Sinn Fein’s General Election 2020 Manifesto launch outside Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin last week
The latest Business Post/Red C poll is likely to cause panic in the ranks of Fine Gael as it sees its support ebb away ahead of next Saturday’s election, writes @obraonain. #GE2020https://t.co/1P3njkxeAN
— Business Post (@businessposthq) February 2, 2020
CONFIRMED – POLL
Red C/Business PostFianna Fáil 24% (-2%)
Sinn Fein. 24% (+5%)
Fine Gael 21% (-2%)
Independents 12% (-2%)
Green 7% (-1%)
Labour 5% (+1%)
Social Democrats 3% (-)
Solidarity PBP 1% (-1%)
Aontú 2% (+1%)
Other 1% +1%#GE2020— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) February 2, 2020
Tonight/this morning.
We knew this day would come.
FIGHT!
Earlier…
I will never go into government with Sinn Féin. I asked my team if they would and they answered unequivocally.
Micheál Martin cannot say the same about his front bench. pic.twitter.com/zEoKqpIgQO
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) February 1, 2020
Beggars can be choosers.
Yesterday: Interesting Times
What kind of sad backstards would actually follow these guys and support them. Policies and grown up stuff aside, they are the uncoolest people ever in the whole entire universe.
Lets be honest, Martin and Varadkar aren’t exactly winning any cool guy awards either.
Agreed. That’s why Sinn Fein are so popular.
Very enlightening and thought provoking of you both….I hadn’t considered the cool factor in this, or any, general election.
Silly me.
Varadkar is such a massive self pleasurer
Canvassing in Mount Tallant yesterday. It was like living in a different county.
Every second person is voting Sinn Fein.
everyone I have talked to is
and when you step away from the realities of life for a moment that’s the interesting thing about this election…everyone’s talking about giving the conservatives a good kicking this time but will they follow thru?
grab the popcorn and watch next week
bickering FFG know that it’s very likely we can see thru their faux adversarial positioning – make no mistake this is a coalition and the only thing at play from their perspective is who gets the plum jobs
expect a propaganda fest! and indeed whatever subversive tools are available or can be invented will be deployed
for me personally SF are a protest vote – just like the “green wave” – and are not the answer
what then is the answer ?
it’s a little patronising to dismiss c.20% of the electorate as essentially ‘politically immature’ as you’re doing
if a vote for SF is a protest vote, then a vote for FFG is an imbecilic vote
for me….it’s a system issue. what I’d like to see? well I’m 22 and I can’t see it ever happening in my own lifetime, but to answer:
somehow transform politics into a vocational function and for its citizenry’s well-being, no trough to feed from, not profit driven. The govt, our employees remember, should be technical in nature ie. a minister should be a technical expert in her or his field and lead a team of technical experts. we need a constitution fit for modern purpose.
as of now, practically, I’m into my final year in a well known uni and if all goes well I’ll be establishing a life elsewhere…looking like Denmark right now as I have options there. and my mam and grandparents are sad about that but why stay here to be treated like fodder for the rest of my life?
very well said, scrap the ridiculously high salaries and pensions for these people and let people with the correct motivation come forward happy to earn a reasonable wage and change their country for the better, a Civic government… imagine
You want technical experts but not willing to pay for the expertise?
Good luck with that idea.
oh I think you maybe picked me up wrong, I will be voting SF either 1st or 2nd pref.
and FFG? my intention is to leave them off the ballot ENTIRELY
If you scrap the high salaries for TDs it will only be attractive for people that are independently wealthy. People like Ross and Healy Ray. It may also encourage them to be open the backhanders (or to drop the price of a TD to a few €50s).
why, what’s wrong with a working salery for the work done, it’s good enough for the rest of us, why should it be any different for the people acting in service of their country (theoretically in service of their country, in reality themselves and cronnies)
why does it need to be high, that’s proven to attract opportunist doses
within the current architecture? yes, I think you are correct in that thinking
but what even about a system more aligned to metrics?
why should a failed politician (there are countless, where to start?!) be rewarded with a high salary when they demonstrate incompetence? a failure to achieve a target? or worse still broken the law? it’s pure stone-age nonsense.
as it stands they get a high salary + gold plated benefits for simply winning a popularity contest, the end. how ridiculous does that sound? is this love island or is it running a country and making serious decisions that affect our lives? (rhetorical)
Better pay based on merit…
Now you’re talkin’ some sense.
