Joerg Steegmueller – Page 59 – Joerg's Ramblings

A steep learning curve

03 March 2011Written by Joerg Steegmueller

One of the new TDs had to learn fast that DRIVING down steps is ONE of the risks in Dail Eireann! :-)

General

Use your time wisely!

02 March 2011Written by Joerg Steegmueller

An interesting thought:

At the next election in 5 years (or less) the probability is very high that Fine Gael and Labour will get less TDs than this time. So a sizable proportion of TDs will be in the Dail for just one period.

I hope they use this time wisely and are aware of their political mortality.

Elections, Politics Dail, Fine Gael, Labour

We are NOT equal!

01 March 2011Written by Joerg Steegmueller

The European Court of Justice has decided today that men and women are equal and therefore an insurance is not allowed to offer different rates/premiums based on the gender of the insured. RTE News

What does that mean? It means that the car insurance premiums for women will go up and MAYBE the premiums for men will go down. But what else does it mean? It is only a matter of time when an 18 year old driver will go to the European Court of Justice to claim that his is discriminated on age grounds because he has to pay more than a 55 year old and while he has a point, it means that the insurance premiums for the majority of drivers will go up to subsidise the ones that are a higher risk.

Are we taking “equality” too far? We ARE different and it is wrong to think that we are all the same. To pick just ONE example: As long as I can’t be a mother (being male), we are NOT the same and therefore equality in ALL aspects of life doesn’t make sense.

Justice, Society Car Insurance, Equality, European Court, Politcal Correctness

It’s all over – Let’s get started!

01 March 2011Written by Joerg Steegmueller

Finally the election (or most of it) is over. The ballot papers are nearly all counted and while there are still 12 or so TDs to be decided in a few constituencies, we know that the new Taoiseach will be Enda Kenny and that he most likely will form a coalition with Labour.

The Fine Gael win was impressive, but Labour’s and Sinn Fein’s many seats in the Dail mean that Ireland moved to the left and I am not too impressed by that. I prefer a center/liberal/social society, but not a socialist society.

Fianna Fail’s loss was impressive as well, but look at it this way: A party that ran the country into the ground in many aspects still got approx. 20 seats out of 160. That is still quite a high number! So many people still think that Fianna Fail is a party that should be in charge, which is rather shocking.

Now it is over to Enda Kenny! The Dail will meet on 09 March, so he has another 8 days to sort out his government. I am still not convinced that he is suitable or will be good as a leader, so he has to show us now that he can build a government and that he will choose the right people for his cabinet. So, let’s get the future started. A future hopefully with more accountability and with a less self-serving attitude among the TDs.