General Election 2024

[Saffrongael]

This is who Sinn Fein are.

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/sinn-fein-dup-backtrack-funding-28412770.amp

Take your green tinted spectacles off folks.

Yeah and was said at the time the Market Development Association is basically run by Sinn Fein and the Hargeys, the same as LORAG. But this type of stuff has been happening for years.

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

Actually just watched the clip of Micheal Martin re the IRA. Not only did he suggest that the conflict was started by the IRA, but that people should be "careful" about suggesting there were two sides in the conflict. He prefaced all that grossly cruelly insensitive tripe by criticising SF for "rewriting history". The absolute f**king neck of him.

The man who stood in the leaders debate last week and said we should be considering "both sides" in a genocide in Gaza, now effectively says there was only one side to blame for the conflict in the north.

The man is a disgusting f**king snake.

You'd be better off ranting on X, you'd get more traction.

Ranting? I lived through the conflict and had enough people closely associated to me directly impacted by it. Forgive me if I find the would-be Taoiseach attempts to portray those people as non-existent to be absolutely despicable.

It's funny, the Free Stater attitude. It's always OK to talk about the north, right up until the point where the experience of the nationalist community is mentioned. Only then are you dismissed and accused of ranting.

Tubberman, have a look at the below tweet from Robin Livingstone (aka 'Squinter') - a nationalist, Protestant journalist from Belfast, who tagged Micheal Martin in the tweet, following his despicible comments on Virgin Media.

Wanna go to 'X' as you suggested I should, and tell Robin to just "stop ranting"?

@squinteratn
1/2 Dear @MichealMartinTD @fiannafailparty
We were burnt out of our home in August 1969 and fled the city to Co Down.
As a boy I watched crying as my mother carried my little sister up a ladder over the back wall and down a 30ft drop with the sky on fire.
2/2 The Provisional IRA didn't exist.
That child was later shot dead by the British army, aged 14.
Have a go at whatever side you want – God knows they deserve it.
But when you one-side the Troubles in an attempt to win cheap votes you bring disgrace on yourself.
Shame on you.

I didn't know Livingstone was a Protestant. A convert?

[tbrick18]

Are you for real?

My point is with the surplus of money about in the 26 counties, FFG have made a mess of it.

Look at the housing situation - a complete mess.
Look at the health system - a mess. They made a mess of the mid-West hospital situation. Never mind the 'still being built' children's hospital.
Carers and people with disabilities - it's a mess.

Look at education. A shortage of almost 2, 000 teachers on the eastern seaboard and all Foley is worried about is spending millions on phone pouches. You couldn't make it up.
They've cut SNA's at school also.

They've closed garda stations all over the country. In rural areas, people take turns at going to mass such is their fear of being broken into.

They said they'd stop the USC charge...but guess what?

Fisheries - a mess.

This is just a sample.

I listened to Harris this evening on with Matt Cooper. He kept talking about what he was going to do. Cooper got exasperated and said, Simon, you've been in power, you were the Health Minister and Taoiseach. Wtf didn't you do something about it then? It was embarassing listening to Harris...'I've made it my priority to..' etc. etc.

You must feel pretty exasperated when every election rolls around in the North and SF start saying what they're going to do. I know I certainly do.

Social Housing waiting list is actually nearly as long in NI as ROI despite having 1/4 of the population. Child poverty rates are double in NI. Murder rate 50% greater. Suicide rate is 30-40% higher. If you think the ROI health system is a mess then NI must be a crisis. 11% of the ROI population are on an outpatient waiting list whilst in the north it's 19%. Waiting lists times are almost double in the north.
Consultant pay in ROI is almost double what it is in the north. Teachers pay starts at 44,000€ and rises to 87,000€. In the north it starts at 30,000£ and stops at 38,000£.

