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US Elections – The UN-democratic Democracy!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
US Elections – The UN-democratic Democracy!

Every democratic country tries to adopt a system that is as democratic as possible while at the same time protecting the interests of the ruling parties. We have that in European countries (including Ireland!) and we have the same in the US. But depending if you are on the winning side or on the losing side, some of these un-democratic rules can be particularly upsetting.

Most of us experienced this on Wednesday after the US Presidential election. It all happened in a country geographically far away and we were not even allowed to vote, but to think that it won’t affect us would be a big mistake. So the whole world had a stake or at least a keen interest in the US elections and the shock afterwards was HUGE. I don’t think I saw any non-election related Facebook message on Wednesday or Thursday.

It is bad news that a misogynistic, racist egomaniac who has not the slightest bit of political experience and who has frightening views in nearly every area from the use of nuclear weapons to climate change and from the building of a wall on the Mexican border to his opinion about Russia’s Vladimir Putin will become the new president and many couldn’t understand how the votes could get it so wrong.

But interestingly, the voters didn’t get it THAT wrong. A majority of voters voted for Hillary Clinton. Not a BIG majority but Hillary Clinton got 60,231,953 votes which is 47.7% and Donald Trump got 59,893,663 votes, which is 47.4%. So the difference is only approximately 330,000 votes, but it is a definite majority for Hillary Clinton on what the Americans call, the “popular vote”. The decider, however, is the “electoral vote” and that is a very odd system. The electoral vote was won by Trump with 289 votes versus Clinton’s 228 votes. (Michigan and New Hampshire are not finally counted yet, so another 21 votes have to be distributed.)

So the next president of the biggest democratic nation in the world is NOT the person that got most of the votes in a democratic election, but the person that only came second. ODD!

Have a look at this video clip here if you want to understand more about how the Electoral College concept works.

 

Elections, Elsewhere, Politics, , , , ,

The new government IS a Fine Gael – Fianna Fail coalition!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
The new government IS a Fine Gael – Fianna Fail coalition!

So they made it!! After 70 days finally a new government has been elected when on Friday Enda Kenny (Fine Gael) was re-elected as the Taoiseach.

It is called a “minority government” that is tolerated by Fianna Fail and supported by some of the Independent TDs. When the Taoiseach got elected, the Fianna Fail TDs abstained and therefore a handful of Independents was enough for Enda Kenny to get the majority.

Odd that Micheal Martin didn’t want to be in power since it was offered to him to be part of the government through a coalition. But the reason why Micheal Martin’s Fianna Fail didn’t want to get involved and form a Grand Coalition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail is because they were worried that the electors would punish them for it in the next elections. In recent elections the smaller coalition partner (i.e. Greens and Labour) was always blamed more for a screw up of the government than the dominating party and Micheal Martin didn’t want to risk that.

So the solution was a to tolerate a minority Fine Gael government. But does that REALLY change the situation?

Is Fianna Fail now NOT part of the government and will they by innocent if Enda Kenny does a bad job?? Actually NOT AT ALL!! This is really a coalition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, just with the odd configuration that Fianna Fail will not contribute in a positive way in the day to day running of the country.

Why do I call it a coalition? Well, if you sit down with the other party for days and negotiate a “deal” that will last for three years, during which Fianna Fail will support whatever Fine Gael does then you can’t claim anymore that you are innocent! It is like standing next to someone who commits a criminal act and not doing anything. You will NOT get away with your “I had nothing to do with it!” claim.

So this new government is a Grand Coalition, just not by name! And if Enda Kenny screws up and Fianna Fail won’t stop him because they promised to support him for 3 years, then Fianna Fail will also have to be appropriately punished for it! Don’t fall for Micheal Martin’s trick!

Elections, Politics, Society, , , , , , ,

Ireland introduces Free Legal Aid for everybody! – …as it seems

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Ireland introduces Free Legal Aid for everybody! – …as it seems

Some big news: Free Health services for everyone is something the government promised for years, but it didn’t happen. Instead – in a total surprise move – free legal aid for everyone was introduced in April. …we just weren’t told about it yet!

“Free Legal aid” means that the state covers the cost for solicitor/barrister and all other legal cost and this route is available to people with limited financial means to ensure that not only wealthy people can get justice, but that also poor people can defend themselves when they are accused of something.

It is a very fair concept and I don’t think that anybody could have an issue with the concept of it.

The question about “Who can get it?”, however, can be a more controversial one, but it seems that this problem has been removed now because it emerged that a member of the Irish Parliament, who is on a salary of approximately EUR 90,000 per year PLUS significant expenses can get free legal aid and if he can get it, then the majority of people in Ireland (who earn a lot less than him) MUST also be eligible for it. Right?

