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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Nov 24, 2010 16:52:27 GMT
There is an election due early next year. Any comments?
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Post by assisi on Nov 24, 2010 22:29:14 GMT
If you can forgive a Northerner expressing a view on an election he cannot vote in.....
The choice at this moment in time is pretty dismal. I would prefer Sinn Fein if only to make a point in rejecting the parties that have been in power. Hopefully Sinn Fein have learnt from Adam's previous poor show regarding economic knowledge. I also quite like the idea of an all Ireland party doing well.
If ever there was a time to launch a new party in the Republic it is surely now. I looked at the CSPs past record but they haven't caught the imagination and it would appear that a vote for them would be wasted.
It has been said that there will be little or no real national politics in the next four years as the IMF and European Central Bank call the shots
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Post by loughcrew on Nov 25, 2010 8:37:51 GMT
I am a left leaning social conservative who votes against all EU treaties so no party ticks my box.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Nov 26, 2010 8:28:06 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Nov 29, 2010 12:14:34 GMT
In regard to Assisi's comment: I agree the CSP is a no-hope fiasco but that doesn't mean a vote for it is wasted. Remember Dail elections in the Republic are conducted by PR/STV , so you can cast your first preference for them and your second preference can go to another candidate. A vote for the CSP will have little impact but if you are in a constituency with a CSP candidate or an expressly pro-life/pro-family Independent you should give them your first preference as the more votes cast for pro-life/pro-family candidates, the more likely the main parties are to respond to our concerns. (The converse is also the case - the fewer votes such candidates get, the less likely such concerns are to be taken seriously - something that should have been borne in mind by the various ego-trippers who have wrecked most attempts to build a serious Christian democrat/pro-life party.) There is an exception to this - if a professedly pro-life/pro-family candidate is clearly neo-fascist or otherwise undesirable you shouldn't vote for him/her under any circumstances. I would not have voted for Justin Barrett's Euro-candidacy a few years ago, as he had published a book openly advocating the abolition of parliamentary democracy and expressing other highly dubious opinions.
The DLP have one advantage we don't have - a core of activists used to political organisation and working at ground level. Even so they have had problems with members who take what might be called an ecstatic approach to politics and oppose all compromise on the grounds that no bread is better than half a loaf.
Remember also that we have a civic duty to vote - even if there is no good candidate we can vote for the less bad to keep out the worst. For example, any of us who have votes in whatever constituency Ivana Bacik contests should take care to vote all the way down the ballot and give her our very last preference (or next-to-last if there is an even worse candidate in the ring). I fear the Labour tide will sweep her into the Dail, and once in her media cheerleaders will continue the work of presenting her as the next Mary Robinson and advancing her aggressive secularist and pro-abortion agenda.
Finally, I know some posters on this board find Ronan Mullen irritating but any of us who have a NUI Senate vote should vote for him and we should do everything to secure his victory - because he is about as good as it is likely to get, and his defeat would be hailed by the Patsy McGarry types as a tremendous victory over the powers of darkness - namely us.
I may have some more thoughts later.
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Post by hibernicus on Dec 10, 2010 11:44:18 GMT
Ivana Bacik has now been chosen as Gilmour's running mate in Dun Laoghaire. If you know anyone in this constituency please canvass them to give her the lowest possible preference (other than Sinn Fein, or any other type of fascist if there is one). If I voted there I would even give Boyd Barrett a higher preference than Bacik, although I loathe the SWP as a bunch of Trotskyite thugs, because Bacik has made such a big issue out of campaigning for abortion and the liberal agenda generally that her election would be hailed as a major victory. Here is the politics.ie thread (it started before she was formally chosen, as she was last night). In linking to it I wish to state that I condemn the misogynistic references to her physical appearance and the anti-semitic insinuations in relation to her grandfather's having fled the Nazis which are made by some people on the thread while denouncing her views. We should keep personal insults out of this; if she was as beautiful as Aphrodite or (insert name of preferred film star so long as not a stick insect like some I could name) she should still be opposed because of her views. References to her real or alleged ancestry are likewise beneath contempt, and to dabble in that sort of filthy abuse makes those who engage in it as bad as her. www.politics.ie/labour/144063-ivana-bacik-gilmores-running-mate-dun-laoghaire.htmlWhat also worries me is that some incompetent pro-life candidate will enter the field at the last moment and get a few hundred votes, and even if Bacik loses, the size of her vote as compared to the pro-lifer will still be presented as a mandate for her views
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Post by hibernicus on Dec 10, 2010 11:54:21 GMT
Let me clarify that last point. If a pro-life candidate does stand against Bacik it should be organised as fast as possible, a fairly serious candidate should be enlisted and every effort should be made to get a professional campaign off the ground.