The NI Executives only positive contribution since being reformed is to start the A5 in which 600 million of the funding is being provided by the last FFG-Green government from a 800million cross border fund. And there's the 24 million that the Irish government are spending on NI schools. Apart from that, it is all about the cuts at Stormont, except of course to MLA pay and expenses which were increased massively at the start of this year. However in the FFG-Green government they gifted back 10% of their ministerial salary to the state this year despite increasing the public sector pay. Someone spoke about politicians lining their own pockets, no-one is worse for it than SF. Just look at McMonagle or O'Donnaile, bounced from one publicly funded role to another. SF have just the same "jobs for the boys" culture as FF or FG.

I've no doubt your stats are correct - but you have to look at the different contexts between NI and ROI.  Things like suicide and murder rates can be directly linked to the troubles, so not all as direct result of government.

ROI have their own government with full responsibility for borrowing, spending, taxation etc.
NI have had to live within the context of Tory austerity for years and now we have to bear the consequences of being out of the EU even though we voted to stay. So it's not a like for like comparison.

And when you talk about no-one being worse than SF for lining their pockets - that's not even true in NI. DUP regularly called out for having the highest expenses across the political spectrum. One particular DUP MP has been in hot water for his acceptance of "free" family holidays etc.

I get it, you don't like SF. But you're using your dislike of them to paint a picture that they are responsible for all of the problems in NI, and that's blatantly not the case.
There's plenty I disagree with SF on, but I will say, they make a concerted effort to govern for all sides of the community here and that has to be commended.

[Banks of the Bann]

TBrick18:

What do you think of Sinn Fein (along with the DUP) plotting to take £800k off an autism charity for their own pet community projects?

I actually can't get my head around either of them even thinking of doing it.

Callous, greedy, selfish, uncaring pricks.

[Saffrongael]

NHS metrics, waiting lists etc are much worse here than in the rest of the UK, no party here is willing to make difficult decisions - we can't blame everything on the Brits.

Just this week it's been reported that the £11m Stormont was going to raise by removing the rates cap, so that those with the highest valued homes pay higher rates, will not now be realised this year because they didn't have a meeting in time about it - so it will now be 2026.

[Rossfan]

SF do make the effort alright unlike DUPUDA who govern for their side only.
The Orange order and their adherents making their usual bigoted disgrace of themselves over the Deputy mayor of the area switching on Christmas lights in Broughshane.
Knuckle daggers then damaging the premises of the Community group who provided the tree and lights.
No unionist councillor condemning that.

Meanwhile kneecap win their case against the Brit Government.

[johnnycool]

SF do make the effort alright unlike DUPUDA who govern for their side only.
The Orange order and their adherents making their usual bigoted disgrace of themselves over the Deputy mayor of the area switching on Christmas lights in Broughshane.
Knuckle daggers then damaging the premises of the Community group who provided the tree and lights.
No unionist councillor condemning that.

Meanwhile kneecap win their case against the Brit Government.

And give half of the £14,500 to a community group on the Shankill Road.

[Rossfan]

Fair play to them.

[shawshank]

Knee win their discrimination case

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd7n1gy94evo

[tonto1888]

Knee win their discrimination case

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd7n1gy94evo

this has fairly riled up a lot of people. Most of whom have only seen various headlines andhavent read the articles

[03,05,08]

What's the chances of hutch getting in?

[trileacman]

What's the chances of hutch getting in?

I would say strong. Burke and Costello aren't running, they got close to 10% FPV the last time and I'd feel Hutch should get at least 50% of their votes. He will be harmed by SF running a 2nd candidate and it waits to be seen if Mary Lou's surplus falls his way or to the other SF candidate. Gannon, Donohue and Hourigan really really struggled for transfers the last time so their is a large "anti-establishment" vote there. He just needs to score a high % of FPV votes to ensure he's high up the rungs when candidates start to be excluded.

Edit: actually looked up his chances and that would all seem to bolloxs above. Mike finnerty suggests he'll do well to get his deposit back.

[trileacman]

Are you for real?

My point is with the surplus of money about in the 26 counties, FFG have made a mess of it.

