Rip Off Ireland - Reviews

Maybe you are right and the crude PR stunt will work out far better than (say) 100,000 signatures to a petition. My point was that Eddie had a captive audience in half a million viewers and I think he could have chosen his mode of protest better to maximise the response.

I don't object to Eddie looking to get a majority motivated by targetting working class/low income/less educated/non-middle/upper class people (or whoever Ronan means) by simplyfing arguments to be succinct. That's fine by me. By all means get the Sun or the Mirror and as many tabloids and broadsheets you can behind your campaign (like the Iraq war protests in the UK) but make an intelligent point intelligently by appealing to as many as you can. If the ratio of viewers to activists in this case is right and the AAM senders are representative, then Eddie has failed to motivate his target audience, no matter how you look at it.

If you guys are right though, does that not just raise more questions. If it's just a matter of a few people making an outrageous or comical statement/gesture to make change happen, rather than a well-constructed large-scale protest, where are we headed in a democracy? Although, given our government you can find yourself in depressing territory if you start examining the state of democracy here (something closer to my heart than the rip-off stuff).

Maybe only 700 nappies were sent because rather than being apathetic, most people just don't "feel" that ripped-off.

Rebecca

daltonr said:

and if that village is anything like Trim the business opportunity will be blocked by local councillors.

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In yesterdays Sunday Times, in a piece by Sarah Carey.

Hobbs lauds a hollow victory

Eddie Hobbs’s entertaining new programme, Rip Off Republic, aired on RTE1 last Monday night. In evangelical style, his audience shouted approval to their preacher’s revelations that they were victims of anti-competitive practices. The excitement reached fever pitch when Mags McGivern recounted how Meath county council refused planning permission for a Lidl store on the outskirts of Trim in June 2003. According to Eddie, she and her friends collected a petition of 5,000 signatures, which forced the council to change its policy and everyone lived happily ever after. It’s a rousing story — but as far as I know, the council refused permission because the site was not zoned for large-scale shopping. Planners asked the retailer to move into a new town-centre development and, in the meantime, councillors proposed rezoning. But before they could complete the process, Lidl appealed to An Bord Pleanala, which granted permission, overturning the earlier rejection. If that’s the case, then I can’t see how the petition served any purpose whatsoever. Still, I’ll keep mum — who wants to be a party pooper?

MissRibena said:

Maybe only 700 nappies were sent because rather than being apathetic, most people just don't "feel" that ripped-off.

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I personally believe that this is definitely the case. Despite all the talk (and it's just talk as we've seen), Irish consumers don't feel strongly enough about how much money they're spending to feel hard done by.

I would actually venture to guess, that when it comes to most day to day expenditure that people don't actually know how much they're spending on a loaf of bread, a pint of milk, a packet of nappies etc etc.

Must be just me- I did actually think Eddie made intelligent points intelligently. I didn't feel he was overly simplistic either. In fact at one point I thought he wasn't being simplistic enough. I am getting seriously worried about the state of my brain now.

I cannot vouch for how 'Irish people' feel, but I do know that the vast majority of my friends find Ireland very expensive. Anyone that I know who has gone on foreign holidays this summer has remarked on how cheap it is to holiday abroad. Most have come back with money in their pocket that they had expected to spend.

I say fair play to Eddie - he's standing up and putting himself in a position where he will be criticised and dirt dug up about him. The fact is that he is trying; and seeing as how I agree with his general arguments then I am happy to support him.

Nothing wrong in making a clear argument, I think Eddie's simplistic approach served to highlight some of the issues rather more pointedly that a Moore McDowell type debate which, rigorous and all as it might be, might be so qualified and complex as to lose any message.

If we're being fed simplistic "low tax economy" type hype, who not retaliate with some simplistic "rip-off Republic" hype, and once we've goaded them (i.e. government, IBEC, RGDATA etc.) into a debate then maybe the truth will be hammered out in the middle and the consumer will make some gains.

Coming to the table as the reasonable, balanced man isnt always the way to spark the debate or get results, so fair play to Eddie for being the agitator.

Is Eddie's style the new John Hume "single transferable speech" - not that I criticise either of them - theres only so many ways to package commonsense.

I must be a bit simple but I thought the nappy 'stunt' had its merits.

In fairness, we have been ripped off for years and I haven't seen any petitions or any other kinds of public protests. I would certainly sign a petition or take part in a protest.

The fact is that Eddie provided the first mechanism whereby I felt I could vent my frustration and I jumped at the chance.

I would like to have seen Eddie give a breakdown of what portion of a 300K / 400K house goes to the developers,government,solicitors etc

I think that would have been very interesting.

I hadn't realised there were so few cement manufacturers in the country, really thought that would be more competitive.

ixus said:

I would like to have seen Eddie give a breakdown of what portion of a 300K / 400K house goes to the developers,government,solicitors etc

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A huge portion of such a second hand house bought in the last decade would go to the owner in terms of capital appreciation profit which is tax free for owner occupiers!