Coveney is getting better and better on the box. I had written him off as a lightweight before the election but he is growing into the job.

What was the name of the guy with the white hair who penned and article in from Farmer's Journal - he was very impressive.

Zhou_Enlai wrote:

Coveney is getting better and better on the box. I had written him off as a lightweight before the election but he is growing into the job.

What was the name of the guy with the white hair who penned and article in from Farmer's Journal - he was very impressive.

Any link ?

lostexpectation wrote:

i have to so im continuously impressed by fintan o'toole i know its not cool,

his comment the trade being crap for everyone farmers north and south (world) was great who was the guy at the other end of the panel?

although he did go a bit on about what he personally heard from another lady about dealing with catastrophic monsoons.

Reading this I am sorry that I missed it - Seinfeld on health had me totally tuned out of the box.

Anyone got a link to that Farmer' Journal article?

No link - Bowman just mentioned the fact that he had penned an article in the FJ linking the outcome of the Lisbon treaty with the WTO talks.

lostexpectation wrote:

although he did go a bit on about what he personally heard from another lady about dealing with catastrophic monsoons.

God, didn't he? I forget what he actually said on the matter. And since when has he been asistant editor of the Times?

Someone mentioned John O'Shea regarding the whole Burmese crisis, does anyone know what he's been saying?

I only caught the end bit dealing with Burma but the FG boyo made the most sense (that I remember).

cookiemonster wrote:

Ah jasis! (puts Edo on ignore).

I would have thought you were a green. Everybody seems to be a green here! lol

I'm surprised you didn't know that, cookiemonster, I've been aware of Edo's political affiliations for a good while now. Edo's said as much in various posts down through the months.

Sam Smith, d'American ambassador Thomas Foley, FF Minister for State Billy Kelleher, Pat Rabbitte, Sarah Carey


Pat Rabbitte says the Minister should be the Ombudsman to whom patients can appeal. He quotes the C&AG who judged the HSE as fragmented, disjointed, impermeable - shouldn't judgements like these be taken seriously and addressed?

The whole programme is an attack on single parents. In the week of President Elect Obama, I find this very very odd.

Sean Connick is a decent enough skin and he's doing OK. I really do dislike David Quinn but he is a very effective communicator for his ideology.

I'll put it on and have a look

I feel as if I'm in a time warp and have been carried back in time to the sixties or seventies

I only heard 4 sentences from Olivia Mitchell and then my net broke. I agreed with the 4 sentences that I heard.

PD post mortem - much loved and missed, apparently.

I think that Fine Gael are probably the party that most broadly represent current public opinion on the whole issue of civil unions/gay marriage etc. It is a shameful reflection on the PDs legacy that a so-called liberal party will depart Irish political life having failed to introduce civil partnership legislation.

unaligned wrote:

I think that Fine Gael are probably the party that most broadly represent current public opinion on the whole issue of civil unions/gay marriage etc.

Don't Labour have a strong opinion on it too from Howlin ?

It was very sad to see what happened in California, where a vote on the day of the Presidential election seems to have left a whole lot of recently married people unmarried again (or in some kind of limbo status).

That is democracy, mind you.

Auditor #9 wrote:

unaligned wrote:

I think that Fine Gael are probably the party that most broadly represent current public opinion on the whole issue of civil unions/gay marriage etc.

Don't Labour have a strong opinion on it too from Howlin ?

Yeah but I think the LP advocate full gay marriage which is probably still out of step with Irish public opinion. (Open to correction on this!)

unaligned wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

unaligned wrote:

I think that Fine Gael are probably the party that most broadly represent current public opinion on the whole issue of civil unions/gay marriage etc.

Don't Labour have a strong opinion on it too from Howlin ?

Yeah but I think the LP advocate full gay marriage which is probably still out of step with Irish public opinion. (Open to correction on this!)

Hard to tell, isn't it, but we have a very young population.

Didn't the Irish Times do a poll on this not too long ago? I can't remember the results and don't really know how to look for them.

http://www.lansdownemarketresearch.ie/Same%20Sex%20Marriage%201.htm

According to this poll, 84% support legal recognition for same-sex couples. Of that 84%, 51% support calling it marriage.

Doesn't seem to be the most reliable poll - one group shrunk 16% in 6 months - that seems an incredible shift in social thinking in a short period of time without much explanation.

Lansdowne Research (I think they're called something else now) have a very poor record. I suspect those numbers are quite soft. I would be surprised if more than 25% of Irish people would support gay marriage (as distinct from civil unions).

unaligned wrote:

Lansdowne Research (I think they're called something else now) have a very poor record. I suspect those numbers are quite soft. I would be surprised if more than 25% of Irish people would support gay marriage (as distinct from civil unions).

Perhaps it depends on the weather or the time of year. Its not easy to be against

We had a thread start here a few days ago on Civil Unions but it didn't seem to get that far. I think poor spillercork thought I was out for a fight but it wasn't intentional. I'll bump it because it would be a better place to discuss civil unions really.