Progressive Democrats; About Us

Yo,
Thanks for the heads up on the site. Its much appreciated.
I promise not to be a total cheer-leader for the Democrats. I am open to inferior opinion.

Here is a link to the Progressive Democrats site.
http://www.progressivedemocrats.ie/about_us/

Take is easy...

Is it Unity because there is only one of you, or because of the 1%?

By the way - welcome! leave your coat on the bed and help yourself from the kitchen/drinks and tune into Evotingmachine's party sounds

Good evening Hiker. Great to see you. We're having a party.

Howz things in the PDs these days. Keeping it together I hope.

Johnny, I've followed the Forum on Europe across the country and I haven't heard one single person declare themselves a PD and propose the treaty. What gives?

Johnny you are at home here - someone believes this is the PD site to Politics.ie Fianna Fail ...

great party lads, did we break the record yet ..?

Kate P wrote:

Johnny, I've followed the Forum on Europe across the country and I haven't heard one single person declare themselves a PD and propose the treaty. What gives?

Kate P. the Lisbon treaty is the very least of our problems at the moment. 1% opinion polls, a reluctant leader, a massively dimished parliamnatry party, morale low. should I continue?

I will be voting Yes and all my PD collegues will be voting Yes but until Cannon or O'Malley are elected new leader, then there is very little going to happen.

Christ but its hard being a Progressive Democrats these days.

Johnny Keogh wrote:

Kate P wrote:

Johnny, I've followed the Forum on Europe across the country and I haven't heard one single person declare themselves a PD and propose the treaty. What gives?

Kate P. the Lisbon treaty is the very least of our problems at the moment. 1% opinion polls, a reluctant leader, a massively dimished parliamnatry party, morale low. should I continue?

I will be voting Yes and all my PD collegues will be voting Yes but until Cannon or O'Malley are elected new leader, then there is very little going to happen.

Christ but its hard being a Progressive Democrats these days.

We feel your pain. Have another drink.

Johnny Keogh wrote:

Kate P wrote:

Johnny, I've followed the Forum on Europe across the country and I haven't heard one single person declare themselves a PD and propose the treaty. What gives?

Kate P. the Lisbon treaty is the very least of our problems at the moment. 1% opinion polls, a reluctant leader, a massively dimished parliamnatry party, morale low. should I continue?

I will be voting Yes and all my PD collegues will be voting Yes but until Cannon or O'Malley are elected new leader, then there is very little going to happen.

Christ but its hard being a Progressive Democrats these days.

But you've a great avatar - that must count for something.

There's a gap in the market for some party though - whether the PDs will revive is a great question. I just read the Breaking the Mould book recently and it's quite inspiring in fairness - they had/have solid ideals and commonsense economic policies in many respects.

I think it's a problem with the limits that both left/right politics are reaching though - someone on p.ie today - ballot stuffer - alluded to this and I agree - you need to start breaking more moulds...

I look forward to hearing more from Hiker as these PDs have me scratching my head. They seem to be as close in Ireland of a group with some sense that I can find and yet they are on their last legs. I thought McDowel the justice guy was great in the 4 way debate and then I find out that he lost his seat, was it even a 5 seater constituency.

youngdan wrote:

I look forward to hearing more from Hiker as these PDs have me scratching my head. They seem to be as close in Ireland of a group with some sense that I can find and yet they are on their last legs. I thought McDowel the justice guy was great in the 4 way debate and then I find out that he lost his seat, was it even a 5 seater constituency.

I've always had great respect for McDowell as an intelligent and determined politician. I was sorry to see him lose his seat - even if it was to John Gormley.

It was a 4-seater. McDowell's brother More McDowell is also a respected economist - they are bright fellas.

Dublin South East
http://www.electionsireland.org/result.cfm?election=2007&cons=104

Well he fended off the 3 socialists very well. The highlight for me was when he described them as The Left, The Far Left and The Left Behind. All 4 seemed far better than the big two

youngdan wrote:

Well he fended off the 3 socialists very well. The highlight for me was when he described them as The Left, The Far Left and The Left Behind. All 4 seemed far better than the big two

Yeah in fairness that debate was great - the Left Overs I think he called the Greens - Pat Rabbitte also called him a menopausal Paris Hilton - it was quite shocking for two middle-aged men to be handbagging each other like that in public. As for the substantials of the debate - can't remember.

