No home for serious initiatives to help the homeless in Fine Gael/Fianna Fail's plans.

An acquaintance made a comment to me just after the 2007 General Election which has stuck in my head since then - "o you ever notice that down the boozer noone will ever admit that they are planning to vote Fianna Fail, yet their candidates always top the poll"

The same can be said with regards Fine Gael today.
Many people claim in opinion polls that services, such as providing more houses for people to live in and more hospital beds are their main priority, but yet most vote for the two main parties Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, whom these voters know place more impetus in putting a small bit of money into your back pocket (While the rich keep waaay more due to various tax breaks that leave them with an eventual corporation tax bill of much less than the standard 12% for companies and   40% for high earners) then spend it on things to improve society overall.

Over the past few years I have read an avalanche of comments from people criticising the levels of homelessness in this country and the severe lack of action by the Fine Gael government in tackling this crisis (with the help of a number of not-so Independent TD's and the Fianna Fail who sat on their hands on this).

But yet in the last two election Fine Gael got the most votes and seats of any party despite the worsening housing and hospital crises.
At one stage this did puzzle me, but it does not do so anymore.
The sad reailty that has dawned on me in the past while is that a lot of people in this state simply do not care about it.
Going by the latest C.S.O. data 60-65% of the houses in this country are owner occupied with the mortgage paid off, while there is another notable chunk of people who still have a mortgage over their heads but are well able to financially meet  the mortgage repayments every month.
This figure would greatly exceed those who are in severe difficulty with their mortgages.
While the numbers of people who are renting a house is growing every year (And the stats show this is by far the main cohort of the under-30's category),

I’ve spoken to people from different parts of this island about this issue and while many at the start of  the conversation would agree that the homeless situation is worrying, when you start to delve into how we might sort it, the attitude of a lot of these people changed.

I’ve had been sternly reminded by regular mass going folk that “it is NOT the Governments money it is the TAXPAYERS money” and then asked me why someone should get a house for free (Very Christian of them right?), but most of this cohort were of the “I am working my backside off to pay my mortgage and these people want a free house from the state!...”

I think it is important to say the following before I move on – People DO NOT A GET a free house from the state.
For example: A husband of the household works as a printer on €30K a year and his wife works part-time for €15k a year, and they pay €600 a year rent for their council house.
Then their son graduates from college and is now earning €45,000 a year as junior solicitor, which the council is now aware of.
The rent of the house is now increased to €1,200 a month as a result of their sons income.
Does that sound “FREE” to you? –

You had Fine Gael tomorrow morning announced they had got the green light to borrow €3Bn from the European Central Bank at 3% to build over 10,000 houses, and that they would use part of the property tax to pay this loan back, this large % of the population who either own, or are well onto their way of owning their own house would be outraged – and well the Government know this.

These people would secretly much rather have €10 a week more in their back pocket than see Mrs Murphy down the road get her hip operation a lot sooner or the people living in the hotel up the road a house much sooner than is the case.
Thus they vote Fine Gael/Fianna Fail – and well both parties knows this.

 

In the immediate term this is why the current Government policy will continue (be it Fine Gael or Fianna Fail that get in on February 8^th) with regards the issue of housing.
More vulture funds will buy up whole apartment blocks, charging sky high rents in the process.

I feel the turnout in the election will be rather low as people who are being out to the pins of their collars by high rents/mortgage repayments become further disillusioned and decide not to vote at all, rather than vote for those parties that want to see radical change in the Governments housing policy/agenda.
The Government moved at lightning speed on the HPV smear test error issue as the country as a whole was angered in unison at the plight numerous women sadly suffered as a result of false results etc  -
The country is divided on the housing issue, which us a serous impediment to serious measures being taken to solve that issue.

In stating all the above I have to finish by thanking the numbers of people who have actively got involved in measures to try and force the Government’s hand on this issue.
I do of course hope and pray the next Government will start a large social housing building scheme, which will take many thousands off the housing list.
This will only happen if there is sufficient movement from below for it (as it has for the Climate Change issue) and as these young people grow older and start to take societal issues far more seriously and connect the dots to realise what is needed to make this change happen I hope this country will change for the better.

 

BRACIST

ALARMING RISE IN ANTI-IMMIGRANT/XENOPHOBIC SENTIMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM LINKED TO BREXIT REFERENDUM

As anyone who knows me personally will testify, I am a current affairs nut and gobble up all sorts of news, especially that of a political nature.
Hence I had BBC Radio 4 and 5 Live on a lot in the run up to and the immediate aftermath of the UK General Election.