Look at the housing situation - a complete mess.
Look at the health system - a mess. They made a mess of the mid-West hospital situation. Never mind the 'still being built' children's hospital.
Carers and people with disabilities - it's a mess.

Look at education. A shortage of almost 2, 000 teachers on the eastern seaboard and all Foley is worried about is spending millions on phone pouches. You couldn't make it up.
They've cut SNA's at school also.

They've closed garda stations all over the country. In rural areas, people take turns at going to mass such is their fear of being broken into.

They said they'd stop the USC charge...but guess what?

Fisheries - a mess.

This is just a sample.

I listened to Harris this evening on with Matt Cooper. He kept talking about what he was going to do. Cooper got exasperated and said, Simon, you've been in power, you were the Health Minister and Taoiseach. Wtf didn't you do something about it then? It was embarassing listening to Harris...'I've made it my priority to..' etc. etc.

You must feel pretty exasperated when every election rolls around in the North and SF start saying what they're going to do. I know I certainly do.

Social Housing waiting list is actually nearly as long in NI as ROI despite having 1/4 of the population. Child poverty rates are double in NI. Murder rate 50% greater. Suicide rate is 30-40% higher. If you think the ROI health system is a mess then NI must be a crisis. 11% of the ROI population are on an outpatient waiting list whilst in the north it's 19%. Waiting lists times are almost double in the north.
Consultant pay in ROI is almost double what it is in the north. Teachers pay starts at 44,000€ and rises to 87,000€. In the north it starts at 30,000£ and stops at 38,000£.

The NI Executives only positive contribution since being reformed is to start the A5 in which 600 million of the funding is being provided by the last FFG-Green government from a 800million cross border fund. And there's the 24 million that the Irish government are spending on NI schools. Apart from that, it is all about the cuts at Stormont, except of course to MLA pay and expenses which were increased massively at the start of this year. However in the FFG-Green government they gifted back 10% of their ministerial salary to the state this year despite increasing the public sector pay. Someone spoke about politicians lining their own pockets, no-one is worse for it than SF. Just look at McMonagle or O'Donnaile, bounced from one publicly funded role to another. SF have just the same "jobs for the boys" culture as FF or FG.

I've no doubt your stats are correct - but you have to look at the different contexts between NI and ROI.  Things like suicide and murder rates can be directly linked to the troubles, so not all as direct result of government.

ROI have their own government with full responsibility for borrowing, spending, taxation etc.
NI have had to live within the context of Tory austerity for years and now we have to bear the consequences of being out of the EU even though we voted to stay. So it's not a like for like comparison.

And when you talk about no-one being worse than SF for lining their pockets - that's not even true in NI. DUP regularly called out for having the highest expenses across the political spectrum. One particular DUP MP has been in hot water for his acceptance of "free" family holidays etc.

I get it, you don't like SF. But you're using your dislike of them to paint a picture that they are responsible for all of the problems in NI, and that's blatantly not the case.
There's plenty I disagree with SF on, but I will say, they make a concerted effort to govern for all sides of the community here and that has to be commended.

You're right I don't like SF but it's because there's such a disparity between what they stand for and what they do. They chose to take the dept of finance and economy portfolios in the Executive. If these are such powerless figleafs as you suggest then why pick them? Surely they should have chosen health with its massive budget and tried to fix the crisis there.

Instead they chose to ignore the health portfolio as it's seen as too big of a problem to handle and too unpopular a position to take. When it comes to the hard decisions SF and the DUP regularly walk away from them to persevere their own necks. Which, when you're attacking a government across the border for failing people, who are partially bankrolling the portfolios in which you do control, is a really cynical strategy.

I'm not blaming SF for all the problems in the North, I'm just saying they wilfully ignore many of them for their own political expediency.

[Last Man]

Are you for real?

My point is with the surplus of money about in the 26 counties, FFG have made a mess of it.

