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Yes to a mid-week vote
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Is it me or does Bertie’s idea of having the general election on a Thursday make sense.
I realise that a Thursday vote is likely to make a significant impact on the number of students who manage to vote, but I ask. is that a bad thing?
Simon and the guys have been campaigning here on Irish election for the past while, even setting up a petition, to get voting on the upcoming general election put on a Saturday or Sunday. Some witty wag has deemed a Thursday vote as ‘temporal gerry-mandering’. Sure enough Enda and Pat have taken the bait and whole heartedly endorse the idea of a weekend vote.
Again, I beg the question, is a Thursday vote such a bad thing?
Do we really want more students voting in the next election? Students are likely to vote with their “Cool-O-Meter” rather than their head. This means 1 thing; more votes for Labour, The Greens and Sinn Fein.
Do we really want the next Dail to contain 10, or more, Green Seats, ditto for Sinn Fein and around 30 Labour seats? I say no. I want a government founded on who is best suited for the job. I don’t want a bunch of no good, lefty, liberal, green, students to swing the election based on their idea of whats groovy.
Damn Irish Election and their principles. Principles, like religion, are fine, so long as they are kept to oneselve. They have no place in the democratic process. Principles, unchecked, are dangerous things with the potential to cause great damage to you and everybody you hold dear. I know the guys here have their heart in the right place but history is full of people who believe they are doing good when in fact they are doing the devil’s work.
If a Thursday vote increases the chances of the next Government being a viable, practical Government then I say it’s our right, no, our duty, as citizens of this great nation, to demand a mid-week vote. A Dail with 50+ seats divided between Labour, Sinn Fein and the Greens is hardly viable and practical.
No thank you.
Principles be damned. Think of the bigger picture.
Demand a Thursday Vote.
a mid-week vote means that primary school children get the day off, which means parents don’t. Child-minding cover has to be organised. This has always been an issue, but now with almost full employment in the country, it is at a level that we have not had to deal with before. for that reason alone, a weekend vote makes practical sense. A weekday vote puts additional strain on working parents.
Re: Students and their left liberal tendencies.
This may well have been the situation for a minute or two in the 70s. The current student political picture leans closer to realism than surrealism. They are much more to vote with their ambition than anything wishy washy. While the potential narrowness of the vote in some areas, means every and any vote is of real importance.
Disenfranchise those who use their vote irresponsibly? Excellent idea. While we’re at it we should give bonus points for voting FF or PD. Every vote for FF or PD should count as 1.5 votes. It could work in the same way as bonus points for Irish in the Leaving Certificate.
It would really help us in the goal of getting the government we deserve.
Tuathal your right what have I done
I agree with Mark, sure why don’t we give members of the CIF and of the Vitners 5 votes per person as they are so much more in-touch with the current realities.
This has been the longest run into a General Election ever and I think you would be surprised to find that this will help to inform all voters including students. I think the cool factor is way overrated but then I’m in Limerick East and even our SF or Green candidates would be hard pressed to fit into that category.
And while we’re at it we should enshrine in the constitution the long standing unofficial policy of rewarding loyal constituencies with government largesse while punishing those that elect non-government candidates. The message should go out loud and clear: “If you vote for losers then you are a loser”. If you are irresponsible enough to spoil the party for everyone by using your vote to undermine those who have bestowed ten years of prosperity on you then you must suffer the consequences.
Actually, if we’re really serious about this we should make it a criminal offence, punishable with a hefty fine and a custodial sentence. After all we are already removing the right-to-silence and introducing seven-day-detentions to protect our democracy, how hard can it be to tack this on to the end of the CJB? It’s in the national interest.
The next steps forward will be goose steps :).
Mark, can’t we allow members of the National Taxi Drivers Union to proxy votes for all their fares in the previous 2 weeks?
Also, the CJB, has anyone checked that it doesn’t establish Scientology as a state religion, transfer the capital to Athlone or some such nonsense?
I gave up on the CJB when I got as far as the section on the environment which proposes to reduce the amount of wasted ink by banning redundant use of the letter ‘l’.
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?02720485
Well if you think it is that good and idea, sign the petition. We’ve only got one vote so far, some chap called B. Ahern.