Category: politics

Just seen a brilliant documentary of Channel 4’s More4 station. Death of a Nation is a compelling look at modern Russia. The documentary shows widespread disatisfaction with “Managed Democracy” which seems to be at odds with much of the freedom and civil liberties that we associate with democracy. It puts a lot of our (& my own) whinging about bipartate politics into poignant perspective. It also dismisses Putin’s presentation to the west and highlights a violent and authoritarian regime similiar to Western perceptions of the old USSR. Russia seems like a country on the brink of disaster, caught between the extremes of unchecked capitalism and dictatorial communism. No side truely in control.
The documentary was narrated by Marcel Theroux, Louis’ less sardonic and altogether more thoughtful brother. I won’t discuss it further as it really needs to be watched to be appreciated.

I’ve decided that the money’s (more than) acceptable & the perks are fantastic. Ah who am I kidding it’s less than half of “peanuts”, does that make it nuts or peas?
I’m gonna become a TD anyway. It’s my civic duty to charge the Irish tax payers for listening to me waffle for the next 5 years. Oh wait, that’s gonna happen anyway! Oh well, maybe it’s the power 🙂
My name might not be on the Waterford ballot but feel free to add my name and a little tic if you support my campaign manifesto. Not to be confused with my art gallery of the same name which I’m shamelessly plugging like a politicians memoirs. Jayz, I’m good at this.
I PROMISE

• Not to visit your house and listen to your silly problems as if I’m going to do something about it
• Not to pretend to be more knowledgable than I am about a range of issues including planning, incineration, the environment, nuclear power, health care
• Not to take out any advertisements in the paper with my photo on them or any mugshot endorsements from potential voters
• To avoid saying I’m “tough on crime” at any stage during my campaign.
• To avoid saying I’m “working hard for the people of Waterford” during my campaign.
• Not to exploit the impoverished in my attempt to gain political power by portraying myself as a “working class hero” and general do-gooder
• Not to pretend I support the INO’s action if you’re a nurse or condemn it if you’re not
• To pay consultant doctors the 400k a year they deserve if you’re a consultant. Skip that, they all vote PD’s anyway
• Not to reference Michael Collins, Eamon DeValera, Padraig Pearse or any of a number of long dead Irish heroes in my election manifesto. (well, I wasn’t serious about that promise)
• Not to take credit for anything good that happens in Waterford during my term including health care facilities and much needed transport infrastructure which has already been agreed.
• Not to pretend I’ve been spending every spare moment lobbying the minister of education for the proposed University of the South East
• Not to be affiliated with any political party, especially any party who’s name is in Irish with long illustrious histories to be wheeled out at election time like a sacred cow.
• Not to smoke in the Dail bar to prove how with-it and cool I am
• To build a 60,000 all seater multi-purpose stadium for every man, woman and child. Sorry, my principles just dissolved in a puff of electoral smoke.

It was funny listening to Cian Foley of up the deise fame on the radio this morning. It was even funnier when a few kilkenny texters said that kilkenny was “as much a city as anywhere else”. If we ignore the general incorrectness of this statement we can focus on the specific incorrectness; Kilkenny is actually a large town (by Irish standards) and not a city at all. Waterford, on the other hand, was the 4th largest city in Ireland for many years but successive governments (BOTH FF & FG) ignored over 30 years of requests for a university, better roads, radiotherapy treatment facilities, sports facilities, government funded industrial parks etc. Funny thing is that all these projects were funded in Galway which overtook Waterford and Limerick in terms of population. Despite the people of Waterford putting their hard earned money to work for Galwegians for many years it seems there’s selective amnesia and no gratitude for their roads, hospitals, industry & university 🙂 To paraphrase Monty Python… “So apart from all that, what did the Waterfordians ever do for us?”
Far from being a county of “whingers” as the TV3 weatherman Martin King tried to brand us we’ve been working assiduously for the past few years to try and equalise the government sanctioned imbalance through public-private-partnerships and the creation of practical strategic development plans where our infrastructure is improved. It’s amazing how recently Dublin government discovered that Waterford was a port too and therefore needs decent infrastructure. Perhaps they use the same map as Martin King and couldn’t find us?
Here’s hoping that WIT’s university bid is successful as it is perhaps the single most important initiative for the entire county guaranteeing prestige and significant new employment. Several government-commissioned reports from educational experts have affirmed our case in the past so you’d think it would be a foregone conclusion but in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.”