80 thoughts on “Sunday’s Papers

    1. Junkface

      I can’t believe it! I did not know she was even ill. She was a great journalist and a truly warm & lovely personality to watch on TV. Very, very sad. RIP

      1. Cú Chulainn

        It has to be FG/FF coalition (though they don’t want it) Leo and Mehole to rotate as Taoiseach. The reason they don’t like that as it gives the left time to sort itself out: SF hard left and Green/soc-dem/ Labour as soft left. PBP will be used as the looney left and kept out of the coalition. That would be the best outcome for the country as there will be a real choice going forward. However, FFG will more likely faff about and whatever agreement is reached we will be back voting in 2 years at best.

      1. GiggidyGoo

        Caseys vote will be interesting. I was told by a friend that Leo’s foot soldiers weren’t happy with a lot of the responses they were getting on the canvas and that Leo’s vote was being eaten into from all sides.

        1. ReproBertie

          According to the exit poll immigration was the main reason for voting for a massive 1% of people.

          Leo will be re-elected easily.

          1. ReproBertie

            Presumably. With a 50% tally he’s on 18%, trailing the SF candidate, Donnelly, who’s on 29%. Chambers (FF) is in third on 16%.

            None of the Castleknock boxes opened yet though.

          2. ReproBertie

            100% tally from DubW is:
            Donnelly (SF) 28%
            Varadkar (FG) 20%
            Chambers (FF) 16%
            O’Gorman (GP) 11%
            Coppinger (SPBP) 10%
            Burton (Lab) 5%
            Currie (FG) 4%
            MacManus (AON) 2%
            Ó Maoláin (SD) 2%
            Casey (Ind) 1%

            (Leo polled 19.66% in 2016)

      1. GiggidyGoo

        I think she will be making the running this time. A kind of kick in the goolies for all of those commentators who pronounced ‘sure SF don’t want to go into government’ over the past years (when on course it was FF FG who didn’t want to go in with them. )
        This time it’ll be ‘sure FG are afraid of going into government’ or ‘FF are afraid of going into government’
        My oh my (oh my)

        1. Cian

          SF are quite far on the left. FF and FG are center-right.
          For SF to work together with either will force a lot of compromise… and SF aren’t used to compromise: when you’re in opposition you can stick firmly to your, ahem, morals.

          1. GiggidyGoo

            Ahem is right. FFG are the ones who pronounce no compromise as regards SF. Their problem for FFG will be, if they don’t, another election soon at which stage you’ll have a FFG coalition, and in increase in SF candidates. Guess what way that will go.

          2. Cian

            the “ahem” was because I didn’t want to say “stick to your guns”.

            FF and FG are used to compromise. Any time they go into coalition they compromise.

            SF have never had to make a hard choice. Have never had to compromise.

  1. Steph Pinker

    Hey BS, any chance of commissioning Mikeyfex to do a cartoon strip/ webcomic about the 2020 Year of The Rat elections – I’ll contribute! Pleeeeeease?

  2. GiggidyGoo

    Project Oak. The State selling off mortgages to vultures – yep, I know it says ‘AIB’, but that’s owned by the State.
    FG kept the lid on that until this morning. Sly slimy gits.

    1. D

      yeah the exit of the present govt. is always the time to watch out for this stuff, I remember the minimum wage cut in 2010 by fianna fail, as bat o’keefe the minister in charge was to ‘make it easier people to enter the workforce’ before retiring onto three pensions days later. worked out at about 2 grand a year from the lowest earners. I don’t know how anyone can vote for fianna fail but there it is.

  3. Charger Salmons

    Just one observation about yesterday.
    In order to vote I had to bring along ID.
    When Boris Johnson outlined plans in the Queen’s Speech just before Christmas to bring in voter ID in the UK for the first time it was condemned by Jeremy Corbyn as ” clearly discriminatory against ethnic minorities .”
    The former Labour leader Ed Miliband called the move “voter suppression” and Labour’s Angela Eagle called it “an attempt by the Conservative party to suppress voting, and is designed deliberately to hit the poorest hardest”. Yet the poorest have to provide ID in order to claim benefits.
    I wonder if this is connected to a number of cases of electoral fraud involving Labour politicians in constituencies with large Asian populations ?

    1. GiggidyGoo

      Everyone has to bring ID here I thought. Not everyone is asked for it. Just the suspicious ones I suppose.

      1. millie vanilly strikes again

        I’m always asked for ID. It’s because of the moustache, I reckon. It’s very flamboyant and, for some people, off-putting.