Look at the housing situation - a complete mess.
Look at the health system - a mess. They made a mess of the mid-West hospital situation. Never mind the 'still being built' children's hospital.
Carers and people with disabilities - it's a mess.

Look at education. A shortage of almost 2, 000 teachers on the eastern seaboard and all Foley is worried about is spending millions on phone pouches. You couldn't make it up.
They've cut SNA's at school also.

They've closed garda stations all over the country. In rural areas, people take turns at going to mass such is their fear of being broken into.

They said they'd stop the USC charge...but guess what?

Fisheries - a mess.

This is just a sample.

I listened to Harris this evening on with Matt Cooper. He kept talking about what he was going to do. Cooper got exasperated and said, Simon, you've been in power, you were the Health Minister and Taoiseach. Wtf didn't you do something about it then? It was embarassing listening to Harris...'I've made it my priority to..' etc. etc.

You must feel pretty exasperated when every election rolls around in the North and SF start saying what they're going to do. I know I certainly do.

Social Housing waiting list is actually nearly as long in NI as ROI despite having 1/4 of the population. Child poverty rates are double in NI. Murder rate 50% greater. Suicide rate is 30-40% higher. If you think the ROI health system is a mess then NI must be a crisis. 11% of the ROI population are on an outpatient waiting list whilst in the north it's 19%. Waiting lists times are almost double in the north.
Consultant pay in ROI is almost double what it is in the north. Teachers pay starts at 44,000€ and rises to 87,000€. In the north it starts at 30,000£ and stops at 38,000£.

The NI Executives only positive contribution since being reformed is to start the A5 in which 600 million of the funding is being provided by the last FFG-Green government from a 800million cross border fund. And there's the 24 million that the Irish government are spending on NI schools. Apart from that, it is all about the cuts at Stormont, except of course to MLA pay and expenses which were increased massively at the start of this year. However in the FFG-Green government they gifted back 10% of their ministerial salary to the state this year despite increasing the public sector pay. Someone spoke about politicians lining their own pockets, no-one is worse for it than SF. Just look at McMonagle or O'Donnaile, bounced from one publicly funded role to another. SF have just the same "jobs for the boys" culture as FF or FG.

I've no doubt your stats are correct - but you have to look at the different contexts between NI and ROI.  Things like suicide and murder rates can be directly linked to the troubles, so not all as direct result of government.

ROI have their own government with full responsibility for borrowing, spending, taxation etc.
NI have had to live within the context of Tory austerity for years and now we have to bear the consequences of being out of the EU even though we voted to stay. So it's not a like for like comparison.

And when you talk about no-one being worse than SF for lining their pockets - that's not even true in NI. DUP regularly called out for having the highest expenses across the political spectrum. One particular DUP MP has been in hot water for his acceptance of "free" family holidays etc.

I get it, you don't like SF. But you're using your dislike of them to paint a picture that they are responsible for all of the problems in NI, and that's blatantly not the case.
There's plenty I disagree with SF on, but I will say, they make a concerted effort to govern for all sides of the community here and that has to be commended.

You're right I don't like SF but it's because there's such a disparity between what they stand for and what they do. They chose to take the dept of finance and economy portfolios in the Executive. If these are such powerless figleafs as you suggest then why pick them? Surely they should have chosen health with its massive budget and tried to fix the crisis there.

Instead they chose to ignore the health portfolio as it's seen as too big of a problem to handle and too unpopular a position to take. When it comes to the hard decisions SF and the DUP regularly walk away from them to persevere their own necks. Which, when you're attacking a government across the border for failing people, who are partially bankrolling the portfolios in which you do control, is a really cynical strategy.

Well said.

[Snapchap]

Are you for real?

My point is with the surplus of money about in the 26 counties, FFG have made a mess of it.

Look at the housing situation - a complete mess.
Look at the health system - a mess. They made a mess of the mid-West hospital situation. Never mind the 'still being built' children's hospital.
Carers and people with disabilities - it's a mess.

