johnwilliams
Registered User
- Messages
- 244
If John Gormley was around in the post war period 1945-1955 then he might have expedited Irleand's entry to the UN!
Our entry was held up for a decade primarily by China who regarded the Republic as a British Province and not a "real" country.
Kinda the same as Tibet!
It seems the reason the Chinese Ambassador stormed out of the Green Party Conference in Dundalk was JG's description of Tibet as a "country"!
Incidentally Scotland (and Wales) is a "country" but this does not cause any problem for even the most die hard unionists.
why was the chinese ambassador at the green party conference .is he a member of the green party?. or do all ambassadors go to these things,and given that he knew in advance what was going to be said why did he bother showing up?
This was more or less choreographed. Suits both persons very well. JG is a hero with his party. The CA is a hero with Peking.
Did JG insult the US ambassador over Shannon on which he used to have strong views - not on your nelly, then we would be talking serious economic consequences for Ireland.
Would a CA snub a US government convention. No way, then we would be talking Olympic boycott.
Soft wins for both, fair enuff.
The Green Party before it became a mini fianna fail party, used to be very vocal about the use of Shannon as an American airbase to supply toops to Iraq etc and its use for torture( rendition) flights. Since the "Greens" joined fianna fail in government they have toned down their rhetoric. Their most outspoken member on such issues used to be John Gormley.
The total trade between China and Ireland in 2006 was, surprising to me, worth €6.3 billion.
I don't partcularly like Gormley or the Greens but at least he had an opinion that he was prepared to voice. If only he'd be equally vocal about more immediate injustices closer to home (health services).
Might it be that he can't be expected to do anything about Tibet (except talk of course) whereas with domestic issues, he's part of the government that continues to fudge them.
What do you expect him (or any politician) to do about the Health Service?I don't partcularly like Gormley or the Greens but at least he had an opinion that he was prepared to voice. If only he'd be equally vocal about more immediate injustices closer to home (health services).
Might it be that he can't be expected to do anything about Tibet (except talk of course) whereas with domestic issues, he's part of the government that continues to fudge them.
for torture( rendition) flights.
None of them have the power to push through the reforms needed; we’ve seen that over the last 15 years...........John Gormley cannot perform miracles, he can talk in aspirational terms but the reach of his political office limits him. In that he is the same as any other political office holder.
All politicians have the power to push reforms however what they lack is the political will to do so....reform is great..and as we have seen on this site everybody wants public sector reform..however no political party will push it to the stage where they loose votes...
There are whole continents of cheap labour in the world - western economies can easily source it elsewhere if they desire thus drying up the Chinese markets and having equivalent sized makets open up in these other countries. Remember, the growing markets are due to western money being pumped in, not due to anything specific to China.
The public sector establishment can stop any political reform they want to. In practice SIPTU has a veto over government decisions.
What do you expect him (or any politician) to do about the Health Service?
None of them have the power to push through the reforms needed; we’ve seen that over the last 15 years. Nurses talk about under funding and in the next breath they talk about pay increases (and an even shorter working week which amounts to the same thing). In a world of limited resources both are not possible.
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