    2. bisted

      …why do you continue to be preoccupied with labour in the UK…they have been roundly rejected…hope our own flavour get annihilated here…

    3. Ringsend Incinerator

      I also had to bring ID. No polling card arrived. In fact I don’t know of anyone who DID get a polling card.

    1. 01101101 01100011

      Hi Toe

      “in spite of the furore over the retirement age in this election”

      not in spite of, almost more BECAUSE of I’d say, except for the very edge of that age group they’ve already got their pensions in the bag, happy days, and I’m happy for them, seriously, I think we need to take care of our older people and to me this moving of pension goalposts is a con job but to me that stat looks like what I’d have thought

      its a kinda demonstration of the I’m alright jack Us and Them thinking that I despise so much but understandable in this specific scenario I’d say

      I’m SO proud of my age group right now!! (I’m 22), game on! in nearly all of the more robust chats I have had here on Broadsheet I would say something along the lines of “you’re not listening” and this vote reflects that I think, hopefully we can wake up now, halt this slide into Googleland economics and thinking and make some serious corrections.

      Also – I would like to say to everyone FG people especially I really believe that is gonna be a good thing in the end. Even with your worst fears, which I don’t share, this will force FFG to cop the fupp on and start LISTENING to the people they work for and promote and build the Ireland they want (and need actually). SF don’t have the numbers for anything more ambitious. I know what their end game logic is and for example I myself don’t support it. I don’t wan’t or need a 32 county Ireland and I’m telling you know I know nobody around me that does. Not a hope in hell. So cool down. This is about bread and butter, not high fallouting ideologies and global economic stuff.

      I’m very hopeful this can be a catalyst for a real turn in how we do things in Ireland. Lets see.

      1. Boj

        You’ve some head on your shoulders at just 22. Sincerely, the very best of luck to you and here’s hoping for a brighter future for all.

        1. 01101101 01100011

          hi Boj
          thanks a mil but I’m very much same as a lot of my mates to be fair.
          I got some accusation about being a SF this or that a few days ago but it was almost like a microcosm of the “you’re not listening” thing because that’s far far from the reality. I want a change to the entire system, screw this tribal crap, Us and Them and the self-interested rest of it and let’s get our act together, the problems we have now and are way beyond this nonsense. It’s like we’ve just stepped in the quicksand but still have a shot at getting out of it if we cop on, 180 and make some adjustments.
          I’m a student, specifically I’m into AI. I can promise you and everyone else here, even the techies ahead of me…you wanna see some of the stuff I’m seeing right now and there’s plenty I haven’t even gotten the privilege of getting into yet….if you think this way of life is gonna roll along as is yer in for a mighty shock.

        2. 01101101 01100011

          I’d say one more thing about this and then I’ll shut up!
          I reckon tech has played a huge part in all this but not in the usual way you’ve seen elsewhere like the US and UK.

          I think Irish people are very different to many other peoples we rub shoulders with out there. We’re clever, ingenious, adaptable, educated and all that but we’re also a particular flavour of cynical. backed up by evidence experienced by older generations still very much in the public domain. I happen to think we’re fairly unique in world terms. We don’t swallow cheesy socmed mal-advertising, we have really good bs detectors built-in. We used online resources in the way they were intended, suss out the bs, discover the track records etc and we applied critical thinking…and it’s going to escalate. Establishment politicians trying to rebrand themselves can’t hide, there’s too much data available. do you really believe that FFG who all of a sudden got Green were truly Green all along and are only now able to express themselves like they just “came out” or something? my mates smell this a mile off, it’s a lie.

          I think there’s a short window of opportunity here, vested interests will also have seen this and move to protect what’s “theirs”. there’s a 3-5 year window here imho to achieve a distinct rebalancing and maintain that world uniqueness and the horsepower we currently enjoy on that world level. we punch very nicely above our weight. why do we want to be like everybody else?!?

          I certainly don’t intend to become a Silicon Valley drone or worse be dependent on them, do you?

