Potential flaw in local election expenditure limits

// September 26th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // artane, ballinamore, bank of Ireland, irish politics, local elections, midleton

John Gormley’s announcement that he is looking to establish spending limits for the local elections should be something to be widely welcomed. However from what he has said so far there are a few problems with the approach he is suggesting should be followed. He mentions one area of consideration “Should different amounts apply in elections for city and county councils, and town councils;”. On the surface that seems a sensible distinction to make but that’s not quite the case when you look at how it would play out on the ground.

The thing is that different counties have different ratios between councillors and voters. I’m using 2004 numbers for electorates but the comparison holds up. In Dublin city council for example the Artane Ward had an electorate of 26, 000 compared to Limerick Ward 2 which was only 9,000, both for 4 seats, both city councils. Or more extreme Ballinamore Co. Leitrim a 6 seater for just 6,000 voters as compared to Midleton a 6 seater in Co.Cork but for 40,000 people. Being a city, county or town council should not be the point of divergence in spending limits. In truth it must be linked to the number of people each candidate is seeking to represent. And in doing that it is likely that we will see a reopening of the can of worms that are issues of pay in proportion to the number of people being represented and perhaps too the fact that members of the Seanad are elected by councillors who represent varying numbers of people.

Couple this divergence in size with the absence of any reference to date to the use of publicly funded facilities by incumbents (photocopying in city hall can save a candidate quite a pretty penny in paper and printing costs in the lead up to an election campaign, especially when you know for certain the date of the contest) and you’ve got a recipe for a tidy little legal mess come next year. That isn’t to say the topic shouldn’t be gone into, just that it is about more than set caps on spending.

Eurovision to be fixed!

// September 15th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // eurovision, georgia, sopho

The folks behind the Eurovision have announced that they are to re-introduce jury voting to run alongside the popular votes. Hurrah, that should finally restore some much needed credibility to the world’s premier kitsch fest. Might Terry come back?

N.B. I still reckon Sopho was robbed last year.

Jean Claude Van Damme as

// September 12th, 2008 // No Comments » // J.C.V.D, jean claude van damme

Jean Claude Van Damme. I only became aware of this tonight via pop la femme chien. And it’s absolutely brilliant!

Teaser below

and the Trailer is below

It’s a tasty fish, I’ve nothing against it.

// September 12th, 2008 // No Comments » // exorcist, kyle mclachlan, the hidden, william peter blatty. George C. Scott.

George C. Scott gives his views on carp. Yes, carp! I was attempting explain the magic of George C. Scott’s voice to someone recently and used this as an example.

It is, in my view at least, a piece of cinema brilliance. And I can recommend Exorcist III for rental as an overly neglected and underrated movie. It’s based on the actual book sequel to the Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and was directed by him. Honestly, the dialogue crackles along at a brisk pace and it is much more of a suspense movie and thrill ride than a horror.

On the subject of neglected movies, might I also offer The Hidden with Kyle McLachlan. It’s an off beat cop movie/sci-fi mashup which I reckon has one of the best openings ever for a movie. “What’d he do rob a bank?”. I’ve got a minor beef with Sky in that they keep showing the same films again and again on sci-fi when there are underrated classic, they could get for half nothing and show during the night for us to Plus and watch the following evening.

One of the weird but wonderful aspects of the 80s was that we were hit with a deluge of sub mainstream movies that never got close to being movie releases over here but which were quite passable of a dull winter’s evening when we had no jobs or money.

It wasn’t me!

// September 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // noel gallagher, oasis, toronto, v festival

It seems some eejit took it upon himself to rush the stage at the V festival when Oasis were playing and ended up shoving Noel Gallagher into a monitor speaker and damaged his ribs. Even more bizarrely for me it seems his name is Daniel Sullivan. Well, just for the record it wasn’t me. I wish Noel a speedy recovery and that other bloke is right off the family Christmas list.

I will say that I have seen Oasis play, it was in Dublin at the Tivoli in 1994, good, good gig. First time I’d ever been offered way over the odds for a ticket as I’m going into the venue.

Who is running Alaska?

// September 8th, 2008 // 16 Comments » // alaska, governor, sarah palin, sean parnell

A big deal has been made of the demands of running Alaska in recent weeks. How it gives one such rounded executive experience. It naturally begs the question who is running the place right now while Gov. Palin is criss-crossing the lower 48 campaigning to be VeeP?

