[OFF TOPIC] Politics Thread

[OlympicIRL 5,525]

The polling stations are now closed and the first exit polls are out... and wow this is going to be an exciting few days ahead for all politics fans in Ireland....

 

Fine Gael 22.4%
Sinn Féin 22.3%
Fianna Fáil 22.2%
 

Sinn Féin have risen dramatically in the last few weeks but this means they did not run enough candidates. So they won’t win as many seats as the other 2 large parties. But it’s going to be interesting to see where their excess vote goes and should help some of the other smaller parties on the left. Looking forward to the counting which begins tomorrow morning 

[Olympian1010 7,943]

6 minutes ago, OlympicIRL said:

The polling stations are now closed and the first exit polls are out... and wow this is going to be an exciting few days ahead for all politics fans in Ireland....

 

Fine Gael 22.4%
Sinn Féin 22.3%
Fianna Fáil 22.2%
 

Sinn Féin have risen dramatically in the last few weeks but this means they did not run enough candidates. So they won’t win as many seats as the other 2 large parties. But it’s going to be interesting to see where their excess vote goes and should help some of the other smaller parties on the left. Looking forward to the counting which begins tomorrow morning 

So Sinn Fein is like the nationalist party right? I don’t know much about Irish politics, so I’d love explanation of what’s going on here. Plus, the whole damn country decided to use Gaelic for anything official, which makes it a pain in the ass to understand the process.

[OlympicIRL 5,525]

37 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

So Sinn Fein is like the nationalist party right? I don’t know much about Irish politics, so I’d love explanation of what’s going on here. Plus, the whole damn country decided to use Gaelic for anything official, which makes it a pain in the ass to understand the process.

Sinn Féin is a nationalist party (republican) and the only party to stand in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. 
Their main objective is for a united Ireland and they want a border poll on a united Ireland soon. Now that Brexit has happened they say it should happen as soon as possible.

 

Fine Gael is the current party in government and they like to say how they saved the country after the last recession.

 

Fianna Fáil is also a republican party and they were the party in government at the time of the last economic crash.

 

The main issues that seem to have gained traction in this election are the housing crisis (not enough supply, high rents and young people feeling like they have no prospect of getting on property ladder), health (crisis in hospitals with not enough beds, waiting times for procedures, etc), climate change and of course Brexit. This all feeds in perfectly for the rise of Sinn Féin and also people clearly want a change from the usual 2 large party politics in Ireland.

I should also say that all 3 large parties want a united Ireland but differ on the time frame and the vision of bringing it about.

[OlympicIRL 5,525]

Also in terms of political leanings, Sinn Féin would be considered to be on the left, Fianna Fáil (centre, maybe more centre-left this time) and Fine Gael (centre-right traditionally).

[Olympian1010 7,943]

Trump took the isidewith.com quiz and chose all the asshole options ?

 

[Monzanator 4,458]

On 08/02/2020 at 23:32, Olympian1010 said:

So Sinn Fein is like the nationalist party right? I don’t know much about Irish politics, so I’d love explanation of what’s going on here. Plus, the whole damn country decided to use Gaelic for anything official, which makes it a pain in the ass to understand the process.

 

The name itself suggests it's a nationalistic party Hell, it's the Mother of all Irish Independence parties. The other two were basically formed by renegades from Sinn Fein.

[Olympian1010 7,943]

Gotta love when modern Nazis march in your capital  

 

[heywoodu 14,911]

3 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Gotta love when modern Nazis march in your capital  

 

 

Not exactly surprising in a country with things like saying some dumb pledge every morning in school  (Or is that exaggerated and is it actually not like that in the United States of North Koreamerica?  )

 

Anyway, at least those idiot groups are 'attacking' each other there, that's something.

[Olympian1010 7,943]

32 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

 

Not exactly surprising in a country with things like saying some dumb pledge every morning in school  (Or is that exaggerated and is it actually not like that in the United States of North Koreamerica?  )

 

Anyway, at least those idiot groups are 'attacking' each other there, that's something.

Oh no, it is. Everyday until high school I’d said pledge, prayer, and sang the anthem everyday. I don’t mind the pledge because it reminds people of our values, but we need to lose the “One Nation Under God” shit in there. I stopped saying the please in high school, around 2016, when I realized our nation no longer had those values. 
 

It was a risky maneuver to be politically active in a private school, but I learned to play oppressive systems against themselves from a young age. I am still the only student journalist in school history to have never had a single article censored. I’ve always maintained that Catholic schooling made me believe less in religion, and turned me into a socialist. 

[heywoodu 14,911]

But little children having to drum up some pledge all the time, that is downright scary. If it wasn't a western country doing that, everyone would be calling it indoctrination and propaganda