websites

I designed a few websites for the local elections – this is compromising my anonymity, so I’ll probably delete this post in a week!

http://www.hopeforgalway.ie
http://www.niallobrolchain.ie
http://www.maireadnichroinin.ie

Interesting news today where Trevor Sargent said he’d been approached by Enda Kenny so sound out Sinn Féin on supporting him for Taoiseach. I’m pretty sure it’s true, though I imagine SF would have said no, in no uncertain terms. I still hold Fine Gael responsible for the demise of the IRA ceasefire in the late 90s, they nearly wrecked the peace process completely. I know that was John Bruton, two leaders before Enda Kenny, but I doubt Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin have forgotten that either.

And Trevor Sargent has got integrity, plus I’m sure Enda Kenny would have explored all the options to make him Taoiseach.

I don’t see the fuss over Sinn Féin to be honest. I don’t see eye to eye with them particularly, but if we expect Ian Paisley’s DUP to go into government with them in the north, why should Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael be any different? Though I’ll say again that I don’t see eye to eye with them politically and I wouldn’t like to see them in Government for reasons other than history and so on.

Plus, I don’t really believe politicians who say they wouldn’t do a deal with a certain party. Dick Spring swore he wouldn’t go in to government with Fianna Fáil in the early 90s and look what happened. I’m sure Eamon Gilmore would do the same if there was a chance. Politicians want power, that’s the reason they’re in politics.

And that’s not a bad thing, if you’re in politics and you don’t want power, you should get out. Politics is about power, and you should want power, because you should want to make certain changes to the way this country is. If you don’t, I don’t see why you’d be in politics.

Satisfaction

It’s such a sexy word. Satisfaction. Dunno why, just is. Maybe it has something to do with the Rolling Stones song…

Assassin

The game. You know. If you don’t google it. Anyway, we were having a game in college this week, and I didn’t even get a chance to try for my target. I had come up with a plan, but then a colleague asked me if I could cover a class of his from 2-6pm. And as chance would have it, one of the people in the first half of the class was friends with my assassin, and told her where I would be. Of all the dumb luck – I usually wouldn’t have been anywhere near the class. Damn.

I Got Polled

For only the second time ever, I got polled last week. By tns/MRBI. The last time I was polled was in 2002, just before the general election, also by tns/MRBI.

It’s weird getting opinion polled. You always read these things in the newspapers, and actually being a part of the “a random sample of 1,003 adults across the country” is a reminder that all the percentages actually come from people like me (well, people anyway) across the country being actually asked. Which is easy to forget sometimes.

Except this time, I didn’t see the results being published in the Irish Times (which usually carries the tns/MRBI polls). So I guess it must have been some political party’s internal poll – which probably means Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. I’m guessing Fianna Fáil, because I did see something in one of the papers about an internal FF poll which showed the party would come in third place in a general election.

That tallies with the last Irish Times – tns/MRBI and Sunday Business Post – Red C polls, putting Labour in the low- to mid-twenties. And it does seem pretty clear that if there was an election soon, Fianna Fáil would get cheesed (like getting creamed, but it goes on for longer: thank you Terry Pratchett!). Royally cheesed.

But that makes me ask: would Fine Gael and Labour really do much better in Government? Enda Kenny as Taoiseach?

I’m not sure they could. I mean let’s face it, a lot of our problems come from the fact that we’re in a global downturn. There’s less tax coming in. Banks everywhere are struggling. Fianna Fáil can’t do much about the global economy, and neither could Labour or Fine Gael. A new Rainbow government would still be faced with a huge deficit and 2002-level tax receipts, and would still be faced with the task of cutting €5 billion or so in Government spending, or making it up through tax increases. Whatever way you cut that level of money from the public purse, you are going to upset a lot of people. A lot.

I think that if there was an election tomorrow, Fine Gael and Labour would win in a landslide, I think the Greens would go from 6 to probably nine or ten, and Sinn Féin would pick up a couple too. Fianna Fáil would lose big. And then, I think that once they had decided on which spending cuts and tax increases to make, their poll numbers would drop like a stone. Curiously I think that would benefit the Greens, who are actually doing decent work in the two ministries they have – Communications, Energy, and Natural Resources and Environment, Heritage, and Local Government – particularly Eamon Ryan in DCENR, who is actually, despite the recession, well ahead of schedule to complete everything in the Programme for Government for the DCENR. And the Greens’ polling numbers are, despite the fact that they are part of this Government, 150% at least of their vote from the last general election. I think they are pulling off a great trick – taking credit for what they are doing themselves, whilst avoiding the blame for Fianna Fáil’s mistakes. It remains to be seen whether they can keep that up.

But my point is, if there is an election soon, voters will switch in droves from Fianna Fáil to Fine Gael and Labour. And if Fine Gael and Labour can’t pull off a miracle, their poll numbers will start to tank as well, very quickly…but where do those voters go? They won’t go back to Fianna Fáil…so they are left with really only two options: Sinn Féin and the Greens. And I don’t think a lot of them would go to Sinn Féin.

Anyway, this was meant to be a 2 line post, and I got a bit carried away, so I’ll leave it there for now. But I would be very interested to read any comments that any of you might have on that analysis.

Sunday TV

Why is there never anything good on TV on Sundays? Douglas Adams was right when he called Sunday afternoons “The long dark teatime of the soul”. I just don’t understand why it’s seemingly impossible to put something decent on the box for us to watch.

Today…

…is the greatest day in Irish sporting history.

Here’s to our Grand Slam winning team.

Brian O’Driscoll – what a legend. Paul O’Connell – what a colossus. And Ronan O’Gara – phenomenal drop goal under what is certainly the maximum possible pressure. I doubt there’s ever been a better drop goal, given the circumstances.