0110
If you leave them off entirely that can actually be to their benefit. Say you only vote for 3 candidates, and no more.
Well when the fourth count comes, only the votes that have included a fourth candidate will be counted (and so on up to the last count). Your 3 vote slip cannot be counted then and is discarded.
So the best way to keep who you don’t want to see getting elected is to make sure they are at the bottom of your preferences. Vote for every candidate on the list in other words, but by putting who you don’t like at the bottom, then they can’t benefit.
Decent advise.
I believe
1. A TD should only get their pension once they reach 67 (or whatever the state pension kicks in) AND only if they are not still working in politics.
2. The TD salary is relative to the dole or median wage. 5x or 3x.
3. A minister does a lot more than a TD (responsibility-wise) so should get a big jump in wages.
4. A “junior minister” is effectively an apprenticeship and should be a small rise above TD.
Pensionable age of politicians is in line with the state pension. Came in a few years back, and applies to all new politicians since it came in.
aha ok Giggidygoo
this will be my first time for a main election so thanks for the hint, I’ll study it a bit more carefully
If you get SF calling to your door, why not ask them why Mary Lou denied expelling pedos and rapists from the North into the Republic?
I’ll never vote SF myself.
Clampers – if you get FG calling, will you ask them why Noonan allowed (recommenced) a peadophile in Waterford regain – regain – access to a vulnerable person – ‘Grace’? Or ask the FF callers to shed light on the murder of Fr. Niall Molloy? There are skeletons in many a closet.
“FFG” lolz!
So obvious but never seen it before!
@M C
+100% Agreed… It’s a sorry state and a sad situation but at least you’re under no great illusion about your future.
Vote for anything but the F-f/g duopoly.
:-J
my personal prediction is that technology will eventually disrupt and prevail over the current way of doing things, almost to the extent that you will see the current system as antique, Victorian
my own discipline is AI
that venerable unfit institution in Kildare Street (as other countries) will run out of ways for its occupants to line their pockets and lie and procrastinate when tech really begins to establish itself. a total transformation. I give the lifespan of this current way of life 50 years. certainly minimum 20 from now you’ll be voting on highly specific matters of the day to day importance from your phone/device “just in time”
the thing about binary is the clarity of it :)
Real life isn’t black and white though, in fairness.
a lot less shadowy grey areas would be an improvement
@ 01101101 01100011: clarity isn’t binary nor is binary the clarity of anything – in fact, nothing regarding human nature is binary – you’ll discover that through the course of life and its myriad experiences.
P.S. Make sure you skip every 10th step though, just in case.
council estate. not that surprising
Mount Tallant in Terenure?
yeah imagine people at the bottom of a system that favours the too percentage wanting a change,
you do know most people take the option to buy their council house…it’s called socialism
top percentage*
The flipsode of that purchase…. selling social housing is socialism.
That’s a new one.
well it does allow people who would not have got a mortgage but can pay a rent the opportunity to buy and own their own home, in turn giving their kids some kind of wealth and security eventually that they didn’t start with…
sounds like socialism to me , improvement of society by helping the so called lower classes to improve their situation for the improvement of society as a whole
I guess, yes. I suppose I’m commenting on where it has been done including here, the UK and some countries in Europe, and in all cases the housing stock was never replaced. If it were, I’d give a thumbs up to the idea :)
exactly we need social housing in mixed neighborhoods withe the emphasis on the renting to own option, people are more invested in both a building they own and a community that has services, not wastelands of social housing that scream stay at the back of the train
Mount Tallant in Terenure is not council…!! It would’ve started out that way in the ’30s…but not now…if you own a home in Mount Tallant buddy you’ve landed.
