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‘CHANGE’ AND ‘REFORM’ are the buzz words among the nearly one thousand attendees at the Reform Conference in Dublin’s RDS this afternoon.
A wide selection of Irish society have descended on the conference hall with more males than females – as panellist Olivia O’Leary noted – and plenty of ideas and policies being thrown around.
One attendee, who declined to be identified, said he was former member of the Fianna Fáil national executive who had quit over a lack of substantive policy proposals. He hopes he’ll get some of that today.
There are also former and current members of Fine Gael – including the Reform Alliance themselves – among the audience and, judging by applause earlier, a strong pro-life contingent.
We spoke to a few attendees during a break in proceedings today:
Lorraine Lynch, from Clare, is a former member of one of the bigger political parties and “thinks a lot could be changed”:
Bob Quinn, from Naas, isn’t sure whether reform is actually achievable but thinks the good turnout is encouraging:
Maurice O’Grady, from Blackrock, is “interested in the reform of politics that’s so badly needed”:
Dwyane Brown, from north Dublin, is fed-up and says “we need to encourage new voices and new people”:
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Theres only one kind of reform this country needs..and its a purge..we need to round em all up..politicians..priests..greedy financiers..cronys and all their ilk..every one knows some of them..very hard to hide in this little island..round them up..put them on a boat and torpedo it..and to be sure to be sure..release the Kraken
Reminds me of the PD’s getting together to “reform.”,they ended up being worse.
It’s a revolution we need not another middle-class inspired conservative reformation.
It’s more of the same with a different name.
The political system needs an entire spring clean, it is stagnant and it reeks of corruption.
The executives at the top are sitting on well paid positions, they are not going to budge in a reformation.
I am open minded but very cautious about them.
We need a new political system with “fresh blood” and not the same tired career politicians with a seat on the gravy train being their ultimate goal.
There is too much “he said, she said and it’s your fault”as these career politicians make a show of themselves with their schoolyard rantings.
It’s actually embarrassing looking at them shouting and jeering at each other in the *upper*house.
Creighton couldnt get her way in FG so she dies this ….all a ploy to try and get elected again and one thing for sure their transfers will go to FG and if they get back into power they will all rejoin the party…pure bullshit and smoke screens …1000 FG muppets making good media coverage for them….
If there was childcare I could have gone. If I could afford childcare that would work too.
A day out for the Paddy Tories!
At least they set it up and did something.
I don’t wish them well, seeing them as the PD’s MK2 and we all got burnt by those hoods.
Still they’ll have a lot more impact than sterile and foolish comments about abortion debates and mass. Who gives a fup if this movement came out of the abortion debate, look at their economic leanings.
At least I know of one ex PD who turned up… http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/bob-quinn-progressive-democrat-2002-dublin-south-central/
They could very easily organize and be in a position to get 10-15 seats in 2016, if they come up with a good policy framework.
People talking out of their hoops saying these people are all about abortion and mass and fascists are going nowhere and are going to be laughed at by the electorate, rightly so.
This party is a serious threat, treat it so.
Threat to what exactly, they can’t even get a thousand people with all the crap we had to listen to, think about all the publicity , rte Saturday night show, Matt cooper and tons more, with that sort of publicity and that’s the best they could do, 7 politicians with 130 people each, threat I don’t think so
Very we’ll spotted
Long way from being a party yet.
They have to have some policies first.
A thousand is quiet a good turnout and will show them that their probably is an opportunity to build a party that will have clout.
All the same old keyboard warriors on here complaining as per usual…
At least the 1,300 (latest attendance figure I saw on Twitter) did something more productive today than rant on this site about how bad everything is.
By the end of the day, they’ll be reporting it as 130,000!
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Audentis Fortuna iuvat.
Socrates, inzaghi, costacurta.
Shaka when the walls fell.
Reform is what we’re being told we’ll get if we vote them in so naturally speaking reform is not what we’ll get if we vote them in.
They are an attempt to channel the justified frustration out of the electorate. The media including this outlet drool over these people because they are told to do so.
It’s all just an illusion of democracy.
We can say now as a provable fact that FF and FG are the same party in all but name. Their relevant policies are 100% identical.
L and Gr are proven liars.
That leaves SF & ULA. SF are knee deep in the political culture in Ireland. ULA have their hearts in the right place but are as tied in as any other politician in this country. It’s the system that’s corrupt.
I have no doubt that people entered politics in the past for the betterment of their community but then the system took them in and turned out a lying thieving politician.
The vote is our only tool. We have it, it’s easy to use and no Gardai will hospitalise you with a stick when we use it.
Absolutely no need to protest in the rain. No need to get on any bus or hold any crafty signs. Just vote them out. Every one of them.
have your say