Leo Varadkar’s treatment of Irish voters is utterly shameless

25 comments
  1. From the article:

    >Going ahead with this draconian crackdown on so-called ‘hate speech’ shows contempt for ordinary people’s views….

    ​

    >So what precisely, [he asked Mr Varadkar this week](https://twitter.com/griptmedia/status/1654113707004239872?s=20), was the point of consulting the public at all?
    >
    >“We do consultations because we think they’re good practice,” replied the Taoiseach, wearing an expression of immaculate sincerity. “It’s a way to find out what people’s thoughts are.”
    >
    >Yes. But he’d utterly disregarded those thoughts.
    >
    >….Mr Varadkar remained supremely unfazed. The “vast majority of people”, he explained airily, “don’t make submissions to public consultations”, which means that they’re “not necessarily reflective of public opinion”. Especially when the results can be distorted by “campaign groups”, who can cunningly arrange for their supporters to submit large numbers of anti-government responses. And anyway, he added, “we’re a democracy”, which meant that all decisions were taken by the government. They certainly weren’t taken on the basis of “public consultations and opinion polls”.
    >
    >So, to summarise: it’s vital for the government to listen to the public. Unless, that is, the public disagrees with the government, in which case, it isn’t. Public consultations, therefore, are both essential, and worthless.
    >
    >Good of Mr Varadkar to clear that up. I can’t help wondering, however, what he’d have said if the results had been the other way round, and over 70 per cent had backed the plans.

  2. Gript media publishes misinformation and far right nonsense. I don’t trust the opinion of anyone that takes Gript seriously.

    Gript just wants to import all that Bullshit US culture war conspiracy stuff into Ireland and at the same time, they can target a gay man of color.

    And this is coming from someone that utterly despises Leo because he, along with his party, have caused and continue to prolong and even make worse the widespread political issues in Ireland like the health and housing crisis, but Gript doesn’t actually care about that or ‘freedom of speech’, they see a chance to get more funding from right wing US religious groups, increase their support amongst the crackpot far right in Ireland and a chance to attack, like I said, a gay man of colour while they’re at it. Bunch of fucking ghouls.

  3. Who reads the f-in Torygraph? It boggles the mind when I see Irish people reading this or the even worse the Daily Mail. Those pricks have some neck making an Irish friendly version.

  4. This guy Is really showing his contempt for the Irish people, and it looks like he’s going to push the changes he personally wants to see before he’s gets his marching papers from the people !

  5. Is FG going back to their Nazi roots again.

    “Free speech, nothing is free in Ireland.”

    “If we can’t tax it, they can’t have it”
    – Leo Varadkar (Probably)

  6. He’s a cunt. But so is the telegraph, Irish Sun and Mail. Fuxk off with these shite rags! Links from these should be banned for good.

  7. and I suppose Leo Varadkar is the entire 110 Tds who voted for the legislation, fundementally Ireland is a representative democracy, the point is you vote for people you trust who will make legislation on your behest. A massive majority of the dáil voted for it, we’re not direct democracy, he isn’t treating voters with contempt he’s making the legislation he thinks best and the vast majority of the dáil agrees with him. Until Ireland is a representative democracy parliment passing unpopular laws aren’t mistreating voters, it’s doing their job, if you don’t agree with the laws you get to vote on the politicans later

  8. People seem to be targeting the news platforms here rather than the points being made.

    No matter what their reputation is, the specific Gript article is an accurate representation of that consultation. I read it myself when it was released a couple years ago – there was a sea of opposition to the bill.

    Rather than quibbling about “The Torygraph”, we should focus on the issue of substance here – that the opinion of the public is completely being ignored, despite us purportedly living in the 8th most democratic nation in the world.

  9. first of all he is entitled to make the decision to ignore the public consultation. he is an elected representative. he gets to decide how he votes, he is in a safe FG seat and as taoiseach he will get elected again. It looks to me like he is spending political capital on something he feels is important.

  10. He’s an English politician pretending to be Irish, if we were at war hed be the kind to sneak out the country instead of fighting for it with the rest of us

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