…looks like the grand coalition, aka merger, of FFG is on the cards…probably with rotating Taoiseach…or with the shinners as the opposition…a rotisseried Taoiseach…
It would be the best thing to happen in my opinion. A clear opposition would be defined.
Is rotisserie a method of roasting pigs?
The Electorate will end the Civil War next Saturday and force FF and FG into Coalition
which won’t last long and then the Shiners will have a free run and a long one in power
Their day has dawned, if they had Pearse Doherty instead of Mary Lu, they would achieved
it this time around
I agree on Pearse Doherty. I cannot understand why they didn’t go for him as leader.
sense that they benefit from having a Dublin leader?
He didn’t put himself forward
army council didnt let him
Oldie but Goldie
Just like Sunday morning
only joking, frillz..you know that
( ˘ ³˘)♥
Definitely voting for Mary Lou. She being a Trinners grad, posh, and from Churchtown and all …
Posh-girl McDonald!
Yes. And her comparing shoe box apartments to Boutique Hotels. The cheek of her. Oopppps….that was Posh Boy Murphy though wasn’t it? The boy who took over a failed business in Taneleagh and opened an office without planning permission? That posh boy?
It’s ok to be posh; it’s also ok not to be posh.
But it is a little silly when someone with such impeccable middle-class, private school pedigree as Mary Lou decides to start calling other people ‘posh’.
All part of the dialogue in the SF strategy, I’d say.
She claims that FG/FF called her parties voters ‘trash’ the other night on RTE news… an odd claim to make I thought.
Anyone know where that claim comes from, or was it made up?
Likely the latter I’d say, but happy to be corrected if true.
Sinn Fein – the all-Ireland 32-county political party.
Sinn Fein in the 26 counties “We promise to reduce the pension age to 65”.
Sinn Fein in the 6 Counties “We actually voted to increase the pension age to 66”.
LOL!
What’s that I hear over the tannoy.. ” Platform 4 Bandwagon now leaving, will all SF candidates aboard immediately “
The North of Ireland doesn’t make its own budgets – spending, pension age, tax rates, health budget, are all set by Westminster. But you know that already eh?
However, in the South, should they end up in Government, they can set what they like as they will control the budgets and decisions.
Privileged people who campaign and enact policy with a view to benefiting people solely within their own class = bad
privileged people who campaign and enact policy with a view to benefiting people outside their own class = good
thanks for coming to my one-stop lecture on this topic
So McDonald is a good burgher then?
I’m only surprised Comrade Corbyn isn’t over here from the mainland canvassing for the Shinners.
But the pollsters have got this right.
I hear all the time from people thinking of holding their nose and voting SF for the first time as a protest vote against the FG/FF game of pass the parcel.
If it brings a united Ireland closer I’m all for it.
“we say never never never”
Varadkar and the rest of the Tory party should remember theres more to being a conservative than false promises.
“Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope’
People want bridges built not burnt.
Sinn Fein are showing maturity while the civil war continues 100 years later in Fine Gaels intransigence.
time to grow up.
SF showing maturity? Haha
I got a flyer from their local candidate. One of their three ways of raising more money is to “Tax billionaires”. That is so stupid it is almost clever.
The rest of the flyer is a rant again FG and FF. And a few vague promises to “address high rents”.
It reminds me of their MEP literature. And we know how that went.
time to grow up
Bang of fear off Cian..
I think that the SF policies would wreck the economy, decimate the tax take, leaving no money to fund their social policies.
But I don’t see them getting into government thus year.
Cian you sound smart enough so can you explain to me how asking a billionaire to pay a couple of percent more tax is that bad an idea?
(I’m guessing) that you believe in the trickle down economics theory and that you believe they will run away or something taking all their money with them? (and that us poor people will no longer get the crumbs from their table?
what direct benefit does the country get out of them one way or the other? like can you trace the taxation take from these super rich people all the way into the A+E dept. at the Mater?
You can’t trace one single taxpayers tax like that. Bit of a meaningless question, in fairness.
How many billionaires are there resident in Ireland?
