You notice Eamon was not jumping into the same hole, spade in hand.

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If there is a future, it will be green.

Not more than twenty minutes ago on RTE radio Minister Dermot Ahern disclosed that, in effect, popularity is not a feature of the government's PLAN. The entire premise of democracy, as I recall from some classwork, is the concept of gaining sufficient popularity to govern credibly.

Often, we hear the Green ministers' mantra about needing to stay the course to get the green agenda into law. That seems to re-invent the ethos of democracy as well.

Show the electorate a dozen wind farms on paper and then dole out billion euro deals to re-leverage the shambolical financial system. Very handsome work.

They refuse to act as "custodians" of Fianna Fail and end up condoning a load of financial measures that appear to be covered with the fingerprints of coked-up orangutans? How many people can afford this management of a green agenda?

If they are not properly squeezed by voters in the current electoral cycle the country will end up with special needs teachers forced to pay down massive mortgages by flogging Happy meals. Oh, sorry, they could opt for a career in bagel toasting, if that suits.

Not sure where you went to school, but there is no link between opinion polls and democracy, other than they're being prohibited in the day before a General Election.

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Countries than produce fewer total CO2 emissions than Ireland:

Bangladesh (Pop. 162m)
Ethiopia (Pop. 80m)
Peru (Pop.30m)


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Opinion polls share a trait with democratic elections. They each measure popularity.

The popularity measured by an election creates governments, whereas the popularity measured by an opinion poll creates gossip.

The prohibition cited by goosebump has merit ,however, the message I posted reflected a concern with respect to a Minister stating that his government was indifferent to popularity.

When a government is connected to and understands the electorate it is more likely to abide by the interests of the majority, while also recognising the interests of the minority.

I would like to know if anyone else heard the statement by Minister Ahern. It uncannily echos the sense conveyed today by Minister Gormley when he dismissed the rational notion that fear deserves a measure of priority.

PS

I'm still schooling.

I don't think that's true - there was an attempt some years ago to ban polls in the week before an election but it was dropped after it became clear it would be unworkable.

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Worth breaking my "no sig" rule for:
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I think you have got your Co. Wicklow locations mixed up. Poulaphouca is a reservoir formed by building a dam across the mouth of a valley. The water to turn the turbine comes from the natural flow of the River Liffey and its tributary, the King's River. The one where water is pumped up is Lough Nahanagan.

Of course it is those nasty fossil fuel burning power plants. That's exactly what I said. No-one imagines that we can do without fossil fuels immediately. It's a question of what sort of power plants should be built in the future. By subscribing to Airtricity I am encouraging the building of wind turbines.