Re: McGuinness is good for you?


WhiteWolf - "An Mac Tíre Bán" <rayh(removespamblocker>@iol.ie> wrote:
On 2 Jun 2006 09:32:32 -0700, "Boliath" <boliath_2000@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
WhiteWolf - "An Mac Tíre Bán" <rayh(removespamblocker>@iol.ie> wrote:

I'm a Nationalist first, a simi-Republican second, I only support SF so long as
most of there aganda matches mine... There are lots of parts of the SF agenda I
do not agree with, but when compared tot he other political parties in Ireland,
SF are my best hope for seeing the kind of future I want for Ireland, and so I
support them...

You are familiar with SFs policies on immigration - yes?

http://www.sinnfein.ie/gaelic/news/detail/7048

Which part of "so long as most of their agenda matches mine" didn't you get?

It seems to me that very little of their agenda matches yours. All you
seem to have in common is a wish for a 32 county Ireland. The kind of
future they want for Ireland would seem to differ greatly from the kind
you want, their social policies are very liberal. What else in their
policy document do you agree with?

Here, I'll cut & paste some for you to save you looking it up:
From: http://www.sinnfein.ie/policies/document/174

Sinn Féin's call to action against the Thatcherisation of Ireland

The Government's long list of broken promises are now well-known, but
underlying them is a shift to the political right which, if it is
allowed to continue, will do lasting damage to Irish society and the
Irish economy.

The terms "right" and "left" are not just meaningless political labels,
they are a useful shorthand for the policy agendas that affect people's
everyday lives.

What are "left" policies?

As a left republican party, Sinn Fein believes that equality must be
the cornerstone of our society and our economy. People should be
treated as citizens with rights, not just consumers with more or less
spending power. Government policies should be driven by the needs of
citizens, not the demands of the market.

What are "right" policies?

Right-wing parties believe in survival of the fittest, which means they
favour individualism and private enterprise, and the privilege of the
establishment and the market. They believe in freedom and rights for
the wealthy and for business first, and they see true equality for all
as a threat. They believe the state should have minimal responsibility
to the people. The policies of the right-wing Thatcher government are a
classic example of the logic of this agenda: lower taxes (at all costs)
and withdraw public services; privatise state businesses and assets;
deregulate sectors and industries; make all other policies subservient
to fiscal constraint. Sound familiar?

The result in other cases of rightward drift has been that the state
grows increasingly unaccountable except to those that line their
party's pockets, people's rights are eroded, economic growth is not
sustained, and the gap widens between rich and poor. Sound familiar?

In the past six years of FF/PD government, relative poverty has grown
very significantly; in other words the gap between rich and poor has
widened. The better off have benefited disproportionately from the tax
policies of Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy, thus setting a headline
across all government polices.

The Government Coalition between the avowedly right-wing Progressive
Democrats and the allegedly more centrist Fianna Fail coincided with a
period of unprecedented economic growth that cushioned the worst of the
impact of their policy agenda. Now that the boom is over, however, it
is more obvious that the poorest and weakest are being made to pay.

After one year of the Government's new mandate -- regardless of their
penchant for pseudo-consultation and Fianna Fail's sympathetic-sounding
"lefty" spin -- it has become clear that they are bent on adopting more
and more right-wing policies. They have gone on a privatisation binge,
given the wealthy all the tax breaks, favoured their developer,
industry and big business friends, introduced a range of draconian
laws, and to facilitate all of this they have gutted the Freedom of
Information Act to ensure that they operate in greater secrecy. This
"Thatcherisation" agenda represents a very negative development in
Irish politics and will exacerbate the problems of gross inequality and
injustice that exist in the state already.

We must not forget the damage that was done by Thatcherism and
Reaganomics to other societies in the 1980s. They gutted whole
communities with their austerity measures while the rich got richer. We
cannot allow this Government to take Ireland down this same road to
ruin.

It is open to question whether the people REALLY voted for these
policies -- as the Government now claims -- or were instead deceived.
While some of their right-wing measures were signalled in the Programme
for Government, many others were not, and have been brought in by
stealth. While their "right-turn" is a reality, the Government has
never announced its intention as such.

We in Sinn Féin will hold this Government accountable for their litany
of deceptions since they took office. We will join with others in our
communities to campaign inside and outside the Dáil against their
right-wing policies.

But in order to fight these policies we need to be able to identify
them and recognise where they fit in an overall right-wing agenda.

Come election time, Fianna Fáil will sell you the lie that the PDs are
to blame. But we cannot blame the PDs alone. With Fianna Fáil's large
majority, claims to domination by the PDs just don't ring true. Sinn
Féin has therefore produced this informal audit of the right-wing
policies of each Government Minister -- whether PD or Fianna Fail. We
conclude that Fianna Fail itself has shifted to the right, and is
taking our future with it. This must be stopped.

The Government will also sell you the false claim that there is no
alternative. Sinn Féin knows that there IS an alternative, and we have
outlined other policy options that we believe are better for the
people, and will contribute to a socially just Ireland for everyone.

Minister Martin
.............................

Pretty straightforward there, they describe themselves as a "left
republican party".

So, what SF policies do you agree with? Apart from a 32 county Ireland,
"most of their agenda matches mine" would imply they need to match 50%
or more, I don't believe they do, do you?

.

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