Pure class.

Dublin Bus – why the cutbacks?

I see the drivers at Dublin Bus have rejected the ‘compromise’ cuts offered by the company. I’m not surprised. What I am surprised at is Dublin Bus cutting services during a recession. And this goes for Bus Éireann and Iarnrod Éireann as well.

Are the management at these companies on the same planet as the rest of us?

There’s a recession on. The price of fuel is still high, though lower than the record set last year. More people have less money in their pocket, car sales have dropped through the floor. A lot of people can’t afford to drive everywhere now. They should be increasing services, not decreasing them. And they should also drop their fares.

Sound crazy? Think about it. Bus and rail fares in Ireland are staggeringly high. Why do you think buses and trains aren’t full? Fares are too high. People can’t afford it, and it’s cheaper to use your own car. It costs less to fly to London than to get a train from Galway to Dublin! High fares: not many people use trains and buses. Increase fares: LESS people use trains and buses. Decrease services: LESS people use trains and buses. Less people use trains and buses: Companies make less money.

Cut out the middle link – Increase fares, reduce services: the companies make less money. They’re running at a loss now: so that means they’ll increase fares more and cut services again, which means they’ll take in even less money.

Solution: Increase services, cut fares. Many more people will take trains and buses, and thus the company will take in more money.

This is Economics 101, it’s not rocket science.

For me, this really calls into question two things. First of all, the people appointed to boards of publicly owned companies. Are they really up to the job? Let’s look at Aer Lingus and Ryanair. I would bet all the money in my pockets, against all the money in yours, that if the people running Ryanair had been running Aer Lingus instead, then we would now be talking about Aer Lingus buying out Ryanair, not the other way around. Ministerial appointees to State-owned companies are not accountable, not transparent, and extremely open to abuse. Witness former Taoiseach Ahern’s statement, when asked why he’d appointed people to state boards who had been involved in the over-hyped “digout” controversy: “I appointed them because they were my friends, not because they had given me money”. What??? His friends??? Were they even remotely qualified for the jobs they were given? What planet is Fianna Fáil living on?

We need to take a leaf out of the book that is the Constitution of the United States. Any political appointee in the States is vetted by the appropriate committee of the Senate, and only takes office after a vote of the full Senate. I’d suggest the same be applied here, except our Senate is pretty bloody useless, full of failed and wannabe TDs, apart from a notable few like the great David Norris. Senate reform is high on the Green Party’s agenda, apparently, so I hope they’ll include something like this in their reform.

The other question I ask is, should the State really own these companies? Situation recap: we’re broke. I say sell off Iarnrod Éireann, Bus Éireann, and Dublin Bus, all as separate companies, and let them be run in the private sector. Open it up to competition in the bus market. Trains can compete with buses, and we probably shouldn’t copy the English privatisation into a load of different companies there…that’s ended up an enormous, expensive, mess.

Anyway, rant over.

I think I’ll start this again

I haven’t updated this blog in ages because I got bogged down in work, and it fell down my priority list…then of course the longer I left it, the harder it was to start it again. But I miss having somewhere to rant occasionally, so here I am back again. I don’t actually have anything to rant about right now, but I have no doubt that I will soon.

More Lisbon Aftermath

So we’re being given until November to “sort out the problems for Europe that we have created”.

First reaction: Lisbon was supposed to come into effect in January, so is this an effective admission that it’s dead? I hope so.

Second reaction: Ireland did not create this problem. The problem was created by the EU leaders who tried to ram through a Treaty that had already been rejected in two referenda, in an incomprehensible form so that the people would not understand what was being forced on them, and without listening to what the people of Europe wanted. The problem was created by EU leaders who expanded the EU too far, too fast, before considering how the EU institutions could work in an expanded EU.

My message to Brian Cowen, Enda Kenny, Eamon Gilmore, and John Gormley: go to the EU and tell them to come back with a Treaty that is in the format of the original Constitution (i.e. not a huge list of amendments, but one readable document) which places democracy at the heart of all EU decision-making, which does not treat smaller states as add-ons to the EU, and which allows us to keep a firm control over areas which are best handled at national government or local government level in Ireland. Do that, and I’ll work day and night for a yes vote.

I’m not a Eurosceptic; I think the EU is a great idea, it’s been great for Ireland and the Irish people, and for most everyone in the EU. And it could be great for the new accession states too. The EU, after all, is not a thing in itself; it’s made up of national governments, and is only as good as the people in those governments and the rules of the club. It will only be as good in the future as it has been until now if it is based on the fundamental principles of democracy, and subsidiarity (i.e. decision-making at the lowest effective level).

Shot-Put

Has there ever been a more pointless “sport”? I mean seriously, it’s worse than Cricket or American Football. “Look at me, I can twiddle around like a prat in this circle before pushing this heavy ball away from me, woooo!”. And have you seen the people that do it in the Olympics? Can’t imagine they get much action! Sounds like a lot of pain for no reward to me. And what’s the point? Seriously? Where did it come from? I mean, let’s see who can run the fastest, jump the longest and the highest, that I can understand. Even the javelin, well, that obviously comes from throwing spears at the enemy in ancient times. But the shot? I dunno, I mean if the ancient Greeks were throwing heavy balls at the enemy, if the enemy was close enough, by the time the thrower had twiddled around like a super-heavy ballerina on speed and pushed the thing away, he (or she) would have been run through with a spear. And if it was some kind of bomb, it would be pretty useless, cos it would have to be pretty weak to avoid blowing up the thrower. I just can’t see the point.

Same goes for the triple jump. “ooh, let’s see who can jump the longest if we let them put their foot down twice in the middle of the jump!”. I mean why not the double jump? Or the quadruple jump? I mean seriously!

Rant over.