The power of the Irish people today

Saw this thread on Spunout.ie, a young peoples' Irish board.

Quote :

by lynncrf on Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:27 pm

The Power of the Irish People Today

I have been very impressed with the people of our country today. The march by people against the abolition of medical cards for people over 70 followed by the march by students was very inspiring to my mind. It's nice to see that people are not gonna take this lying down.

I fear for Fianna Fail in the next election though as many long term supporters are saying they will now never vote FF again after this debacle.

What do you all think? Anyone else inspired by this?

Yes, I was inspired by it, but was beginning to forget it, with all the slagging of people not understanding the economic crisis, or being out for themselves.
It was profoundly satisfying to see politicians being called to account, and to see people stand up on principle - the over 70s demonstration took place after the U-turn.

Anyone else inspired?

It certainly does knock back the whole apathetic electorate argument.

It is politically foolish what the Government have done. They have decided to attack two groups of people - students and retired people - who have the most time on their hands to march, shout and be a nuisance. What were they thinking? Were they thinking?

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

It certainly does knock back the whole apathetic electorate argument.

It is politically foolish what the Government have done. They have decided to attack two groups of people - students and retired people - who have the most time on their hands to march, shout and be a nuisance. What were they thinking? Were they thinking?

I was very proud of you Ard-Taoiseach, for your participation in this historic event.

cactus flower wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

It certainly does knock back the whole apathetic electorate argument.

It is politically foolish what the Government have done. They have decided to attack two groups of people - students and retired people - who have the most time on their hands to march, shout and be a nuisance. What were they thinking? Were they thinking?

I was very proud of you Ard-Taoiseach, for your participation in this historic event.

Well it's something which affects me directly so I better get out on the streets and make some noise about it. It's my duty!

I didn't realise you were over 70 AT. Do you remember the Depression. If not don't worry as another one is here now to remind us

youngdan wrote:

I didn't realise you were over 70 AT. Do you remember the Depression. If not don't worry as another one is here now to remind us

What happened today dan, did the value of the Dow inch further ('mile' more like) towards the Nasdaq value? How near is the S&P 500 to 500 ? Is oil in the fifties yet ?

Wouldn't you not speculate on oil now - there's no doubt it'll shoot up to 80 bucks and beyond in the not-too-distant future.

Remember a few months ago when we were talking about all the oil up in Alaska. I posted a video of a guy called Linsey Williams. He said at the time that the powers that be told him to shut up or he would be killed. He shut up. However he did say that he was told that the price would be lowered to 50 bucks to cripple Iran, Venezuela and Russia. It was about 140 at the time. I was reading yesterday that an oil put option for december delivery was now 1.56 whereas at one time it could be bought for 0.01. That would be a nice buy.

It's interesting stuff but a bit terrifying to be honest with you - control on that scale is possible you'd imagine but you have ask why, for what and can't it be defeated?

Surely oil at fifty can't stay at that price, although within the past five years it has risen from 28 dollars a barrel but then that housing boom kicked in etc. and must have driven it mad and on top of that multiplier speculation drove it mental altogether up to 150 but even a year ago it was around 70 dollars a barrel so the Russians and Co. have been getting roughly average prices of 50 anyway for the past five years. How would it cripple them ?

Auditor #9 wrote:

It's interesting stuff but a bit terrifying to be honest with you - control on that scale is possible you'd imagine but you have ask why, for what and can't it be defeated?

Surely oil at fifty can't stay at that price, although within the past five years it has risen from 28 dollars a barrel but then that housing boom kicked in etc. and must have driven it mad and on top of that multiplier speculation drove it mental altogether up to 150 but even a year ago it was around 70 dollars a barrel so the Russians and Co. have been getting roughly average prices of 50 anyway for the past five years. How would it cripple them ?

The Russian economy is heavily oil dependent. They had to close their stock exchange again yesterday. Not quite as bad, its down to a quarter from the top of the boom. But US oil inc.these days may not have it all their own way. Russia, Iran and Qatar formed an oil trading group last week: they may well trade in the euro.

Are we off topic? Maybe not. Its high time we looked at getting a bit more from our own energy reserves.

Who knows, maybe the guy was just lucky. When any market rises exponentially then the one thing it will not do is level off. It will most likely either continue up sharply or fall sharply. Almost a 50/50 bet. Gas now now is 2.37 down from 4 dollars a gallon

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

It certainly does knock back the whole apathetic electorate argument.

It is politically foolish what the Government have done. They have decided to attack two groups of people - students and retired people - who have the most time on their hands to march, shout and be a nuisance. What were they thinking? Were they thinking?

Well they were pretty apathetic till self-interest became an issue. Were there many people not directly affected marching? If this is what it takes to get the electorate shouting I think most people would prefer them quiet.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

It certainly does knock back the whole apathetic electorate argument.

It is politically foolish what the Government have done. They have decided to attack two groups of people - students and retired people - who have the most time on their hands to march, shout and be a nuisance. What were they thinking? Were they thinking?

As much as it pains me to say it, attacking the students was politically a pretty good idea. Students may have more time on their hands to shout and march than working people, but ultimately they are without a voice in today's society because of the hitherto high levels of voter apathy amongst this demographic. Rock the Vote campaigns consistently fail to impress and no other student/youth body really makes the effort to enourage young people to register and, more importantly, to vote. It's a serious, serious problem which I think needs to be addressed as soon as possible. We can march all we want--I was at the protest the other day and it was quite impressive I have to say--but ultimately these things are all bark and no bite, and will remain so until the government becomes accountable to the youth. This can only be achieved by the young people of the nation marching on the ballot box on election day.

I am seriously considering contacting the Politics Society and SU of Trinity about organizing a non-partizan registration drive in the college. People need to know that the SU can't fight their battles for them, it wouldn't have the power even if it had the will.

evercloserunion wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

It certainly does knock back the whole apathetic electorate argument.

It is politically foolish what the Government have done. They have decided to attack two groups of people - students and retired people - who have the most time on their hands to march, shout and be a nuisance. What were they thinking? Were they thinking?

As much as it pains me to say it, attacking the students was politically a pretty good idea. Students may have more time on their hands to shout and march than working people, but ultimately they are without a voice in today's society because of the hitherto high levels of voter apathy amongst this demographic. Rock the Vote campaigns consistently fail to impress and no other student/youth body really makes the effort to enourage young people to register and, more importantly, to vote. It's a serious, serious problem which I think needs to be addressed as soon as possible. We can march all we want--I was at the protest the other day and it was quite impressive I have to say--but ultimately these things are all bark and no bite, and will remain so until the government becomes accountable to the youth. This can only be achieved by the young people of the nation marching on the ballot box on election day.

I am seriously considering contacting the Politics Society and SU of Trinity about organizing a non-partizan registration drive in the college. People need to know that the SU can't fight their battles for them, it wouldn't have the power even if it had the will.

That sounds like a really good idea. It would be a very good time to do it. Freshers week would also be a good time to get people to register, when they are signing up to stuff and in a positive frame of mind.

Young people have plenty of reason to protest, as they didn't create the god awful mess that is going on, but they are going to have to deal with it.