Rob, this is quick to find, in Forbes, 2019….the world has 2,153 billionaires, and of those, citizens of Ireland are:
Pallonji Mistry, $15bn (€13.28bn), #79 on the list
John Grayken, $6.9bn (€6.1bn), #215
Denis O’Brien, $4bn (€3.5bn), #504
John Dorrance III, $2.6bn (€2.3bn), #877
John Collison, $2.1bn (€1.85bn), #1116
Patrick Collison, $2.1bn (€1.85bn), #1116
Dermot Desmond, $1.9bn (€1.68bn), #1227
John Armitage, $1.3bn (€1.15bn), #1717
Eugene Murtagh, $1.3bn (€1.15bn), #1717
also this story published in the IT last year says there are (an eyewatering, holy sht!) 77,984 millionaires
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/number-of-irish-millionaires-rises-by-3-000-to-nearly-78-000-1.3824256
I can’t imagine being a millionaire but I imagine it’s pretty good and a few thousand euro wouldn’t hurt too much, do you?
Rob, this is quick to find, per Forbes 2019….the world has 2,153 billionaires, and resident citizens of Ireland are:
Pallonji Mistry, $15bn (€13.28bn), #79 on the list
John Grayken, $6.9bn (€6.1bn), #215
Denis O’Brien, $4bn (€3.5bn), #504
John Dorrance III, $2.6bn (€2.3bn), #877
John Collison, $2.1bn (€1.85bn), #1116
Patrick Collison, $2.1bn (€1.85bn), #1116
Dermot Desmond, $1.9bn (€1.68bn), #1227
John Armitage, $1.3bn (€1.15bn), #1717
Eugene Murtagh, $1.3bn (€1.15bn), #1717
another report claims there’s 17
also this story published in the IT last year says there are (an eyewatering, holy sht!) 77,984 millionaires
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/number-of-irish-millionaires-rises-by-3-000-to-nearly-78-000-1.3824256
I can’t even imagine being a millionaire but I’d suspect it’s pretty good and a few thousand euro wouldn’t hurt too much, do you?
From the names in the list that I recognise:
Pallonji Mistry – lives in India
Dennis O’Brien – lives in Malta
Dermot Desmond – lives in England(?) – not Ireland, anyway
The Collisons – live in America
A tax on billionaires wouldn’t affect any of them.
As for millionaires – France tried taxing millionaires; they dropped it after many of the millionaires moved to Belgium and Switzerland – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/31/france-drops-75percent-supertax
That’s the thing – if you tax rich people too much, they end up leaving and taking all of their money with them; governments needs to strike a careful balance in order not to kill the golden goose.
Rob, ok. SO what’s the point in the end of this anyway?
what direct benefit does the country get out of any of these very rich people (y’know these people you mention that we have be careful to strike a balance for and avoid pssing off one way or the other) as it stands?
per my question to Cian there…could you trace the taxation take from these super rich people all the way into the A+E dept. at the Mater? is it that their crumbs will come to me eventually and help me buy my first house?
see the way I look at it is this…I would suspect the vast majority of millionaires like being millionaires and probably even employ people to help them avoid paying tax (which I find disgusting but anyways) and if we assume what you say about France would occur (I suspect you are correct) then I would say fupp them and let them fupp off to Switzerland!!
why should they get to live here, educate their children, swan about and participate in Irish life if they haven’t got their fellow man’s/woman’s interests in the equation?? it’s unfair.
Hi Clampers, it’s not really pointless, I’m scratching at something. we seem to hold the very wealthy in some kind of untouchable for gods sake shhhhhh! don’t disturb them or were all gonna die regard.
I know today you can’t trace a euro from the wealthy man living in D4’s pocket to the Mater (I DO see technology solving that one in the future but that’s for another days work)
SO why is it (as you have said and are correct) that if we cannot prove that link that we tippytoe around them with tax rules at present? is it trickle down economics and some blind faith we do have in it? even though we cannot prove it’s benefit to us we kneel to it?
blind faith, eh? that’s sounding almost like religion to me
?
Hi 011, don’t get me wrong, I’d like to see them pay more tax.
But I prefer to read points made that make one think there is something to the point, something worth pondering, rather than silly slogans of “tax those guys” type stuff.