What worries me is that unless (or even if) such a candidate were found, some self-publicist of the Emmanuel Sweeney type will enter at the last moment, be picked up by the media as comic relief, be crushed and have their crushing treated as a victory for Bacik. An anti-Bacik campaign would need to be as strong as possible, and I fear it's already too late to make much of an impact.
There was a strong Pro-Life Independent vote in Dun Laoghaire in the early 90s, but so far as I am aware no co-ordinated attempt was made by aspiring nationwide organisations to cultivate it and it just withered.
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Post by Askel McThurkill on Dec 16, 2010 16:09:29 GMT
Well, we'll see Prof Bacik's charisma (or lack thereof) in action soon. I don't believe she's much of a threat.
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Alaisdir Ua Saghdha
Guest
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Saghdha on Dec 17, 2010 14:45:01 GMT
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Dec 17, 2010 14:46:14 GMT
I didn't realise I was logged out last time.
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Post by hibernicus on Dec 20, 2010 12:48:56 GMT
Askill: Ivana Bacik may be uncharismatic, but I remember when Mary Robinson was regarded as uncharismatic (don't underestimate the power of spindoctors and their media sympathisers), and I also recall how a landslide like the 1992 "Spring Tide" swept some very unexpected candidates into the Dail. Note also my point about how a weak pro-life candidate could allow a defeat for her to be spun as a victory (e.g. Bacik got ten times as many votes as Mr Tinfoil Loudhailer of the Christian Crusade against the Illuminati, this shows the country has rejected the pro-lifers' agenda).
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Post by hibernicus on Jan 24, 2011 12:20:47 GMT
The new issue of the CATHOLIC VOICE has a Christian Solidarity Party ad which appeals for money and members, who are asked to submit their names, addresses, phone (home or mobile) and e-mail, and are told "All donations will be acknowledged". The ad is described as "Issued by Richard Greene on behalf of the National Executive". So Richard Greene has joined up with the Christian Solidarity Party (the People's Party presumably having evanesced), and unlike its recent figureheads has enough knowledge of how to organise a party to start building a database of activists. (By the way, this implies that a party which has been in existence in one form or another since 1992 doesn't have such a database already, which is quite damning about how it has been mismanaged.) The tragedy is that in light of the disintegration of the government over the last week, this effort has been left too late to get anything in place before the election. I would disagree with Richard Greene on quite a few things and his track record does not inspire confidence, but I would urge anyone who can to vote CSP purely as a protest vote and to transfer their lower preferences to the least objectionable of the other candidates. This last is VERY important - one big problem with the CSP and similar groups is that they often take the line that everyone else is equally bad and their supporters should therefore "plump" and not transfer their preferences, because anyone who gives a preference to any of the major party candidates is therefore responsible for their misdeeds. The only way a Christian Democrat/pro-life/pro-family candidate can have ANY hope of influencing politics - which under present circumstances is almost impossible anyway - is by getting its supporters to transfer en bloc and thus getting other parties to compete for them (remember our PR system allows even a few hundred transfers to have considerable influence if directed to one candidate.) The CSP and similar groups should not be a mere vehicle whereby a few hundred people plump for a no-hoper and then go home reassured that they have done their duty even if they have achieved nothing.
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Post by guillaume on Jan 24, 2011 14:13:01 GMT
I would disagree with Richard Greene on quite a few things and his track record does not inspire confidence, but I would urge anyone who can to vote CSP purely as a protest vote and to transfer their lower preferences to the least objectionable of the other candidates. . Who are ? Personally I do not have a clue who I will vote for ! (yes, I can vote like any Irish Citizen). Certainly not for FG and/or labour or Green or FF. As an elector I feel useless.
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Post by hibernicus on Jan 24, 2011 16:59:31 GMT
Keep an eye on the election coverage and decide for yourself. I wish the pro-life groups would try listing better and worse candidates. I appreciate that the whip system means this has limited value, but voting to keep out (say) bacik should help.
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Post by Brid from Kildare on Jan 25, 2011 20:01:29 GMT
Hi, I have continually tried to register on this site, several times in fact. Every time I do it tells me I must wait to be approved by the administrator. I cannot post on any other board but this one for some reason. This has been going on for months now. Is there anyone administrating on this site? If so could someone ask them to look at the section where new members are awaiting approval as I must not be the only one in this situation? I have never experienced such a long wait for approval on any other site before so I can only assume there is some kind of problem with either the admin system or the administrator is never around or not covering all his/her responsibilities? Could someone please pass on the message? Thanks...... God bless…….
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