      2. Charger Salmons

        Youthful idealism is fine but it needs to be tempered with realism.
        Ireland is a small, largely rural country, whose economy is heavily dependent on a very small number of multi-nationals some of whom pay very little tax.
        It is also subject to an increasing amount of immigration putting more strain on dire public services, healthcare and housing.
        Ireland also has one of largest per capita national debts in the world at €200billion eclipsed only by Japan and the USA – debt which has to be serviced every year.
        So how do you pay for all this housing and improved healthcare in a country where the top rate of tax is already effectively over 50% ?
        Put up taxes even more ? Any economist will tell you the more you increase tax the less tax take there is.
        If anything taxes should be reduced to stimulate growth and try to attract back some of Ireland brightest and best talent that has left the country.
        You want to build more housing ? Make it worthwhile for developers to build by reducing stifling planning and building regulations – you think French electricians give a toss about EU regulations ? You’ve obviously never owned a place there.
        And re-introduce CGT exemptions for owners of rental properties to encourage those who have the money to invest in housing again.
        You want more rental accommodation ? Put in robust laws that provide landlord and tenant with equal rights – the balance has swung much too far in favour of miscreant tenants who can be a pain to remove and which is stopping people investing in the rental market.
        Healthcare ? Force drug companies to reduce prices by allowing prescriptions to be filled in any EU country. The EU is meant to be about the free movement of goods, services and people after all.
        Or just keep on asking a mate to bring back a year’s supply of statins that can be bought over the counter in Spain for a third of the price.
        And on free movement of goods – why should anyone in Ireland have to pay a tax to bring in a car from the North or the UK ? It’s hypocrisy.
        Personally I’d vote for a government that promised to stamp out compo culture, prevented insurance companies from price gouging, campaigned vigorously for a united Ireland and, unpopular as it might be on here, sided with our most important export and import market the UK in the upcoming trade discussions.
        But this time I just went for the Shinners. At least you know what they’re up to …

        1. 01101101 01100011

          hi Charger
          ure right about my youthfulness, yep guilty as charged. look I can’t describe the future in a short paragraph, that would be 1000 pages long and it might be called a manifesto ;) and I don’t know feck all about politics or economics. It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy the discussion with you, but this isn’t the place. but what I would say to you is that all the above you say is predicated on current and historical logic and thinking, my eyes only look forwards. I’m aspirational and I’m tech. many ideas I have you would shake your fist at and tell me “nah it won’t work ure nuts“ but in the same breath you’d sit down with a Newcastle Ale and watch Star Trek and there’s a little bit inside you accepting it could be plausible.

          for one example…we’ve been toying with subjects on here such as how we have no idea where our taxed euros end up, terminate their journey so to speak. Id say we just accept guff from economists and “experts” and politicians and councillors some of whom aren’t even practitioners telling us that. lads that we already suspect are busily lining their own pockets in various ways, claim to be able to, like, wear 2 or 3 hats at the same time, some proven liars, some proven cheats, many certainly immoral.

          what if I told you that I think it would be cool to be able to “fingerprint“, literally, every issued currency unit and the journey it takes, where it rests and make that transparent? no wishy washy vague nonsense, big numbers, hidden assets. have a think about that noodle wrecker and what that could do to flatten the earth.

          tech, who controls it and how to level the playing field is mostly what I worry for in the near future.

  4. Charger Salmons

    Can’t see it being reported much but Jordan Peterson’s daughter reports her father is being treated in Russia for addiction to tranquilizers and was recently near death in an induced coma.
    I do hope he recovers as he is an important alternative voice against the creeping politically-correct wokeness in the media and academic fields.
    His legendary deconstruction of Channel 4’s Cathy Newman has been viewed 19 million times on YouTube.
    https://youtu.be/aMcjxSThD54

    https://nationalpost.com/news/jordan-petersons-year-of-absolute-hell-professor-forced-to-retreat-from-public-life-because-of-tranquilizer-addiction/amp?__twitter_impression=true

    1. :-Joe

      The intellectual that eejit’s deserve….

      https://scholarfactcheck.com/noam-chomsky-jordan-peterson/

      https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve

      Jordan Peterson is a snake-oil salesman, a charlatan, a liar, a vein and narcissistic, pseudo-intellectual fraud.

      At one time he became popular via his rambling, fantasy interpretations of reality on youtube teaching his version of psychology, philosophy, theology etc etc. etc.

      Now that enough eejits have swallowed his parasitic faulty logic and then wilfully, without sceptical questioning and investigation of facts have made it their own thoughts, repeating his nonsense like automatons who scan/print, copy/paste his drivel like mindless robot drone nodes on a world-wide-web connected network of idiocy.

      A cult of eejits patting each other on the back and celebrating bullying, sexism, racism and various other nasty human traits that we would all better off if they were diminished to next to nothing or destinguished completely out of existence.

      The common sense intellectual energy part of the universe has finally paid enough attention to notice that he has become slightly dangerous and it has had enough, exposing him as the complete and utter fraud that he in fact actually is.

      Unfortunately his nonsense is so complex and so many are fooled by his abuse of language that it has taken a long time for the breaking newsflash to reach the mainstream.

      It’s no suprise that he’s addicted to some drug that numbs your mind and body. The constant creeping and growing fear of the truth slowly catching up with him and all his lies and deception must be terrifying at this stage.

      Frightening if you’re clean and sober, especially when you consider the scale of his popularity that has been sensationalised by an almost infinite cult of deluded fools within such a short time-frame.