Anti Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy is accused of falsely imprisoning Tanaiste Joan Burton during a water charges protest in November 2014 and he has applied for free legal aid on the grounds that he can’t afford the court costs. Judge Melanie Greally from the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has decided that based on his average weekly income, he will get free legal aid! :-O

How can that be the case for someone who has a monthly salary of EUR 4000? Well, Murphy has an agreement with his party that he only gets EUR 1,800 (after tax) per month and that the party can keep the rest.

So the money that arrives in his bank account is genuinely quite low, BUT this is a voluntary arrangement that he has with his party and herein lies the problem!

Imagine if you had a voluntary arrangement with your parents or spouse or a friend to give them more than half of your monthly salary (assuming you were lucky enough to earn 4k), do you you think a judge would also have sympathy with you? I don’t think so!

And even more so in this case, it means that you and I will pay for Paul Murphy’s legal aid (because taxes will pay for it) and his party can continue pocketing his salary, so we are indirectly funding his party! Doesn’t sound right!! We are talking about approximately EUR 50,000!

The Journal.ie reported about this here: www.thejournal.ie/paul-murphy-legal-aid-2740512-Apr2016/

The case he has to defend himself in is somewhat irrelevant in this situation, but if we looked at what he is accused of then it becomes even more questionable if he should receive a cent of tax payers money and it even makes you wonder if he is fit to be a TD: Tanaiste Joan Burton came from an event in a school in Tallaght and was on her way to a church for the rest of the event, when a protest against water charges blocked her car in and “imprisoned” her in her car for about 2 hours.

Protesting is a legal right, but stopping someone’s movements against their will is not. It was a stupid and unjustified action. No serious harm was done to anyone and you could argue that bringing him to court is a bit of an overreaction, but unfortunately there are no other means to penalise someone who misbehaves.

The real bad news is that free legal aid has NOT been introduced for everyone, instead only someone who could afford to pay from his own pocket and who knowingly broke the law, will get the money paid by you and me!

Elections, Justice, Politics, Taxes, ,

Irish Politics: After the election – What now?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Irish Politics: After the election – What now?

The election is over and the results are interesting. Obviously everybody can interpret the results differently based on their own preferences and therefore my interpretation can’t be completely neutral either. But this is what I see:

Fine Gael and Labour were punished severely for how they ran the country in the last 5 years. Labour largely lost their identity and differentiation in the last 5 years and this resulted in a wipeout in many constituencies. But if you think it is over for Fine Gael and Labour, you will be wrong. As we have seen with Fianna Fail, all that is needed is a government that does things in no better way and suddenly you can be back at the races. So if Fine Gael and Labour want to have a chance to win again next time, they should just let Fianna Fail run the country further into the ground.

Sinn Fein definitely is the biggest winner, but many think that they will win as long as they are not involved in a government as their promises don’t seem to be realisable. The rest is just the rest. Yes, some could get a king maker role in the search for a stable government but since most Independent and many others are more interested in their constituency than the country their election is in many cases counterproductive.

What now? The worst would be to have a new election very soon and luckily the politicians agree with that largely. A new election now would result in a possibly totally random result. Some voters could be shocked about the wins or losses of one or the other party and might change thei voting behaviour significantly, so the outcome is unpredictable and nobody who just got voted in would want that.

So then the only other option is to build a government. The two parties are struggling against it, but in my opinion Fianna Fail and Fine Gael should definitely form a Grand Coalition. They have well over 50% of the seats and the voters did want to have them in that position. Micheal Martin’s suggestion of a comprehensive reform of the Dail and the system is a very good idea and the two big parties could work that out together. It doesn’t really matter to the country or the people who is Taoiseach, but I can understand why to the parties this looks differently. A Grand Coalition can be good for the country, but it also can be detrimental to the junior partner in such a coalition. They might get punished in the next election even further.

Sinn Fein might get away again of not having to take any leadership role, but they won’t get away forever. There wanting to stay in the opposition is well justified and makes sense from their point. In control they would have to put promises into reality and that can be very very difficult….and once you screw up, your meteoric rise might not continue.

So there is a LOT of strategising going on. More than is good for Ireland. But ti shouldn’t really surprise us that the parties, like the Independents, more think about their own bacon than about what is good for the country.

By the way, if no government is found, that’s no problem. The Irish constitution has considered that as a possibility: The old government will continue until a new government is found. There will never be a gap. Minority governments are also a possibility. Yes, more negotiation will be required. But essential laws have even in the past been agreed by the big parties, so they could still continue with that. And non essential laws are just that: Non essential! The budget is many moons away and even a need to negotiate a budget that would be acceptable by all might not be automatically a bad thing.

Are we in a mess? Not at all! There is no panic or worry about the future of the country. I hope they will all talk to all parties and see what makes sense and what can be done and at some stage in the next few months, we will probably have a new government again. Patience!! :-)

Elections, Politics, , , , , ,
 
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