jbwan: WordPress’ed for time…

Another Day, Nothing Changes… June 8, 2007

So, here we are Summer in Ireland after a general election. Voting for change, shaking up the cabinet, so on so forth. Well none of it has happened, it’s the same old Ireland and the more I think about it the more I want to move to Provence and enjoy life with a community that still holds traditional values. Now that Fianna Fail are back at the helm and the election is over we’re starting to see the cracks opening publicly, in the press. I’ve been saying for ages, along with many others, that inflation was getting dangerous and now we hear that inflation is rising. Wow! There was no such thought in Bertie’s mind previously when he agreed to nurses demands prior to the election – me wonders… We also hear that controversial lands in Dublin may be set for rezoning. Well we wouldn’t have wanted to upset the D4 residents before an election now, would we? Stock markets are falling, interest rates are still climbing and the ordinary Irishman in the private sector is suddenly not that comfortable any more. Meanwhile five days of talks with the Green Party have still failed to produce a government with Fianna Fail. I wonder who’s failing to agree there? Remember, people of Ireland, this was your choice…

Note: Links used above are from the Irish Times 08-07-2007 and may require login to view the content

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Polls Apart May 24, 2007

So the day is finally upon us, the centres are open and the booths are no doubt indelibly marked with the impressions of so many aggressive voters’ pencil scribblings. Election 2007 is underway. Just hours before the gates opened to voters, the INO finally calls an end to its strike action, possibly the best orchestrated campaign of this entire election. They’re now down to 37.5 hours per week and heading to the benchmarking body for a 10% pay rise while the tax payer foots the bill for the establishment of a commission to determine if they should get a 35 hour week instead. Boy oh boy did I pick the wrong career path. Needless to say however, the majority of nurses got what they wanted and will head to the polling booths today to vote for their appeasers. A masterstroke really.

All along this election build-up I have been completely unimpressed with any of the candidates from around the Waterford constituency. My reasons have been cited previously and are best summed up as a lack of visibility on their behalf. As such I am in a great dilemma today – to vote or not to vote, that is my question. It kills me to think of not voting but what happens if you don’t think that any of the representatives are worth voting for and you don’t agree fully with their policies? What do you do? I’ve often thought that voting should have a “none of the above” option that was selected by default on a pollsters vote, thereby being submitted if they elect not to vote. At least this way none of the above would have a count and could be used to show that people really don’t want to vote for anyone. Furthermore it might entice people to vote as while there is a certain detachment from not voting for somebody, I don’t think that folk would like that decision made for them. I’m probably talking nonsense right now, my head is very much in a muddle. Should I vote for progress, change or revenge? I don’t believe in spoiling votes as that’s simply a waste of my and the tallyman’s time. Ironically the provisioning of multiple bad choices may well have just provided me with none…

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Thicko does McDowell April 25, 2007

Tip of the hat to Damien Mulley for finding this one. It’s a wee political satire from Thicko of Michael McDowell. To be honest I found it hard to figure out where reality ended and parody began…