Sinn Féin in the lead! FF & FG surprised?! What do you think? Exciting or scary times?!

[Housiemousie]

I have always been a Fine Gael voter. I'm from a long line of FG voters, many active in the party, who would be horrified by how much I want Mary Lou to succeed.

I really want to like Leo. He looks the part but he's not speaking to me. I am self employed in rural Ireland and neither FF or FG have sounded like they know I or any of my family or friends exist in the 20 years I have lived here (having worked abroad for a decade post uni). I even have a soft spot for Micheál Martin (who can resist a Cork accent) But I am not a farmer so he's not representing me either.

So why is Mary Lou so appealing? I couldn't even listen to Gerry Adams. Is it the fact that because she's not northern I'm not thinking IRA? Or because we really have moved past that , or is it that we are so, so sick of the entrenched fat cats of FF and FG that anything (well, almost, you can keep Aontu) will be better?

I'd love to hear I'm not alone in finding this upcoming election more exciting than previous ones.

David Cullinane’s election agent, Michael Doyle: “To be honest I don’t know what I’m going to say here tonight because I’m still in shock myself. This country has changed, there’s something serious after happening.

“There’s a seismic shift and the Shinners are at the f**king table. The ‘big two’, as they call themselves, say they’re not going to talk to us. Well, do you know what? We broke the bastards.

“We broke the Free State and this country will never be the same again - because the people are after taking their voice and it’s up to us now to deliver.

Almost the entirety of this thread
Well I don't have a clue what you're on about.

As far as William and Kate are concerned, it looks as if they will be here and gone home long before a government is formed. Local councillors will be deployed, maybe MEPs.

I’m sure Wills and Kate would be shepherded off to have tea with Michael D. Isn’t that what he’s there for?

Harry and Meghan met him...

Free State. Jesus move on lads. The Free State is not your enemy. We're trying to go forwards.

Eggandonion disability services have always been horrendous even during the Celtic Tiger times. I remember waiting over 2 years for an multidisciplinary assessment for my son in 2006. It was terrible back then that I can't even imagine how bad it is now but both FF and FG completely ignored disability services even when the country was awash with money.

Before the election i had a look at what each party was promising to do for disability. Sinn Fein was the best and FG was the worse. The problem with SF is they have promised so much to other issues as well, where will all the money come from?

Not many votes in providing disability services Voila.

I think FF and FG were pig ignorant during the campaign. Just like it as Micheal Martins turn next iykwim
I despise SF but FG and FF handed it to them. Their attitude to their win is one of see what ye put in Govt. Not we messed up and are sorry. Fg and FF appeared fat cattish throughout campaigb. . I m fascinated now about varadkars pension in april. Id say large industries like google will be watching closely. If SF change things. They will be out the door faster than you can say didley squat

I don't know - don't that lot manage to pay feck all tax anyway, even what they're supposed to pay now?

Apileofballyhoo
Yes re not paying taxes but they employ a lot of people who do pay taxes and contribute to the economy.

Well I don't know - I often hear the "high earners will leave" and "business will pull out" thing. And I think well my BIL and DS are (fairly) high earners - but where would they go? The US? Canada? Australia? UK? They're in their 50s, their families and friends are here and their DC are teens settled into school, state exams to face and friends of their own. My BIL doesn't speak a European language and in any case aren't taxes higher in many European countries?

With companies isn't Ireland an English speaking workforce with access to the EU? And if companies moved to another EU state they'd have higher corporation tax to pay too - aren't we always hearing about the rest of the EU giving out that ours is too low?

I know some of the eastern EU states have lower taxes.

I wonder if some of the companies are finding it hard to attract people to Ireland anyway with the lack of public transport and high rents. I know one of the large building consultants is as they were on the radio the other day saying they were part of a recruitment event in London and they only got one person, who pulled out as rents are too high in Dublin. I think that was for plumbers, but maybe it was just that the individual concerned was a plumber.