Hang on, it’s got to be the Lt. Gov – Sean Parnell right? but hang on a minute he’s in a slow death march of a count for the republican primary for a congressional seat. If he wins through there then he’s got an election campaign for the congressional seat to work at between now and election day in Nov. So, if Alaska can be let on auto pilot for so long then is being Governor of the place really all that demanding? After all, if it’s not a real full time job, if it is like a time share thing then how much worth can we put in doing it for 18 months before become your party’s nominee for the vice-Presidency? The last Governor the US elected who wasn’t a full time hands on type of guy was W. and look where that got the US.

Seriously, if McCain was really all that gone on executive experience then that nice Mike Huckabee chap was governor of Arkansas for over a decade and his views on many social conservative issues overlap with those of Governor Palin. And Chuck Norris had endorsed him so he had the gun club folks too.

A cinema giant passes on – and you won’t know his face or his name.

// September 3rd, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Don LaFontaine

Don LaFontaine the king of voiceovers has died aged 68. How can we go on “in a world where” this man can no longer guide us through the troubles of life and the power of imagination. This winter and next summer things will be just that little bit bleaker. That really was a voice to launch a movie, you can hear more here. Volume is a tad loud mind.

Things you hate to love

// September 3rd, 2008 // 2 Comments » // dave, stephen fry, things you hate to love

Caught this at the weekend* on Dave!, Stephen Fry talking about things you hate to love, like in his case, Darts! (the game/sport, not the band) and ABBA, and Georgette Heyer and gibberish and swearing. It was a fantastic concept for a show. I hope it was real and not one of those things that your brain does while you’re sleeping. Read more here.

*I was tired, I’m writing a paper on something and I had nothing to wear so I stayed in, it happens.

The economy has sphinctered

// September 3rd, 2008 // 7 Comments » // bank of Ireland, property, tom parlon, tuam

It’s pretty much official now that the economy is not slowing down rather it is closed for business. I did like that an auctioneer in Tuam on the RTe news was saying that there was a need for the building industry to reduce prices drastically in bring people back into the market and then went on to be quoted as saying there as €15 million in new unsold property in the area. Now was that €15 million in terms of the current asking price or should we read that as really being €10 million’s worth? Tom Parlon joined in the fun fest by asking for a direct state bailout of construction. Wasn’t he in a party once that believed in the free market?

Yes, indeed the Irish construction industry has truly overdone its reaction to the credit crunch or the fiscal trots as some might term it and we’re stuck looking at the rest of the economy sphinctering out of sympathy.

Oireachtas reform

// September 1st, 2008 // 2 Comments » // bank of Ireland, dail reform, government, Oireachtas

I know I’ve made some hay previously about reforming the Seanad to make it somewhat more consistent, but what about something more fundamental like reforming the entire electoral system. I believe that the Oireachtas, local government and large swaths of Irish public life are broken ,busted, banjaxed. I believe that the current system has served us badly.

Let’s take for a moment the view that the Irish people really do need all these people helping them with form filling and ringing up the planning office and coming to their funerals. So let’s keep people in the system to do that but let’s also keep them the hell away from the drafting, consideration and voting involved in legislation.

Take the number of TD 166 and for every 3 of them at present let’s try and suffice with just the 2 who will become what I would term public advocates. They will sit in a people’s chamber that gets to vote on legislation but only to reject it by a 2/3 vote. So, that’s 111 of them advocates to be elected by PR-STV. And then we should have 100 members of an actual legislature 80% of whom are to be elected by a list system on a provincial basis, and the remaining 20% by national list.

And those in the latter chamber would actually be the only ones who could draft, debate and vote on actual proposed new legislation. And then members of the cabinet can be drawn from both chambers or none. But they must be approved by Oireachtas committee (much like the US senate hearings to approve cabinet members.

And let’s pay the advocates more than those in the legislature so that people aren’t tempted to use it as stepping stone to get into the legislature as people currently use the county/city council seats. Pay the advocates 100K (after all they’re doing the work of 1.5 TDs and we pay TD’s 100K as of today) and the legislators just 80K say. Members of the cabinet get a top up to bring them up to 150K. And the top dog can have 180K and the use of a flat in town along with the lodge at Farmleigh for the family.