North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?
US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty
Anti-Empire >>
Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour?s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the I... Fri May 09, 2025 07:00 | Richard Eldred
In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour?s grooming gang shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK trade deal and Canada?s ignored Covid vaccine injuries.
The post In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour?s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK Trade Deal and Canada?s Ignored Covid Vaccine Injuries appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Fri May 09, 2025 00:56 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Sugar Tax Sums Up Our Descent into Technocratic Dystopia Thu May 08, 2025 19:00 | Dr David McGrogan
The sugar tax sums up Britain's descent into a technocratic dystopia, says Dr David McGrogan. While our Government does almost nothing well, it remains a world-leader in passive-aggressive, surreptitious nudging.
The post The Sugar Tax Sums Up Our Descent into Technocratic Dystopia appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
UK ?Shafted? by US Trade Deal Thu May 08, 2025 17:44 | Will Jones
The US-UK trade deal announced today is a clear win for Trump, says Sam Ashworth-Hayes, leaving the UK worse off than in March and opening up UK markets in exchange only for reducing recently imposed tariffs.
The post UK “Shafted” by US Trade Deal appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Australia?s Liberal Party Only Has Itself to Blame for its Crushing Defeat by Labour Thu May 08, 2025 15:30 | Dr James Allan
As in Canada, so in Australia, the crushing defeat of the conservative Liberal Party by Labour has been widely blamed on Trump. But in truth, Peter Dutton and his team only have themselves to blame, says Prof James Allan.
The post Australia’s Liberal Party Only Has Itself to Blame for its Crushing Defeat by Labour appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en
Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en
The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en
Voltaire Network >>
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 5 4 3 2 1TheyWorkForYou.com is a great website and certainly one that Irish activist should look towards developing. It would take a lot of dedicated work to pull off though.
It was actually part of the inspiration for my site Contact.ie.
Mark.
keeping a website record of TDs voting records? A user-friendly website where we could see who is voting for what in the Dail might go some way to helping people make the connection between voting for gobshites and the gobshitery they inevitably get up to afterwards.
Goerge Monbiot was able to make mince of a UK politician recently by referring to a UK website like this called TheyWorkForYou.com:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/10/haz...nbiot
It might be easier for people to use www.contact.ie to email all TDs than copying and pasting from the Impact list.
Regards,
Mark Conroy
The problem with the Saturday protest was that most of the marchers were from the public service and left-wing groups. Except for a few high-profile groups with specific issues like the Waterford workers and the Dublin bus-workers, the private sector was largely absent.
I would fear that far from this being the precurser of a general strike, this was merely a token gesture by working people who have accepted in their hearts that cuts and job-losses are inevitable. The private workers stayed at home and probably have no appetite for a fight. They are keeping their heads down, accepting pay-cuts, and just trying to keep their jobs and body and soul together. The public sector workers are even less likely material for any prolonged action. Most of them are locked into mortgages, and history tells us that servicing their ticket to middle-class house-ownership comes much higher on their list of priorities than protest.
Over the weekend a new worry began to be voiced privately by the better off public servants and their union representatives. They fear that the government might take the unions at their word and offer a rebalancing of the levy to take most of the workers earning less than €30K out of the net. The corrollary is that the middle and higher-ranking administrators, teachers, doctors, and other public-service professionals would have to make up the shortfall.
Had this melt-down happened prior to 1989 it might have gone somewhere. Unfortunately the credibility of left-wing solutions died with the Soviet Union. None but the highly committed minority already involved in radical politics really sees socialism as a solution to the crisis. Most believe that it would only make matters worse by causing a flight of capital (the small bit the bankers didn't blow) and enterprise.
The more real (but equally slight), and more frightening possibility is a lapse into a period of right-wing authoritianism on the South American model as the middle-classes in both public and private sectors, faced with fiscal collapse and hyper-inflation, see "strong" government as their best hope for preserving their assets and privileges.
We live in interesting times.
Let's start circulating the phone numbers and e-mails of every TD, and their clinics, and let's fill their mailboxes with complaint. Pack their clinics, and make sure they get no smiley photo-ops from here on in.
Let's get a real grass roots momentum going.