‘Guns and Roses’ a new Left alternative in Irish politics?

[carribbear]

We need a revolution. Not a violent one where people are shot or interned but a revolution all the same. Maybe an Army coupe that would put a benevolent dictator in place for a few years to sort things out.

I hope you're not pinning hopes on the lads from the Curragh Camp to organise a military coup. I doubt the pimply faced youths with wooden guns would be capable of such a feat unless they draft in the help of the FCA.

And to think a Roscommon man, Dermot Earley Sr. would rule the land.

[Rossfan]

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And to think a Roscommon man, Dermot Earley Sr. would rule the land.

At least then it would be run right and with the daughter of a Ros man as Uachtarán we'd be saved....but unfortunately we have to put up with Biffo/Lenihan and that fcukin yoke Coughlan

[carribbear]

[
And to think a Roscommon man, Dermot Earley Sr. would rule the land.

At least then it would be run right and with the daughter of a Ros man as Uachtarán we'd be saved....but unfortunately we have to put up with Biffo/Lenihan and that fcukin yoke Coughlan

Does Robert Mugabe need a new job?

[Zapatista]

Zapatista that is nonsense. Look around you, within Ireland, and within the globe. There is plenty that needs doing. We have a country that is painfully short on infrastructure, that has untapped natural resources that we can't even conceive of, that has countless people falling by the margins and you say that there is no work to be done? I can't have it. Just because we don't have "extra" money to set aside for projects is not the issue - we need to divert the resources we have and aren't using wisely enough into productive ends.

We simply need to look beyond the constraints of what we have traditionally looked on as paid employment. We need to pay our way in the world and there is no shortage of ways in which we can do that. As was pointed out, we can supply electricity, scientific innovation, food, gas, tourism, commerce (as opposed to finance) and a world of other options. We have people, and the world wants things that we can give them - we just can't make a quick buck they way we got used to.

I simply cannot accept that there is nothing to be done. Only a year or so ago we were all running around like blue-arsed flies trying to keep up with everything that was going on. It simply can't be the case that just because some zeroes have been knocked off some balances somewhere that we suddenly have nothing to do.

That is true Lone Shark but we are not in a position to do that. What you are suggesting is atleast 10 years away before we can get a return on it. And  that is only if we act now. We could do that and we should do that but right now we can't do that. We simply cannot change our reliance on the property market to a reliance on natural resourse in a few years. This time next year will will have to much infracture in some sectors. The isn't much point in building bus lanes while we are removing buses and have noone to bus. It's a little late to be building schools and hospitals to meet the demand of a population which will continue to decrease over the next few years.

The road I take to work has been closed for 3 months in order to build a road from a large industrial area to the M50. This industrail area has many empty units and ,more business are pulling out every week. The need for that road is going with every business that goes.

You are right, we cannot make a quick buck like we used to yet our entire system is built on that quick buck. Ther eis plenty to be done but we are now looking at damage limitation rather than growth. Growth will have to wait.

In order to build the country they way you mentioned we will need investment and more importantly political will. There is no history in Ireland having tht political will and if the opertunity for investment does arise there is a large probability that the quick buck mentality will return.