      Added to that, how scary is it for him when he asks himself the question, what could they do to me when they find out the truth?

      Stop promoting this clown, you’re encouraging ignorance and disinformation and making people dumb..
      -& Not for the first time.

      I hope derpson recovers soon so he can face up to the world that he has treated with such contempt, all at your expense for his own personal gain.

      F’n eejit’s everywhere…

      :-J

      1. Charger Salmons

        You seem troubled Grasshopper.
        Go peacefully into the world and wish nothing on anyone that you wouldn’t wish upon yourself.

        1. :-Joe

          Well, it’s only troubling for everyone how so much nonsense, so confidently propelled by so much arrogance, can come out of a single mind.

          You should read those articles as an excercise in looking for opposing viewpoints to your own beliefs. Learn about what it means and why it is important to think like and have the benefits of a sceptic mindset.

          No sweat off my back tho.. for what it’s worth, if I were you I would look in the mirror and breath in/out – 7/11 for as long as you can take it.. then sit down and have a good think about your place in universe.

          Focus on yourself for a while, nobody is perfect and it’s never too late to change. You already know what needs to be done.

          We all can and need to try to do better.

          :-J

          1. Charger Salmons

            I would Grasshopper.
            But I’m off me norks after a day on the turps celebrating the Shinners triumph tonight.
            Ireland just took one giant step back into the bog.
            And I couldn’t be happier.

  5. 01101101 01100011

    Stephen Donnelly the SD fella that for some reason joined FF, I used to think he was sound

    They’re saying he’s possibly gone already and get this! replaced by the SD councillor wheeled in to replace him! karma?

    Regina Doherty looks gone

    I wonder how that horrible Zappone one is doing…

    1. bisted

      …just heard Zappone do an interview on radio…astonishing…not least that she expects to be re-elected but that she claims to be left wing…

      1. ReproBertie

        With 60% tallied in Dublin SW she’s on 6% which puts her in a 4 way tie for 5th place. It’s a 5 seater though so she’s far from out of it.

    2. GiggidyGoo

      That’s interesting. My son, who got interested in politics a couple of years ago (probably around your age) was also a Donnelly fan, and also used to think he was sound too. More of soundbite as it turned out.

      1. Golden Balls

        Plus one Giggidy
        Phoenix were on to him years ago though when everyone thought he was still cool
        Tune into Terry Prone on Dinnytalk now to hear her mansplain the result to us – really looking forward to hearing this

    3. :-Joe

      Karma indeed…
      – If true that’s great news.. Plus the added bonus of diminishing the F-F/g duopoly.

      :-J

  6. ReproBertie

    Dessie Ellis will be elected on the first count in DubNW. With the full tally in he’s on 44.36% and about 6,000 above the quota. He’s 8,000 votes ahead of Róisín Shortall in second place on 19%.

    His transfers will make the race for the 3rd seat very interesting.

    1. Cú Chulainn

      That’s the big question. Where are the SF 2nds going to go. And will they get 2nds and 3rds ? I just wish the Greens, Labour (what’s left of them) and the Soc Dems merged. When we go back for the follow up election we’d have a viable alternative to FFG that, if nothing else, would be able to give it a proper chance of working. The votes are there now for that to happen.

  7. GiggidyGoo

    The three directors of elections….FFGLAB…… have pusses on them big time on RTE now. The FFer was all over the place, the FGer at least was coherent. Ivana Backseat… well….

      1. bisted

        …listening on radio…riveting…first time in ages the radio has been on non-stop…biggest bonus so far is listening to Rachel English instead of big balsey and his echo chamber…

      2. Golden Balls

        Or me- I turned it off
        That Heydon fella makes me want to commit
        Very violent acts
        Use his ugly smug fat smig as a punchbag
        Pity we can’t get McGregor in there

      3. GiggidyGoo

        Just tuned in again. The FFG axis is still there. Ivana Getoutofhere isn’t.
        Howlin (usually a poll topper) is trailing on 6% in Wexford (Wexford Town boxes not opened yet mind you), and the SF Candidate topping the poll.

  8. Ringsend Incinerator

    Definitely an “OK, I’m OK Boomer” election. Coffin dodgers with their pensions, free this, that and the other, 192 SUVs and Leinster Rugby / Sindo guff need to feck off.

  9. Formerly Known As @ireland.com

    Serious question- does having different numbers of TDs in constituencys mean votes are worth more in some of them?

    1. Cian

      if there are more people in a constituency there will be more TDs.
      Votes aren’t worth any more.

      However you are more likely to vote an independents/smaller parties TD in a 5-seater.

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