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KERRY COUNCILLOR SEAN O’Grady today became the latest politician in the Labour party to resign, saying the actions of the party leadership in government are “no longer compatible” with the party’s ethos.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, O’Grady said he had a problem with a number decisions the coalition government made including the implementation of the household charge and the attempt to abolish the Seanad which he described as “an awful cynical exercise”.
“I understand that sometimes you have to compromise in relation to what you can have in a programme for government but there are certain red line issues that you don’t go beyond and Labour in government have gone beyond them,” he said. “They’ve basically shown that there isn’t any red line and they can cross any line they want.”
If it costs lives, they’re not worried about it
The people who are paying the price now are traditionally the ones we’ve always protected. Even in the budget you have the bereavement grant being taken, the telephone allowance – ticking away and plugging away at people.
I think the Troika have told them to go to the maximum, that they need to cut money and that’s that, and if it costs lives then they’re not worried about it.
“It’s completely in conflict with what we were expecting and with the party commitments,” he added.
“Obviously the first thing that has to be fixed is our finance but it should be tempered with the concept of social justice and that doesn’t seem to be apparent to the leadership.”
O’Grady said he has been thinking about his decision for a while and was in touch with former Labour party TD Colm Keaveney in recent weeks about various issues he was unhappy with.
Commenting on O’Grady’s resignation from the party, Keaveney told TheJournal.ie that his former party colleague’s commitment to Labour had been “unparalleled”.
You’ll never get a nicer man or a greater gentleman in politics and it must have been incredibly difficult for him to make this decision.
“When someone like Sean loses hope, it rings volumes,” he added.
Waving goodbye to the Troika
A Labour spokesperson said:
Entering into government, we always knew there would be difficult decisions to be made in order to get the country back on track.
Earlier this month we presented a budget that will get us out of the bailout. On December 15, we will be waving goodbye to the Troika, and it is unfortunate that some people who were elected as Labour Party representatives will not be with us to enjoy this success.
O’Grady said he had not yet decided if he would run in the next election but affirmed that he has “no intention of moving to any other party” if he does.
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Some pillock with a pocket laser I bet. Seems this is a relatively common occurrence these days. Rare for the plane to turn around though.
True. And the plane would have been at 8000 to 10000 feet high a few mins out when hit bit the laser and was cruising to the West of Ireland when it turned around and went back to Heathrow.
I’d imagine this would not be the standard laser pointer you would buy in the local but someone with a stronger toy. It would also appear the crew / company made to the decision to turn back prior to Atlantic crossing as the pilot must have been in some sort of discomfort.
A medical issue? Rather odd statement I would have thought
Getting a laser in the eye? That can cause blurred vision. I’d call that medical
Yes paddy, pilots tend to rely on their vision from time to time
Someone should develop a new anti laser filter for Aircraft Windows.
Well it depends. A lot of pens in the green are frequency doubled ir diodes so could put in glass that blocks these wavelengths. Issue is that it would block in the green. So pilots would only see in blue and red. Also your visual acuity is between green and red none in blue. So would not be ideal for pilots. Also some pointers are also in red. So blocking that as well would make pilots vision even worse. So I’m not sure just how practical it would be.
Yeah that is a good point unless they can use a polarizer to reflect the beam away or have reverse mirror or something to that degree.
A Polarizer would require knowing the initial polarization of the laser pointer which you wouldn’t. I am not sure what you mean by a reverse mirror.
It is a very difficult problem to solve. Most people don’t realise just how dangerous laser pointers and how many you might buy down in the market are very powerful and will blind. What probably saves many pilots eye sight is the divergence of these lasers after 1000 feet. But kids firing these around the playground doesn’t have this distance
Find one of these jackasses and lock him up for a few years, that might help.
The thing is, it’s not just the simple laser, in face Aircraft windscreens are the opposite than anti laser, when that thing is pointed, you cannot see F*ck all, it reflects across the hole screen, so inside and out you are blind, and if that hints your eye, it can possibly do some damage , they didn’t turn around for the crac, the pilots eyes were obviously in discomfort.
Little D.ick head if hes caught with that lazer it should be stuck up his behind.
This offence should carry a 20 year jail term
Dr Evil is my guess, the “Lazer” is a give away
Can sharks survive in the Thames?
Why would anyone want to point a laser at an aircraft taking off ? I didn’t realise you can buy military grade laser pens with a 10 mile + range on Amazon and eBay ? WTF
Ye can buy them from China for half nothing
I wonder what the pilots who flew through flak would think of this?
Pilots that flew through flak didn’t have a choice, they also didn’t have a few hundred passengers. The pilots that flew through flak would have received medical assistance if they landed just like this Virgin pilot did.
Flak was not laser strength.
If a plane is at 8k ft, and climbing, the cockpit windows wouldn’t be accessible by laser from the ground, due to the angle. Or wouldn’t the laser have to be many miles forward ? ….which makes aiming in the window at such a distance without a scope pox luck ?
It was an A340 and it was 10 kilometres out from take off so there’s no way it was 8,000ft was the flight deck was struck by the laser
Very stupid stunt, could have put lives in danger. I does raise the question though how a ground based laser could accurately target the cockpit at 10,000 ft perhaps something more sinister than a messer.
I predict an increase in the purchase of these super long range laser pens. I honestly thought you would only get a short distance from them
Jesus, imagine if something more serious happened,God help his passengers.
Why would they turn around?! If they’re going to actually be shot at surely turning around isn’t going to make that less likely
Pilots just looking for attention on this one. Grow a pair pilots
Lets hope medical technology can soon grow a pair of RETINAS to transplant into pilots that are permanently blinded by this moronic crime.
Peter industrial lasers can cut steel 12 inches thick so a hand held laser can easily cause a flash burn to the back of the eyeball from a long distance away
Why would they turn around?
A medical issue Hugh. Most likely one of the crew got an eye full of it.
Fair enough I suppose
A 20 year jail term!! Have a day off
Possible attempted murder of hundreds of people, sounds lenient to me
There should be a severe jail sentence for stuff like this.
have your say