Damien Mulley

Johnny Brady really gets worked up into a frenzy to warm the crowd for Thomas Byrne. Below is my favourite part of the longer video.

This is the original video it came from. Love the diddlyaye music. Love the speeches. So this is what a Fianna Fáil rally is like.

My god almighty. I never thought Bertie could win a debate on the health system. He did. I never thought Enda would be more protective about Bertie’s “money was just resting in my account” incident than Bertie. He was.

Here’s how you piss off the nation. Talk down to them. Say “Let me tell you why” “Let me tell you how” it stings off “Listen you thick gobbo, this is how it is.” Bertie started off weak and defensive but as Enda missed prime opportunities he gained way more confidence until eventually he was quoting FG figures back to Enda and Enda was in bits.

Trevor “so into saving trees, he writes on his hands” Sargent would have had more impact tonight as the sub for Enda. Had Rabbitte been on this, Bertie would not have had the walkover he just had. I’d be seriously worried for a country with a man like Enda in charge but we still need Fianna Fáil out.

The P.D.s really took time to put thought into this:

Guarantee a state-of-the-art communications network, driven by competition, to which all players in the market have equal access.

State owned? Privately owned? One owner? What?

Fund nationwide broadband coverage.

How how how how?

Wow, the worst manifesto ever. Really shows how much they care about communications.

In government Fianna Fáil will:

Complete the roll-out of broadband throughout the country with the National Broadband Scheme (NBS). This will mean that the last 10%-15% of the country, which will never have access to broadband without intervention or support, will now have access to broadband, provided on a technology-neutral basis.

Yeah your National Broadband Tender is a farce.

Encourage the progressive shift to IP based Next Generation Networks.

NGN again. You really bought that FUD didn’t ya? As for “encouraging”? Haven’t you “encouraged” eircom to play ball the past 10 years? What did that get Ireland? Oh yes, highest mobile bills, highest line rental, second last for broadband in the EU15 and second highest landline bills.

Encourage the separation of Eircom’s network from its commercial retail business into a separate entity to be regulated by ComReg, on a fully open-access and transparent basis. We anticipate that this organization will attract funding as a quasi-utility and will play a role in encouraging the development of Next Generation Networks in Ireland.

How? Why? Why now? As for ComReg regulating it. Please.

Tender contracts to provide broadband availability to the final 10% of the country. The successful tenderers will have to commit to deploy technological solutions to allow maximum competition.

Yeah lads, see your first point, it’s the same as this. Did you not proof read this?

Expand the current free telephone rental scheme by providing for free broadband for older people. Industry will be invited to tender for the provision of the new bundled broadband and rental service for older people.

10 years later it is still hard to sign up to anyone but eircom for this.

Wow, this really is the lamest so far but the lamest of all is going to come after this post thanks to the P.D.s. Even past press releases from Fianna Fail were more ambitious than this. No vision whatsoever. More bandaids than anything else. The previous manifesto in 2002 promised all 5mb broadband by 2005. Where’s that now agan?