*Simon....
So - November 29th is the date. Simon Harris goes to the President to dissolve the Dail on Friday
The government just finished putting out a giveaway budget and hopes the rosey glow from that will carry them through. For the most part the glow is real. The amount of new Porsches and new BMW's and Audis rolling around - along with all the fancy houses I'm doing work in - suggests *someone* is winning from this government. Or at least, not loosing at any rate. Simon Harris is popular with a lot of people.
On the other hands, rents, house prices, fuel prices and electricity prices are through the roof. A lot of smaller businesses like pubs, restaurants and even smaller concert venues are going to the wall because of it. I guess some people are partying. Others are paying for it. The Temu Nazis will feed on this. The undercurrent of malaise is real - and there's already been an attack on a canvassing politician.
The Green Party will probably be crucified - because that always happens to the junior coalition partner. Sinn Fein basically evapourated in the polls recently and have been kicked by a few scandals - it looks like they're going to try to be the majority partner in the next coalition.
I'll go Social Democrats, Green Party, possibly labour, whatever local random independants hold my fancy, and then hold me nose for the FF/FG crowd because - well, what we have is better than the alternative, I guess. The current administration is just about tolereable in a "Won't doom us all" sort of way. A vote for them is a vote against the more dreadful alternatives
If it weren't for the utterly painful fuel (1.69 a litre of petrol was the cheapest I got recently - most of this is taxation) and electricity prices (#1 in the EU, Beyond even Germany once VAT is accounted for), the Greens have been fairly successful with the Bottle deposit scheme clearing up a lot of waste on beaches (When the bloody machines actually work), and the cheap public transport being welcome. Less hair-shirt stuff please. My private car is my only private personal space in this universe.
On the other hand, with the State coffers massively overflowing there's the vague sense that this government has ended up with a bit of a lottery win and is in real danger of following the same trajectory as most lottery winners.
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Things that might matter:
Check the Register.
I think you can apply online - though you can only vote in this if you're a Resident British Citizen, or a resident Irish Citizen.
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So - November 29th is the date. Simon Harris goes to the President to dissolve the Dail on Friday
The government just finished putting out a giveaway budget and hopes the rosey glow from that will carry them through. For the most part the glow is real. The amount of new Porsches and new BMW's and Audis rolling around - along with all the fancy houses I'm doing work in - suggests *someone* is winning from this government. Or at least, not loosing at any rate. Simon Harris is popular with a lot of people.
On the other hands, rents, house prices, fuel prices and electricity prices are through the roof. A lot of smaller businesses like pubs, restaurants and even smaller concert venues are going to the wall because of it. I guess some people are partying. Others are paying for it. The Temu Nazis will feed on this. The undercurrent of malaise is real - and there's already been an attack on a canvassing politician.
The Green Party will probably be crucified - because that always happens to the junior coalition partner. Sinn Fein basically evapourated in the polls recently and have been kicked by a few scandals - it looks like they're going to try to be the majority partner in the next coalition.
I'll go Social Democrats, Green Party, possibly labour, whatever local random independants hold my fancy, and then hold me nose for the FF/FG crowd because - well, what we have is better than the alternative, I guess. The current administration is just about tolereable in a "Won't doom us all" sort of way. A vote for them is a vote against the more dreadful alternatives
If it weren't for the utterly painful fuel (1.69 a litre of petrol was the cheapest I got recently - most of this is taxation) and electricity prices (#1 in the EU, Beyond even Germany once VAT is accounted for), the Greens have been fairly successful with the Bottle deposit scheme clearing up a lot of waste on beaches (When the bloody machines actually work), and the cheap public transport being welcome. Less hair-shirt stuff please. My private car is my only private personal space in this universe.
On the other hand, with the State coffers massively overflowing there's the vague sense that this government has ended up with a bit of a lottery win and is in real danger of following the same trajectory as most lottery winners.
----
Things that might matter:
Check the Register.
I think you can apply online - though you can only vote in this if you're a Resident British Citizen, or a resident Irish Citizen.
---
I love the smell of rotaries in the morning. You know one time, I got to work early, before the rush hour. I walked through the empty carpark, I didn't see one bloody Prius or Golf. And that smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole carpark, smelled like.... ....speed.
One day they're going to ban them.