Varadkar GONE

[Wonderful Butternut]

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0320/1438924-ireland-politics/

Well that was unexpected.

Which blueshirt takes over for the last few months of the government, to lead their party to a probable election defeat?

[bgmnts]

'Personal reasons'

[Buelligan]

One day ago it all seemed to be going so well.

[Glebe]

Crikey, that was sudden.

[Blumf]

Is this to do with rewording the constitution to get away from it's outdated wording?

[jamiefairlie]

Some dirt about to come out?

[Underturd]

Maybe he's about to come out!

[Memorex MP3]

Options are they either lose to Sinn Fein and he's given the boot or they form another mangled coalition and people get increasingly fed up of it. All the while he's having to put his future international rep at stake due to Ireland's stance wrt Palestine.


Stepping down makes sense to me.

[Dr Marbles]

Some dirt about to come out?

Seeing as last year a video went around of him chewing the face off some twink in a gay club in Dublin I doubt it's something like that.

With the FFG lot there's always the chance of some kind of cronyism business but nothing to make him quit.

The referendum result probably just made him realise that no matter what he does FFG are going to get a bit of a kicking at the next election and he's young enough to have a decent career after - maybe eyeing up a juicy position on the EU gravy train in Brussels.

[Underturd]

Oh okay, perhaps he's about to go back in then.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Maybe he's about to come out!

He already is.

Wonder what prompted this exactly. Per the RTE article he's said before he doesn't want to stay in politics after the age of 50. Maybe he is planning on running as an MEP, that'd bring him up to the age of 50 if successful. Maybe he doesn't want to be leader if/when Fine Gael get the shite kicked out of them at the local and/or European elections.

Or things are about to get drastically worse for the country and he'd rather hand the poisoned chalice off to some other unsuspecting boob.

[George White]

Paschal Donohoe, probably.
Even though I am fascinated by him, maybe because he really reminds me of Ralph Wiggum.

[buttgammon]

The European and local elections would've inevitably put a lot of pressure on him anyway - I suspect a big part of it is wanting to quit while he's ahead.

Who do we think they'll replace him with? It's going to be a hell of a poisoned chalice, to such an extent that I wonder if some of the more careerist contenders will hold back in the hope of getting a better chance in future.

Whoever it is, I suspect they're going to go more overt with the sort of racist, anti-immigrant shit that has overtaken pretty much every similar party in Europe (and which they're already basically supporting at the European level anyway).

[All Surrogate]

Is this to do with rewording the constitution to get away from it's outdated wording?

I'm curious about the 'no' outcomes of the recent referenda. At first glance as someone outside Ireland, it seems like a shame, but there are probably all sorts of subtle stuff I'm not aware of. I meant to start a thread on it, in fact. Any folk in Ireland care to share their views on the results?

[Johnboy]

I voted yes/yes after some indecision/confusion

Somebody on boards.ie said this:

"My reading of this and my view on the care referendum is this:

1. A no vote keeps sexist language in the constitution.

2. A no vote is unlikely to be viewed by this government or any future government as a massive appeal to review and revisit how care is viewed in the constitution.

3. A no vote is unlikely to result in a redo or alternative vote in the future.

4. A yes vote removes the sexist language from the constitution.

5. A yes vote adds wording about care that doesn't really mean anything in the sense of obliging the government to do anything.

6. A yes vote won't introduce anything which will allow or force the government to do anything more or less than they currently do.



I get that people are angry or upset that this care referendum is pointless and doesn't go far enough. But I don't see any sort of redo in the future, so this may be the only opportunity to remove the outdated reference to women in the home. We'll get a pointless values clause added too, maybe we can add to this in future?

On that basis, I remain a yes/yes.

Regarding the care amendment - currently there is nothing in the constitution about carers and the disabled. Currently there is nothing forcing the government to do anything extra, but there is also nothing preventing them from doing less. Adding the new clause will, in my view, do literally nothing to the benefit of disabled people or carers. It will also not, in my view, do anything to the detriment of disabled people or carers. But it will remove outdated language about women in the home, so that's a plus.

Note - just to be clear: My son has an intellectual disability and his mother is a carer, so we're well versed in what the state does and doesn't do."

that last bit chimed with me

and the clincher was when he said this:

"I'd argue that you can tell a lot by looking at the major groupings that are lined up on either side of the argument. On one side you have all major political parties, you have a former president of Ireland, you have the National Women's Council of Ireland, you have Treoir, Family Carer's Ireland, One Family Ireland. On the No/No side you have Iona, Aontú, Ireland First and "lawyers for no" which includes Michael McDowell and other conservative voices, including members of Iona. Oh and you have the Catholic church too."

(Sorry, didn't mean to derail the Leo thread, but a new thread for the finished referenda probably not going to catch fire eh)

[Wonderful Butternut]

I'm curious about the 'no' outcomes of the recent referenda. At first glance as someone outside Ireland, it seems like a shame, but there are probably all sorts of subtle stuff I'm not aware of. I meant to start a thread on it, in fact. Any folk in Ireland care to share their views on the results?