I’m with ya, in heart ;)
Re: taxing billionaires more – I don’t have an issue with it. Tax them more. But as Rob mentioned this needs to be done carefully or they will leave. My point (which I didn’t make well) is that the few extra millions that you can get by taxing the 17 Irish billionaires is a drop in the ocean when compared with the billions and billions of extra money that the TDs would need to do all the things they are promising.
True dat.
….Irish billionaires is a drop in the ocean when compared with the billions and billions of extra money that the TDs would need to do all the things they are promising
ok. so let’s go back to my question/musing (and I’m not hectoring or anything here, I’m just asking a straight question that nobody seems able to answer yet)
on one hand we DO seem to me to be quantifying this – that there IS a (perceived?) end difference in taxing rich people more because scaring some of them away to Switzerland or wherever versus carrying on as per the situation today, status quo. mess with rich people and we take in less tax.
BUT we also seem to be saying we can’t directly prove that, we have no way to fingerprint where the taxed euro travels, correct?
and so what IS that? a blind faith in something? is it a faith in a system, trickle down economics? or laziness…it’s just more comfortable to carry on and not question it or even try to see if there is a better fairer way to increase tax output ? see, I look at this as a problem that HAS to be solved.
another thing I have heard this week as a related example is an outright rejection to consider a rent freeze….that y’know some expert or other advises us that it’s unconstitutional. is it? really? well prove that! ok and let’s say even if that be proven to be the case, change the constitution!
it just seems to me that a lot of people accept stuff. without trying.
you are absolutely spot on, pity it’s people like you who leave and the very best of luck off this island, I’m sure you’ll go far (whatever that means these days) you seem a bright questioning driven type to me :)
Hi Janet
thanks for the compliment although I wouldn’t say I’m majorly different to any of my mates. I always got told off at home a lot tho for questioning too much ha :) but I can’t help that, if somethings wrong you don’t stand around looking at it you try to fix it. Is this not the same? I notice that nobody really engaged with what I was asking last night, maybe its an age thing I dunno, try walking in my shoes for a bit I suppose. This election it feels kinda like the 8th amongst me and my mates anyway, actually most of us never voted in an election before but despite some very different backgrounds we’re all talking about similar things, feels good somehow
I have a confession – i made a mistake, it wasn’t SF that was going to “tax the billionaires”… It was PBP.
Sinn Fein was actually worse. They wrote a total of 28 words explaining what they would do: Sinn Fein will give workers and families a break by increasing your income, cutting your bills, building homes and reducing your rents. We work for Irish Unity.
But no explanation of how they would actually do any of these or fund the changes. Sounds like a “we have a money tree”…
…either way Cian…lets hope you’re right…lets see those leeches go off to Malta, Amsterdam, Switzerland, etc…
The only money tree was in Noonans head – fiscal space he called it. That was of course until Pearse Doherty had to show him how to actually calculate, at which stage Noonan hobbled away, smarting after being corrected by…by..by.. Sinn Fein. tsk tsk
SF is making vague promises with zero evidence. So they must have a money tree to pay for it.
misrepresenting things a little there, cian
PBP did not say or suggest that taxing billionaires (all 17 of them) would pay for the array of initiatives and projects in their manifesto
taxing billionaires would bring in 90 million in additional tax, according to their figures
taxing corporations – RBB cited starbucks as an example of a corporation that paid nothing in tax in last FY – and increasing tax on those earning more than 95,000 a year are the main proposed sources
Somebody at RTÉ is finally taking notice of the way the wind’s blowing:
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/election-2020/rte-opens-door-to-mary-lou-mcdonald-being-included-in-final-tv-debate-38918719.html
Great stuff!
I’ll probably vote sf in order to vote tactically however I despise their nationalistic rhetoric and 32 county nonsense
I thought it was Brits Out Accomplished as of last Friday? Oh. Right.
I’m punishment beatingly happy at this news.
that’s an odd phrase/sentiment, Christian Brothers education ? ;)
Yes. And growing up in the decades where Sinn Féin members and supporters handed out punishment beatings like Celtic shirts at a Sinn Féin cumann meeting.
