Ireland now with Brexit

Closed Thread Subscribe

Thread Tools

Feb 12th 2019, 9:04 am

#16

Novocastrian

Born again atheist

Joined: Jul 2005

Location: Europe (to be specified).

Posts: 30,259

Novocastrian has a reputation beyond repute

Re: Ireland now with Brexit

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moses2013

Concerning but the troubles are everywhere these days. Even with a hard border and a few people causing trouble just for the sake of it, the troubles in every major city (Paris, Brussels Amsterdam etc.) are worse and nobody talks about it. There are so many threats in mainland Europe and people still get on with their lives. In France, you're never far from a nuclear power plant, cities like Marseille are rougher than any place I've seen here but even in the same country people can escape the madness. The media love the doom and gloom talk and try to stir up even more, so they can report about it.

In the West of Ireland most people I know have stopped listening to the Brexit talks and just get on with life. Next month I'll be climbing up Croagh Patrick again and will enjoy the view:-).

Fair point.

Feb 14th 2019, 7:36 pm

#17

Downton Gabby

Forum Regular

Joined: Feb 2014

Posts: 280

Downton Gabby has a reputation beyond repute

Re: Ireland now with Brexit

Quote:

Originally Posted by BritInParis

I’m sure your vantage point from Illinois gives you the edge over mine from Lewisham but I would politely suggest you haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about.

Feb 19th 2019, 4:46 pm

#18

Rusty Chainsaw

Forum Regular

Joined: Jul 2007

Location: London > NJ > PA > London > NJ.. whew.

Posts: 253

Re: Ireland now with Brexit

Quote:

Originally Posted by tooboocoo

...the long term perspective of living in an economic and political system we agree and feel comfortable with.

Care to elaborate on how the ROI's "economic and political system" are superior to the UK's?

Other than the current stability issue, thanks to Brexit, there's a few ways Ireland's system is better than the UK's:

Elections by proportional representation, not FPTP
A wider selection of parties is represented in the Dáil because of this
Head of state is elected, not hereditary
The Seanad is not elected by the public, like the HoL (they're elected by TDs), but there's no such thing as a life peerage in Ireland, and those who are nominated for the Seanad are generally considered to be subject experts for the brief they will be responsible for.

There's downsides too.

No NHS. This long-promised 'Sláintecare' is taking ages to materialise.
The tax system. Yes, it attracts multinational companies who love to take advantage of the 'double Irish' arrangements, but it starves the state of money needed for initiatives like Sláintecare.
The school system needs to be completely rebuilt from the ground up, away from the purvue of the Catholic Church.