And the target was emigrants living in London, which we are always seeing on here as so expensive to rent or buy in.

Wasn't Dell manufacturing though? Those types of jobs will always move to countries with a cheaper workforce. Not saying that others wouldn't move, just wondering where they'd go and still have a EU base. If our corporation tax rate went up how much could it go up by and still be attractive?

You're looking at Eastern Europe to find low corporation tax rates - lower than ours is as things stand. Even at 15% Ireland's rate would still be competitive in western Europe.

What kind of companies were they, cácá? The overnight shut down ones?

I don't think it's on a par with Brexit uncertainty tbh. All the international trading laws will remain the same.

Sakura7 Tue 11-Feb-20 21:04:55

Great post.

The global equivalent of the theory that 'the young people' are feckless spendthrifts who would all be living the dream if it weren't for their own inability to do maths depends heavily on alleged fondness for avocado toast.

Sadly, it's other generations who can't do maths, and maybe some of them don't do irony either. The original complaint about avocado toast and consumption patterns of those who can't afford to buy housing was made by a millionaire Australian luxury property developer.

It's a handy and very lazy way of blaming the less well off for their predicament. It also reinforces belief in the myth that prudent behaviour will always result in reward, something that many home owners who fell into negative equity after 2008 could tell you is a load of codswallop.

On 'Late Capitalism'
A character in Thomas Pynchon's novel Bleeding Edge states: "late capitalism is a pyramid racket on a global scale...getting the suckers to believe it's all gonna go on forever."[25]

According to a 2017 article in The Atlantic, the term "late capitalism" is again in vogue to describe modern business culture,[1] although with a semantic change or an ironic twist. "Late capitalism" has become a catch-all term for various phenomena that express capitalism's distortions of human life, and it is often used in critique and satire. This usage also conveys a sense that contemporary capitalism cannot go on like it does forever, because the problems created by business are getting too large and unmanageable
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_capitalism

www.freddiemac.com/research/insight/20160531_how_to_worry_about_house_prices.page
Technical and from a US pov but worth a read.

qz.com/987724/its-not-just-illogical-to-criticize-people-for-eating-19-avocado-toast-its-immoral/
Another pov.

Well considering Sinn Fein spokesperson in Brexit is the same fella who was caught saying 'up the RA' this week, really speaks volumes. Despite how Mary lou seemed very blasé about the incident publicly, I say she was fuming. David Cullinane has reportedly been kept out of
Any negotiations with other parties to form a government.
I genuinely dont know how any young people are mananging, the rents and childcare costs are frightening. It also bugged the crap out of me when Fine Gael kept bleeting on about the average industrial wage been 47 thousands, what planet were they on.

Fine Gael are in a world of their own.

That's true, I think they believed that they could ignore all the problems and fly in on the success of their Brexit negotiations but only 1% of voters showed any concern about Brexit when canvassing was going on.

Dear Fine Gael, you can't have JCBs clearing away people in tents and old women eating dinner on the street.

I was in Dublin on a bit of a mini break last year and there were children living in the hotel. I felt so sorry for them.

DH heard a FG TD (on the radio I think) saying that they couldn't interfere in the housing market because landlords would pull out.

So we are to believe we'd have zillions of empty houses costing landlords money on property tax and maintenance and they would just leave them there empty. Out of spite. They'd rather have no income coming in rather than a smaller income.

Oh I know they could sell the houses and increase supply to the market but we don't want that either do we. The price of a house might go down.

If a government is formed I cannot see it lasting too long.

FF TDs are meeting today, around half of them do not want to join in with SF, the other half do.

One of the FF TDs is currently being challenged after she clicked the laughing emoji under a post calling her out on a former FF TD who canvassed for her at the home of a victim his cousin abused.

I wonder will FG do a confidence and supply deal with FF? They still wouldn't have enough though, would they? With the Greens?

It's funny to see the 3 Green colours on the coalition builder things.