Honestly, I didn't keep a close eye on it, but in addition to the right wing cunts listed by Johnboy (aside: surely the Seanad should exist for reasons other than giving oxygen to a man who ran his shitty little neo-conservative party into the ground in the mid 2000s? Why is McDowell a Senator?) there was a lot of coverage of non-cunts working within the care sector, such as the Independent Living Movement Ireland, who said they were opposed to the care amendment. Mostly on the basis that they felt the rewording didn't oblige the government to do anything practical, and if it passed the government would give themselves massive pats on the back, then do nothing practical for carers and point at the amendment and go "LOOK! LOOK AT WHAT WE DID! AREN'T WE GREAT?!" if asked about it. The Free Legal Aid Centre and the Irish Council of Civil Liberties opposed it for reasons that I can't remember too.

And there was essentially no meaningful campaigning that I can remember for yes votes on either amendment. It amounted to "trust us pls". Yeah, not a great approach given the housing and healthcare crisis you're presiding over there lads.

Not really sure why the family amendment didn't pass. There was no reason to reject that I can see other than to give the government a bloody nose cos you just don't like them. Or because you're some sort of asshole.

I personally read the amendments, determined both were better than what was there, and voted yes/yes. As far as I'm concerned FFG aren't going to govern effectively anyway, so the point about them considering it "job done" vis-a-vis the care sector after getting the amendment passed wasn't really relevant to me.

[Mr Vegetables]

When I read Varadkar say he wasn't the best man to lead Ireland, I thought "Neither am I," and for some absurd reason that made me feel sad

[Mister Six]

Some dirt about to come out?

Closeted heterosexual.

[Wonderful Butternut]

When I read Varadkar say he wasn't the best man to lead Ireland, I thought "Neither am I," and for some absurd reason that made me feel sad

Well the best man to lead Ireland is clearly me.

I need to be elected President and from there I can organise a hostile takeover.

[EOLAN]

Well the best man to lead Ireland is clearly me.

I need to be elected President and from there I can organise a hostile takeover.

Becoming President effectively makes you the least powerful person in the country .

[Wonderful Butternut]

Becoming President effectively makes you the least powerful person in the country .

But I'd be head of the armed forces and could lead a coup. I'd get the army onside by offering to pay them properly once I'm properly in charge.

(Yes, I'm aware this is impossible for many, many, many reasons)

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I'm curious about the 'no' outcomes of the recent referenda. At first glance as someone outside Ireland, it seems like a shame, but there are probably all sorts of subtle stuff I'm not aware of. I meant to start a thread on it, in fact. Any folk in Ireland care to share their views on the results?

I voted yes on the definition of a family amendment as I felt it would protect people e.g. in "common-law" arrangements, cohabiting, having property/kids together without the legal protection of marriage. I voted no on women's special place in the home because a) the State's done fuck all to "vindicate that right" of mother to stay home with the kids, most two-parent households are dual income by economic necessity and b) I thought the carers and disabled folk who were against it because the wording didn't go far enough had a point.

[McFlymo]

I don't suppose anyone here holds any stock in the idea that he was told to resign after his speech on Paddy's Day? (Which was fairly milquetoast, except for one small bit about why Ireland doesn't like genocide.)

[superthunderstingcar]

But I'd be head of the armed forces and could lead a coup. I'd get the army onside by offering to pay them properly once I'm properly in charge.

(Yes, I'm aware this is impossible for many, many, many reasons)

By "head of the armed forces" do you mean "head of the Irish republican army"?

hiya GCHQ mates looking in.

[George White]

Seems that the favourite now is local lad Simon Harris, who used to run free matinees for autistic kids that I and my friend (posing as his brother) would go to at the Craggy Island Ormonde.

I still want Paschal Donohoe. Just to see how the little baby-man would react.
If Fianna Fail were involved, Dara Calleary. But not Donnelly. Because as much as I love Stephen Donnelly, he really should be a DJ  not a politician.

[checkoutgirl]

His hairline is very disturbing. It's like the angry nintendo nerd where he's balding so just shaves it across until his forehead looks massive.

[Wonderful Butternut]

I don't suppose anyone here holds any stock in the idea that he was told to resign after his speech on Paddy's Day? (Which was fairly milquetoast, except for one small bit about why Ireland doesn't like genocide.)

I'd expect that, from within Ireland at least, any such pressure would have been because what he said wasn't pro-Palestinian enough.

In terms of pressure from America or anyone else abroad for being mean to Israel, literally anyone who'd replace him would be at least as pro-Palestine, if not more so. So it strikes me as unlikely that anyone would bother.

[Eggy Mess]

Bit of a cheeky one from young Leo, I think. Rather than hang on until the next GE and preside over an electoral drubbing, jump now and let someone else take the flak.

I wonder how loudly FF & FG will be shouting their reluctance ever to enter coalition with SF in the coming months. Not very, I'll wager.

[gilbertharding]

Well, according to everyone on twitter who has anything to say about #Varadkar, he's a WEF shill and it's a good thing he's gone.

I've no idea really where he sits on the spectrum. Explain to me in UK terms: is he Truss or Starmer?

[Eggy Mess]

More of a Cameron, I'd say