I honestly think that a lot of voters will consider voting SF because they, like Janet, are too young to understand where the phrase ‘punishment beating’ comes from.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/northern-ireland-eighty-one-punishment-attacks-in-past-year-1.3977767
they havent gone away, you know
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/uda-blamed-for-murder-and-beatings-31097570.html
FG/UDA?
Completely stupid and asinine from Giggidy, as we have come to expect.
Asinine/inconvenient fact.
UDA DUP…… and who was the guest speaker at the FG Ard Feis? The bould Jeffrey Donaldson. DUP.
A=B=C
UDA=DUP=FG
I absolutely did not make the connection no, but weren’t both sides at that caper then
I’m amazed that some people in Ireland don’t know about or can’t remember punishment beatings.
Yes. All paramilitaries were at it, goes with the territory. And their political allies oversaw it and made excuses for them.
But, those who weren’t “at that caper then”:
The Greens, Labour, Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Sox Dems, PBP, a host of independents.
Maybe give those parties a vote before a gang of barely reformed paramilitaries and paramilitary fanboys and fangirls.
I’m with out on anyone except the shower that we have,
personally my biggest prob with SF is possible racism and Irish first nonsense
“… but weren’t both sides at that caper then”
I really do despair at this line of reasoning – something that is morally wrong is morally wrong. People bring it up about SF because they are running for election here; if the PUP or whoever ever decided to seek election in Ireland, I would bring it up about them too.
Also, calling it a ‘caper’ doesn’t really properly convey the horror of a parent being forced to bring their child to be shot in the kneecap for selling 10-spots of hash.
my apologies you are right, I wasn’t trying to belittle it in anyway, it was in my eyes the result of a civil war,
look I’m not even Catholic but find that it’s honest to say both sides did unspeakable acts of barbarity,
I guess I’m saying I would try not let the past colour my modern vote..
Your like a fart echoing Rob.
That FG “No” video would make you throw up
the party that likes to say NO. how positive
Yes. And her comparing shoe box apartments to Boutique Hotels. The cheek of her. Oopppps….that was Posh Boy Murphy though wasn’t it? The boy who took over a failed business in Taneleagh and opened an office without planning permission? That posh boy?
(Reply to Cian above)
Have lost your minds. I am no fan of FG. I think FF should be gone at this stage. The greens are a childish act along with PBP. People: this country crashed and burned. We should be like Greece. We are all sharing the pain and we have a lot of problems, and posh boy isn’t going to solve them. But, the alternative is genuinely appalling. RBB in government. Have any of you met him. Dealt with him. He is the worst kind of FF to have ever existed. O’Snodaigh.. HELLO.. you want change: work for it. There are no simple solutions..
No more crack pipe; you’ve got to fix those FG posters blown down in the wind in the morning.
“He is the worst kind of FF to have ever existed”
what does that even attempt to mean ?
and, yes, I’ve met and know RBB
Then you know that he lives in a world of sound bites constantly spinning the narrative to his own agenda and completely ignoring the reality. He’s just like the other idiot Ryan. Blah blah tax the rich..
I’ve noticed a few other National Campaigns using these playground like cutouts in their pressers
The Soc Dems little purple houses were particularly childish
They’re treating the voter like children with no attention span, and it’s insulting
Please – make yere respective cases like adults, and treat us, the voter, like grownups
…oh V…her purpleness might smite you…
or His purpleness
from what I’ve seen anyway
Whatever way the votes fall we’ll end up with a coalition of some sort. Regardless of whom it comprises, the ludicrous auction politics and red lines we’re witnessing suggest the circle cannot be squared.
It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked.
The penny has finally dropped. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/election-2020/taoiseach-wants-to-lead-fg-even-if-party-loses-election-and-says-ff-has-a-lot-of-backwoodsmen-38919005.html
Leo not only will increase the losses of FG seats that Kenny started, but he says he still wants to lead the party.
(he is of course confident of being re-elected himself)
Varadkar is so enamored with his own reflection he doesn’t realise that it’s an abyss (not at puddle) that he’s looking in to.