There are three key things I came away with after this election:
 

1.  Twitter is a complete and utter bubble and to consume just that media forum and not the proper old school media or TV, radio and newspapers etc will leave your viewpoint and thought processes totally off balance and possibly far from the real situation on the ground etc.
 

2. I was genuinely taken aback at the amount of people ringing into phone in shows, tweeting to viral hashtags on Twitter saying they were switching from Labour to Tories to "Take our country back" and also boot foreigners (and other takes on that narrative) out of the United Kingdom.

3.  Like many others I did not expect the election to do turn out as it did and am trying to work out how and why my predictions were so off kilter.

I had thought initially that it was a severe bout of media framing on TV and radio i.e. they were selectively searching for a small number of people who were switching from Labour to the Tories for jingoistic and at time racist reasons.
Alas as the election campaign rattled on it dawned on me that these were no mere hyped up isolated incidents, but the thoughts of a hell of a lot of working class people across the United Kingdom.

My mind is now filled with dread as I think of the things this Tory government will likely do to the British working class and that many will seek to blame their hardships not on the government but on foreign nationals living there instead.
  

What made me finally write a blog on this issue was a BBC report I stumbled upon from last summer.
the article reported that such was the increase in racist attacks across Wales, 24 councils had felt it necessary to appoint "cohesion officers" whose role it would be to help those who were victims of verbal and/or physical racism, while also undertaking efforts to try and educate people in an effort to try and curtail these attacks.
Official records from the UK police as a whole show that the number of racist attacks reported in 2018 was double that reported in 2011 at 70,000 complaints.
I wonder how many more went unreported?
If various NGO's are to be believed the actual number of racist attacks, be they physical or verbal that have occurred in 2018 could be many multiples of the official figure.
Another very visible sign of the increase in racist sentiments was seen in the fact the Brexit Party gained 29 seats in the 2019 European elections, more than Labour and The Conservative Party combined.

Another troubling aspect to all of this, in my view was the stance taken by a number of far-left groups in the United Kingdom. 
I have already discussed in previous blogs about the farcical pretendism that was LEXIT so I won't go over it all again.
Not long after the Brexit Referendum Result various NGO's recorded increased incidents of racist attacks in Britain and their reports were picked up by newspapers such as The Guardian, they were outright dismissed if not in fact derided by some of the far-left pro LEAVE organisations.
They claimed there was no increase in racism, it was all just a tissue of lies invented by the mainstream media to pin a false tail on the British working class for not voting REMAIN as they had wanted them to do.
The media they claimed did not what to admit the REAL reasons, as they claimed, why people supposedly actually voted LEAVE.
They were angry over EU Directives that led to state companies being sold, led to a lessening of workers rights and an increase in the amount of tax poor families had to pay due to EU laws on environmental taxes and so forth.

However later on when it became a starkly unavoidable and inexcusable fact that there WAS a sharp rise in racism since the Referendum result these groups then admitted it was true their was in increase in attacks; However they insisted these incidents were on the rise anyways ad had nothing to do with the Referendum result.

Given what has come out in various polls and surveys and the views that have been expressed by many on radio and television as well as the letters pages of newspapers in the run up the election it is now clearer than ever  that the sad rise in racism and xenophobism can be directly linked back to the Brexit Referendum Campaign and it's end result.

 But why have these Far Left Groups taken the position they did?
I personally feel that it was due to the fact that many of these working class folk were the types who gave donations to these far-left organisations on their city centre stalls and some may have helped them out at election time.
Rather than admit the truth and potentially alienate these folk, they decided to create a sand dune to duck their heads into.

Given what the Tories are likely to do over the term of this Government, I fear things are set to get a lot worse on all fronts.

I pray the spirit of the Poll Tax Campaign will resurrect itself in the left leaning members of the British Working Class and that there will be an enormous push back against the Government.
As thing currently stand I fear my prayers may go unanswered...

ODE TO GEMMA:

Massage on a barge, Massage on a barge – another problem for Gemma writ large,

 Anti-democratic Google, anti-democratic Google, a key concern of her supporters so frugal,

They say Keep Ireland Green, Keep Ireland Green while Nazi salutes are quite plainly seen,

She mourns the loss of her Youtube Channel, the loss of her Youtube Channel, where she nightly spewed her rants so banal,

Here she nightly urged others to participate, nightly urged others to participate, in her campaign of lies and hate,

To the Gardaí she was in a strop, to the Gardaí she was in a strop, all cos they told her from Barrow Street to hop,

Due to the actions of those on the left, the actions of those on the left, she is now isolated and bereft,

The more her message is allowed be told, allowed be told, the greater the fair-right foothold,

So everyone get up and make a stand, make a stand, otherwise freedom and democracy in future could be banned!