The elections are done and dusted. We have a new government. Sorry, I mean the same one again, led by Il Duce, Bertisconni. Sorry again, I mean created by Bertisconni. The Greens got a coat of paint as soon as they sat down at the cabinet table; the PD’s got a ministry despite being shunned by the electorate; a bankrupt has had her little problem fixed by a state owned organisation and was invited back into the clique.
Ah well, it’s all over and it’s safe to go into the hallway once more. No more piles of junk mail from candidates to greet me in the mornings.
Wait! There is more junk mail. I forgot all about the senate elections. 24 candidates looking for my vote for 3 NUI seats. If you don’t know what the senate does, doesn’t do, and how it is elected, read Kathy Foley’s latest post, originally printed in the Sunday Times. Actually, even if you do know all about Seanad Éireann, go read it anyway - you deserve something better than the drivel you’re reading here.
Now here’s a my dilemma: I don’t believe the upper house (yeah, funny the way they call it that) should be abolished. It can have a role as watchdog. So I want to see it reformed. But I am extremely uncomfortable with the way it is elected. I am honestly embarrassed that I have a vote while hundreds of thousands of other citizens don’t.
So should I vote? If I don’t, then I am not exercising my franchise. If I do, will it make a difference? Can the senate be changed from the inside? Unlikely. And if I do vote, who do I vote for? 19 of the 24 candidates have sent me junk mail. (Thanks for that lads - I really needed more filling for my recycle bin). But all I know about most of them is what they managed to fit on their blurbs.
Here’s a taste of what/who is on offer:
Tina Lowe - Vows to improve the way Ireland treats the disabled, especially in the area of education opportunities. Okay, Tina, you’re on my possibles list.
Liam Crowley - Sorry lad, your blurb doesn’t entice me to find out more about you. Boring!
Dr. John Hillery - Lovely shot of you chatting to good looking young people. Just like the ones Bertisconni had … hold on, you’re one of Bertisconni’s lapdogs. Bugger off!
Martin Hogan - “I am running as an independent … I have the endorsement of the Green Party”. Confusing me now, Martin. And you’re daughter’s called Chantel! Poor child. You can bugger off too.
Fergal Quinn - Ah here, don’t be annoying me.
Brendan Price - Likes seals. Biblical quotes and images on the blurb - No way, Brendan
John Kennedy - Looks like Leonardo de Caprio. That’s enough. Bugger off.
Daniel Sullivan - Wants a vote for graduates from universities other than NUI and TCD. Good man, Dan. Hold on, how about a vote for every single citizen?
Susan Philips - Wonderful brochure. Must have cost you a few bob? Ah shur you can afford it. Multi-culturalism an opportunity? Depends on which cultural practices you want me accept. No, you’re off my list. Sorry.
The voting papers arrived yesterday. And what do I see on the list but a lad with a big droopy moustache wearing a trilby. Yeah, no messing, he’s got a hat on in the picture. I didn’t know that was allowed - it’s not on your passport. Mark Connelly didn’t send me junk mail and he doesn’t have a website, so I can’t tell you anything about him. And I can’t show you what he looks like - but think of a cross between Bock’s Boys at the blog awards and Willie Power in RTÉ’s Killnaskully. If it comes to it, he’ll get my vote just for taking the piss out of the whole thing.
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Not that democratic a system, right enough. But at least you don’t have caucuses.
In terms of your original dilemma, and assuming you don’t go the dynamite route, you have to go with voting for the candidate who comes nearest to the reforms you want rather than for the candidate who comes closest to other policies you support.
Difficult as it is, wouldn’t that mean to change the system from within - and just from what you told us (forgive me I’m not ready to ready up on the candidates independently, and I’m not an NUI graduate I’m an NIHE failure) - you have to vote for Daniel rather than Tina, or the admittedly very hard to resist, Mark?
If your candidate is then elected, and succesful in their advocacy of more votes, albeit not for everybody, that would then bring in more voters who might well be predisposed to voting for people who want voting for everybody. If ya know what I mean?
Your list looks about as accurate as your commentary. Why don’t you pull your head out of your backside and do some research before inflicting this dross on the rest of us.
Brendan Price has spent his life fighting for environmental conservation and fought through 10 years of red tape from uninformed muppets like yourself to finally set up the Irish Seal sanctuary.
Because Martin Hogan has the capacity to reproduce children don’t hold it against him, he has done more on the Shell to Sea Campaign and Tara than your tapping away ever achieved.
I’d say your best bet to solve your dilemma of being embarassed that you have a vote in the Seanad is to crawl back into bed and not bother voting at all.
Sam - I had my caucuses removed. An expensive operation, but well worth it.
Eolaí - Valid points. However, the Seanad in its present form is totally ineffectual. While there are a small number of senators who genuinely enter it in the belief they could make a difference, most are free-loaders who get the nice cushy well paid job as a thank you for service to a party. Daniel, if elected, can speak as often and as eloquently as he likes about the need for extended voting, he will not have the ear of the self serving free-loaders, nor will any proposals he makes ever become law - only the lower house can do that. In fact, the lower house has had the wherewithal to do this since a change to the constitution nearly 30 years ago, yet have not.
My point is, the whole thing is a farce. Voting in a few token semi-democratically elected members will make no difference - drops in the sea. Furthermore, even if all members were democratically elected, it would still make no difference - it is the Dead Sea and powerless.
Solas - Heed the tone. Understand the subtext. Oh, and while you are close with dross, the word I actually used for the piece was drivel.
You can’t beat a man who takes criticism well. Fair play.
Dear Mr. Sneeze,
I should really do the political thing and start calling you Primal, or Sneezy like we were old pals that go waayy back, or members of the scoobie gang but that would be just weird right?
I do favour letting everyone have a vote. However that will require alterations to the constitution and my ma tells me those sort of alterations are more complicated than turning up a pair of pants. I’ll happily browbeat everyone I can to get it done if I was elected. Retain the vocational panels, allow people to create additional new panels via the census and then allocate seats based on the proportion of people who actually vote for each panel. Everyone can select which panel they want to vote for at election time.
Extending the franchise within the six 3rd level seats just requires legislation and honestly, I can’t see the government voting against it once they have someone who ends up taking the flak from TCD. Truth is my aim is to get enough votes that my transfers end up getting people elected and so then they take the issue seriously enough that they fix it so no one can run on this issue again.
Daniel K.
Dynamite, Primal. Dynamite.
I’m guessing that the Seanad doesn’t have many women in it, either.
Biblical quotes on an election pamphlet? Run far and fast from that guy.
Sneezy, you’re a gent.
x
I’ve never used my vote in the Senate elections and I never will. It’s a fucking disgrace.
Upper house, my bollocks.
Solas - Fair play? Any sort of fairness in the way the Seanad is elected would be welcome.
Dan - Sneezy would be acceptable - this is Blogland - we are all Orwellian-equal here.
Your mother is a wise woman. Re: Everyone can select which panel they want to vote for at election time - I bet the good lady would tell you people prefer ready made trousers to having to cut their own cloth.
Re: Extending the franchise within the six 3rd level seats just requires legislation - It could be done in the morning if Bertisconni wished, but the current system suits him just fine as a (legal) means of rewarding his buddies for favours, so I hold little hope.
Eolaí - Alas, explosives are hard come by in this country now, what with all the peace and stuff going on.
Medbh - Very few women members. I guess jobs for the girls just doesn’t have a ring to it.
Sam - I’m a right feker actually.
Bock - Glad to see you and your bollocks are safely back from your quest. Well done. You have made this nation proud.
Thanks for summary at least I can now pretend that I know some of the people that I won’t be voting for.