Look at education. A shortage of almost 2, 000 teachers on the eastern seaboard and all Foley is worried about is spending millions on phone pouches. You couldn't make it up.
They've cut SNA's at school also.

They've closed garda stations all over the country. In rural areas, people take turns at going to mass such is their fear of being broken into.

They said they'd stop the USC charge...but guess what?

Fisheries - a mess.

This is just a sample.

I listened to Harris this evening on with Matt Cooper. He kept talking about what he was going to do. Cooper got exasperated and said, Simon, you've been in power, you were the Health Minister and Taoiseach. Wtf didn't you do something about it then? It was embarassing listening to Harris...'I've made it my priority to..' etc. etc.

You must feel pretty exasperated when every election rolls around in the North and SF start saying what they're going to do. I know I certainly do.

Social Housing waiting list is actually nearly as long in NI as ROI despite having 1/4 of the population. Child poverty rates are double in NI. Murder rate 50% greater. Suicide rate is 30-40% higher. If you think the ROI health system is a mess then NI must be a crisis. 11% of the ROI population are on an outpatient waiting list whilst in the north it's 19%. Waiting lists times are almost double in the north.
Consultant pay in ROI is almost double what it is in the north. Teachers pay starts at 44,000€ and rises to 87,000€. In the north it starts at 30,000£ and stops at 38,000£.

The NI Executives only positive contribution since being reformed is to start the A5 in which 600 million of the funding is being provided by the last FFG-Green government from a 800million cross border fund. And there's the 24 million that the Irish government are spending on NI schools. Apart from that, it is all about the cuts at Stormont, except of course to MLA pay and expenses which were increased massively at the start of this year. However in the FFG-Green government they gifted back 10% of their ministerial salary to the state this year despite increasing the public sector pay. Someone spoke about politicians lining their own pockets, no-one is worse for it than SF. Just look at McMonagle or O'Donnaile, bounced from one publicly funded role to another. SF have just the same "jobs for the boys" culture as FF or FG.

I've no doubt your stats are correct - but you have to look at the different contexts between NI and ROI.  Things like suicide and murder rates can be directly linked to the troubles, so not all as direct result of government.

ROI have their own government with full responsibility for borrowing, spending, taxation etc.
NI have had to live within the context of Tory austerity for years and now we have to bear the consequences of being out of the EU even though we voted to stay. So it's not a like for like comparison.

And when you talk about no-one being worse than SF for lining their pockets - that's not even true in NI. DUP regularly called out for having the highest expenses across the political spectrum. One particular DUP MP has been in hot water for his acceptance of "free" family holidays etc.

I get it, you don't like SF. But you're using your dislike of them to paint a picture that they are responsible for all of the problems in NI, and that's blatantly not the case.
There's plenty I disagree with SF on, but I will say, they make a concerted effort to govern for all sides of the community here and that has to be commended.

You're right I don't like SF but it's because there's such a disparity between what they stand for and what they do. They chose to take the dept of finance and economy portfolios in the Executive. If these are such powerless figleafs as you suggest then why pick them? Surely they should have chosen health with its massive budget and tried to fix the crisis there.

Instead they chose to ignore the health portfolio as it's seen as too big of a problem to handle and too unpopular a position to take. When it comes to the hard decisions SF and the DUP regularly walk away from them to persevere their own necks. Which, when you're attacking a government across the border for failing people, who are partially bankrolling the portfolios in which you do control, is a really cynical strategy.

I'm not blaming SF for all the problems in the North, I'm just saying they wilfully ignore many of them for their own political expediency.

You say you're not blaming SF for all the problems, but that's precisely what you do at every opportunty. And you also are most defintely attributing issues to SF that are the same for every party in the north. No party in the north wants the health portfolio, so why single out SF? Every party if given the opportunity would opt for Finance/Economy, so why single out SF? No party in a power sharing executive can implement everything they say they want to implement in their manifestos, so why single out SF? It's such childish nonsense.