Who needs the details but the one liners were class

Kate P wrote:

youngdan wrote:

I look forward to hearing more from Hiker as these PDs have me scratching my head. They seem to be as close in Ireland of a group with some sense that I can find and yet they are on their last legs. I thought McDowel the justice guy was great in the 4 way debate and then I find out that he lost his seat, was it even a 5 seater constituency.

I've always had great respect for McDowell as an intelligent and determined politician. I was sorry to see him lose his seat - even if it was to John Gormley.

I had that respect. His decisions as Minister for Justice in the last term reduced it. Mind you, I vote for John Gormley anyway, and he wasn't exactly giving away transfers...

Kate P wrote:

But you've a great avatar - that must count for something.

Me doing what I love best; hiking.

Johnny Keogh wrote:

Kate P wrote:

But you've a great avatar - that must count for something.

Me doing what I love best; hiking.

Would you like to start and off-road walking thread and post a few good routes?

I would have liked to be a PD but then went a bit mad around the time I would have been ripe for the joining, plus they don't exist in my part of the world and while I would't mind throwing my hand in to help out I couldn't see my self in active politics here.
That and now they're a little bit unpredictable in what direction, if any, they'll take.

cookiemonster wrote:

I would have liked to be a PD but then went a bit mad around the time I would have been ripe for the joining, plus they don't exist in my part of the world and while I would't mind throwing my hand in to help out I couldn't see my self in active politics here.
That and now they're a little bit unpredictable in what direction, if any, they'll take.

We're a bit like Forest Gumps Chocolate Box at the moment; "You never know what your gonna get".

cactus flower wrote:

Johnny Keogh wrote:

Kate P wrote:

But you've a great avatar - that must count for something.

Me doing what I love best; hiking.

Would you like to start and off-road walking thread and post a few good routes?

Yeah, I'd love to. Let me get a few notes together over the next little while and I'll post something.

Johnny Keogh wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Johnny Keogh wrote:

Kate P wrote:

But you've a great avatar - that must count for something.

Me doing what I love best; hiking.

Would you like to start and off-road walking thread and post a few good routes?

Yeah, I'd love to. Let me get a few notes together over the next little while and I'll post something.

Johnny, I have got to admire you for plugging away under the present circumstances. It may well be that after this dark hour the PDs will experience a resurgence now that the deep embarrassment of being tied to Bertie is over.
Attachment at the hip to FF while professing concern for civic virtue was always a difficult one. The PDs in that role could never be more that a sticking plaster over FF turpitude on the one hand, and the secret right wing of FF on the other.

Now that Bertie is gone and the days of regulation are upon us, the PDs are not needed to keep FF clean. FF is likely to become no more or less corrupt than any other political party. The economic nightmare that we are going to experience in the next few years is likely to throw up all kinds of demons, one if which will be the desire for a right wing party in Ireland. It may be the PDs, it may be Fine Gael or it may be Libertas. But there is no going back to the old days.

That is a fine post Cactus. I admire them too. I think you are right about economic plight giving rise to a right wing party. The danger is that racists and homophobes will join up to deliberatly sabotage it. The welfare state is finished and what is needed is a free interprise system. This stands no chance at present but it will soon enough. What ever percentage of pd members, however small, should form their own party and bide their time

youngdan wrote:

That is a fine post Cactus. I admire them too. I think you are right about economic plight giving rise to a right wing party. The danger is that racists and homophobes will join up to deliberatly sabotage it. The welfare state is finished and what is needed is a free interprise system. This stands no chance at present but it will soon enough. What ever percentage of pd members, however small, should form their own party and bide their time

That is one of my main concerns, that the religious conservatives and racist crazies will flock to them and not so much drag them to the right but drag them down. As they started out, socially liberal 
economically liberal political party that focuses more on fostering and promoting trade snd economic development more than it focuses 
on who is doing what and where they are from.

youngdan wrote:

That is a fine post Cactus. I admire them too. I think you are right about economic plight giving rise to a right wing party. The danger is that racists and homophobes will join up to deliberatly sabotage it. The welfare state is finished and what is needed is a free interprise system. This stands no chance at present but it will soon enough. What ever percentage of pd members, however small, should form their own party and bide their time

Thanks for the appreciation youngdan, but I observe the prospect without enthusiam, and my admiration is for the person not the politics. I was watching a little of a programme from the US while our party was on, about how Bush has changed the bankruptcy laws to make it harder to declare bankruptcy after €60+ million of lobbying by credit card interests: the pips will surely squeak. I am a socialist: I think we are going to have to work together to survive: if we are fragmented down to one-off survivalism I think a lot of us won't make it.