Nearly two-thirds of voters want water charges abolished

October 27, 2016

Almost two-thirds of voters favour the complete removal of water charges, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll.

Asked whether they were “in favour or against the complete removal of water charges” 62 per cent of voters said they were in favour while 34 per cent said they were against.

Just 4 per cent said they didn’t know.

Water charges are currently suspended pending the report of a commission which is due to be completed in the coming months.

However, with all opposition parties, including Fianna Fáil, committed to their abolition, the minority Government is likely to lack the parliamentary support to continue with them.

Working class

Working class voters and people in the lowest income groups were most likely to favour the abolition of the charges, with 72 per cent of those in the lowest income bracket in favour.

Among those in the highest income group, just a thin majority - 51 per cent - say they want the charges abolished, with 45 per cent against.

However, farmers - many of whom already pay for their own water supplies through group water schemes or their own wells - are against the abolition of the charges by a majority of 55 per to 38 per cent, with 6 per cent don’t knows.

Perhaps surprisingly, voters in Dublin are the least likely to favour abolition, with 58 per cent in favour, and 38 per cent against removing the charges.

The Rest of Leinster (66 per cent), Munster (62 per cent) and Connacht-Ulster (63 per cent) all return greater majorities in favour of abolishing the charges.

Split evenly

Younger voters are also more likely to favour abolition. The oldest age group, the over-65s, are split evenly on the question, with 49 per cent in favour of abolition, 49 per cent against, and 2 per cent don’t knows.

Supporters of Sinn Féin are the most enthusiastic for getting rid of the charges - some 84 per cent of the party’s voters want to see their abolition.

The position of Fianna Fáil voters reflects the general position among the public almost exactly, with 63 per cent in favour of abolition, and 34 per cent against.

Supporters of Independents and others also closely reflect the national mood, though this group is comprised of such diverse groups - from rural Independents to the Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit - that it contains widely varying views on the water charges.

source: Irish Times, Oct 7, 2016

"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"

October 24, 2016

Our apology to Gene Kerrigan for taking this extract from his article 'The tax laws are now a la carte, for some' in last Sunday's Irish Independent. However, it is a good analogy for what the State is prepare to do, to abuse a 17 year old Irish student in pursuit of underlying agendas. It has dragged a youth through the judicial system, a jury less court and convicted him with 'false imprisonment'. It was the first case in a series of cases against the Jobstown protesters.

There's been a bit of a war going on, between the shameless bastards and the rest of us. Not an all-out conflict, just guerrilla actions here and there.

In recent days we've seen groups of organised labour attempting to win back some of that which was taken from them over the past eight years.

Bus drivers, teachers and gardai used limited industrial action to try to retake ground conceded following the bailout of bankers and builders.

Another area of conflict has been the Irish Water scandal. This erupted when Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Labour sought to produce a revenue stream from the water supply, which could then be privatised.

This sneaky and always-denied strategy was stymied by a grassroots revolt, people from all around the country who knew they were being scalped.

One of the consequences of this conflict popped up in the courts on Thursday, when a juvenile who took part in a protest against Minister Joan Burton was found guilty of "false imprisonment".

I read Independent.ie's report of the judge's summing up of the prosecution evidence. Sorry, M'Lord - I don't see the imprisonment, false or otherwise, but no doubt you are wise and good.

The civil disobedience tactic of the sit-down protest has been well-chronicled, from Gandhi through to Martin Luther King, in civil rights and labour struggles. An Irish court has now reconstituted this act as "false imprisonment". The credentials of the juvenile involved were given to the court and he seems uncommonly public-spirited, usefully engaged with his community. He's had the full weight of State power dumped on him over the past two years.

Some day someone will write an academic study of the precise steps taken by the State to bring all its forces to bear on what seems to have been the mild actions of a 15-year old.

For now, we can only quote the conservative journalist William Rees-Mogg, in turn quoting Alexander Pope. Rees-Mogg used Pope's phrase when commenting on the UK State's overbearing effort to jail Mick Jagger: "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"

The late Judge Adrian Hardiman, who died suddenly seven months ago, was often critical of journalists, and some of us returned the favour. But from his early days as a lawyer he had a genuine concern about the tension between the power of the State and the rights of the individual. What a pity that, should the "false imprisonment" appeal reach the Supreme Court, we won't hear his views on this most unusual case.

While labour and community groups have had mixed fortunes in the conflict, it's widely understood that the rich are enjoying some sweet victories.

source: Irish Independent, Oct 23, 2016

Iceland’s Pirate Party poised for Saturday election win – poll

October 24, 2016

Iceland’s national election is likely to bring unprecedented results, with a new poll suggesting the Pirate Party will win. Led by a poet and former WikiLeaks activist, it’s running on an anti-corruption campaign against the financial and political elite.

An opinion poll conducted by the Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland and commissioned by Morgunblaðið newspaper found that one in five voters intends to cast their ballot for the Pirate Party on Saturday.

That figure puts the party in first place with 22.6 percent of the votes – 1.5 percent ahead of the center-right Independence Party, which is currently in power. Those numbers would give each of the two parties 15 MPs in the 63-seat parliament.

Such a win would be history-making for the Pirate Party, which is led by Birgitta Jónsdóttir – a poet, web developer, former WikiLeaks activist.

The party's forecast success is largely based on its campaign against perceived corruption among Iceland's elite.

Support for the party increased by a whopping 43 percent after the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson in April, after it was revealed that he and his family had sheltered money in offshore accounts. The party's cause was also helped by the Panama Papers, which revealed other prominent Icelandic politicians had done the same.

Earlier this year, Jónsdóttir called her party's success “strange and very exciting,” adding that it was “driven not by fear, but by courage and hope,” the Guardian reported.

However, she has acknowledged that the party – which was created less than four years ago as a movement against global copyright laws – is inexperienced when it comes to the economy.
"We know that we are new to this and it is important that we are extra careful and extra critical on ourselves to not take too much on. I really don't think that we are going to make a lot of ripples in the economy in the first term,” she told Reuters last month"

However, the Pirate Party – whose campaign is largely crowdfunded – is after more than just looser copyright laws and less corruption from politicians. In an effort to get young voters on board, the party has asked the developers of the popular app Pokemon Go to turn polling stations into Pokestops – locations where players can collect the items necessary to catch Pokemon.

The party has also promised to grant asylum to US whistleblower Edward Snowden and accept the bitcoin currency. It has also pledged to give voters a direct say over policy and decriminalize drugs.

The Pirate Party last week ruled out the possibility of entering a coalition with the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) or the centrist Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn). Jónsdóttir has suggested she would prefer to be the speaker of the Icelandic parliament, rather than becoming prime minister.

The party's predicted success will be a huge leap from the 2013 general election, when it gained just 5 percent of votes and three seats in parliament. That result was still extremely significant, however, as it made Iceland the only country in the world have members of the Pirate movement in government.

The Pirate Party first began in Sweden in 2006, and was created to bring about digital copyright reform. There are now 40 such parties around the world.

source: RT, Oct 24, 2016