Labour following Job-Bridge though, a system that should never have been put into place and that should have been wound down long before now (the conversation on this started in 2013).
What happens if Labour don’t get back in and Fianna Fáil get control over Job-Bridge?? That was idiotic planning IMO.
In the 80’s, there were very few measures put in place for job activation. People were left to rot on social welfare. I remember being told that anyone over 40 will never work again. The despair led to major heroin epidemic in my area.
I know people hate job bridge but 60% of people get real jobs out of it.
The whole point is to keep people out meeting others, staying engaged with the workplace. Anyone who has been unemployed will know how fast confidence is sapped by it. Having a reason to get up in the morning is important.
Hopefully, if current government is returned, it won’t be necessary soon.
60% of people who finish the scheme get real jobs out of it.
I haven’t seen the statistic for depression related to Job-Bridge because as far as I know that study hasn’t been carried out. I presume that you didn’t have to do one – I did and I can tell you the mood was easier outside of the scheme, but I saw it through regardless. Working 30-odd hours a week for nothing while your co-workers are getting paid is demeaning, and I’m a positive person usually.
The scheme was horrendously mis-managed (search Broadsheet for Job-Bridge posts and you can see the litany of awful “schemes” that were accepted by the review team) – I don’t particularly mind the idea of the initiative, but when Fortune 500 companies (Dell, HP) are hiring Irish people for free (while not paying taxes) that is a serious issue that should have been nipped in the bud.
When Disgruntled Red says the SDs are being ignored are they comparing comment and airtime with that afforded to the other small parties – Renua, Greens, Workers Party etc – or just to that given to the big four?
I’m certainly seeing more SD stuff than Renua, Greens, Workers Party etc…. put together. But maybe I’m on BS too much, so I is exposed!
+1
They might be the darlings of broadsheet (why is every other party being ignored here?) but like it or not they are a newish party with 3% support. A good showing at the polls would change things.
The Social Democrats are only running 14 candidates in this election, which leaves 26 constituencies where they’re not running a candidate. I’d imagine that this is the reason for the perceived lack of coverage compared to other parties.
I don’t remember hearing any SocDem complaints when the Green Party (running in all 40 constituencies) were left off the roster for the Claire Byrne debate last week.
If there’s one thing that rings true, every supporter of a political party or football team believes that the media has it in for them.
There was a tweeted complaint from the @socdems about the Greens being left out.
Fair enough. In the words of Arsene Wenger, “I did not see the incident.”
Nice idea, I really hope Stephen Donnelly does well in these elections, just a pity they have no candidate in my area.
I’m loving the purple.
I work in the media and in my role I’ve tried to give them as much coverage as proportionate. This is made extremely difficult by the fact that they are not proactive with the press outside Dublin, because they have very few candidates ‘down the country’. They’re simply not running enough people. The Greens have a candidate in every constituency – but no presence on RTE because they don’t have TDs.
That’s remarkable. I ( a mere humble citizen without a degree in media studies) subscribed to their mailing list and have been receiving updates at least once per day, including those from my local SD candidate “down the country” as you chose to put it. Media may not be your forte after all.
ah, so Broadsheet allow off colour comments on FG FF LAB SF & IND
BUT did not post my comments on this earlier, the Social Democrats are sacred cows it appears, I have taken a screenshot, perhaps the clearly biased person in Broadsheet that removed my original post can be tasked with more important matters in the office? Coffee run maybe?
still waiting…. do you need permission from Red Flag?
Do you need an enema?
Grow up this is a privately operated website they can choose freely to omit anything they want
Baz, can you submit the comment again?