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New poll reveals Britain wants to leave the Eurovision Song Contest

We’ll never get 12 points again…

THE BRITS AREN’T finished severing their ties with Europe, according to a new poll on which shows a majority would support leaving the Eurovision Song Contest.

The online poll by YouGov showed that 56% would be in favour of leaving and 44% in favour of staying, excluding those who did not know or would not vote.

Britain has won the contest five times, two times less than Ireland.

But many Brits complain that in recent decades their contestants have been unfairly overlooked and left near the foot of the leaderboard and the dreaded “nul points”.

“The British public is not done attempting to disconnect the country from European institutions,” the polling company said in a statement.

In last year’s EU membership referendum, 52% of Britons who cast their ballots voted to leave the European Union while 48% wanted to stay.

The poll found roughly the same dividing lines.

Those who wanted to leave Eurovision included 76% of people who voted for Brexit, 81% of those who intend to vote for the anti-EU UK Independence Party at the upcoming general election and 78% of people aged 65 and over.

Those who wanted to stay included 65% of those who voted to remain in the European Union, 70% of those who intend to vote for the pro-EU Liberal Democrats and 69% of 18-24-year-olds.

The poll also found that 19% of Britons were going to watch Saturday’s extravaganza in Kiev and only 9% were watching because they liked the music.

Britain’s only victory since 1981 was in 1997 with Katrina and the Waves performing “Love Shine a Light”.

Read: Has the government delivered on its ‘ultimate goal’? One year in, here’s how it has fared >

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60 Comments
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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:07 PM

    “the terms and conditions of that agreement are not under my control” really minister are you not part of a government which agreed the Haddington road programme?

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    Mute Ciaran O'Mara
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:12 PM

    Precisely, the terms of the HRA cannot be up for grabs as any concession to ASTI would annoy the rest of the unions as well as DPER. A face saving mechanism for ASTI is needed so they can go back to the minority of their members who have been sufficiently unhappy to vote for action.

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    Mute Tony Canning
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:48 PM

    Ciaran, Kerry is not referring to the HRA.

    The HRA was rejected by the ASTI – while the gov doesn’t want to give concessions to the ASTI, the ASTI are not responsible for the fact that the gov have failed to deliver an agreement that doesn’t bully.

    The agreement referred to in the story is the agreement discussed to solve the current impasse. Quinn cannot expect an agreement from the ASTI without assurances – would you?

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    Mute Ciaran O'Mara
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:55 PM

    I must be stupid Tony, “that agreement” seems to refer to the HRA from my reading of the article.
    I will bow to you..
    what kind of “assurances” would Quinn be getting from the ASTI?

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    Mute Tony Canning
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:58 PM

    Apologies Ciaran, I’m mixing up my reading of this with my reading of another news source of the same story where there was mention of coming to an agreement in these recent talks.

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    Mute Matthew Fitzpatrick
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    Nov 12th 2013, 11:59 AM

    I don’t think it’s very fair to say that the terms are what workers in the private sector would particularly want for themselves. There’s only on term about teaching that attracts me, the holidays. Other than that, the prospect of working in a difficult environment with a lower, non negotiable salary and with zero review of myself and my colleagues’ output where the lazy are treated as badly or as well as the motivated, is absolutely repulsive.

    There are plenty of front line jobs in the public sector I’d love to do, but these days there just isn’t enough incentive.

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    Mute Ted Carroll
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:31 PM

    The only of the front line services in the public sector that I would consider is as a teacher. Gardai, Firemen and possibly Nurses (I don’t know for certain but I assume it’s not an easy post) have an awful time and although they enjoy certain perks associated with being a public sector employee it seems fair enough because they’re jobs that are not very appealing to a lot of people.

    Teaching on the other hand would seem like an ideal lifestyle choice for me. Only a very small amount of class time a week during school terms with the rest completed at my own discretion (still less than my typical 45-50 hour week I’m sure). Incredible holidays during the summer with nice breaks throughout the year in October, December, February and at Easter. The wages aren’t amazing (unless you think about it logically that you’re paid for about an 8 month job) but with exam marking and of course some cash in hand private tuition you can earn some extra.

    It’s a good profession with a great work life balance, a guaranteed pension at the end of it for and if you’re a good teacher I’m sure you get great satisfaction out of the positive impact that you have on the formative years of a childs life.

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    Mute Alan O'connor
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    Nov 12th 2013, 1:51 PM

    Shows what you know about teaching. Nothing.

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    Mute Pete Foley
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    Nov 12th 2013, 2:01 PM

    Why are you not a teacher so ????

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    Mute Ted Carroll
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    Nov 12th 2013, 2:15 PM

    Sorry Alan I haven’t mentioned anything that isn’t true. You may have some other ideas on it but I haven’t said anything that is factually incorrect.

    Pete if I could go back now and do it all again I would certainly have went down this route but at 29 I believe I’ve come to far on my accountancy career to turn back. Also the popularity of teaching has meant that it’s very difficult to nail down a full time position due to the masses of people flocking to this career.

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    Mute Pete Foley
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    Nov 12th 2013, 3:04 PM

    Ah Ted come on sure there is a shortage of maths teachers then you could have all those holidays and the abuse you get from teenagers all day and all those hours of fun meeting parents till ten at night. Oh and all your student coming to you with there problems which are a lot. Drugs pregnant being gay. Then u can bring them home to try help them tell there parents.

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    Mute Silent Majority
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    Nov 12th 2013, 3:09 PM

    I hope you’re not an English teacher Pete.

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    Mute Pete Foley
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    Nov 12th 2013, 3:10 PM

    Ps I am a caretaker in a school trust me ted teachers do a lot more than u think. No way on this earth would I do it. I will say there is bad teachers but the most are great to the kids

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    Mute Mark Campbell
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    Nov 12th 2013, 6:21 PM

    Teaching is a nice little woman’s job. They probably get sick of all the attention from the local farmers though

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    Mute Steve
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    Nov 12th 2013, 11:50 AM

    Each day that goes by, this country becomes more and more of a mess.

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    Mute Alan O'connor
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    Nov 12th 2013, 1:58 PM

    Worst noting that the current situation actually saves the state money so that should please the bottom line brigade of morons on here. Most teachers perfectly happy to be finished with pointless Croke Park hours. New Junior is a joke and is deservedly being resisted. But the same fools who objected (rightly) to us being forced to vote again and again on European treaties will happily put the same bullschite agreement in front of teachers until they give the right response. Not going to happen.

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    Mute Niall H
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    Nov 12th 2013, 5:09 PM

    Did anybody notice the sly way that he pitted the public vs private sector in the article. Government playing the media to its advantage yet again

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    Mute Paul Mc
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:00 PM

    Those labour party are like lambs to the slaughter they keep putting their sell out ministers in front of the camera.They should be hiding like their friends in fianna GAEL.

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    Mute Kenneth
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    Nov 12th 2013, 1:12 PM

    Just fire them 10 at a time until they mend their attitude- perfect solution

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    Mute Alan O'connor
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    Nov 12th 2013, 1:52 PM

    Thankfully we live in a country with laws rather than a facist dictatorship.

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    Mute Silent Majority
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    Nov 12th 2013, 1:43 PM

    If things are getting this bad it seems inevitable that a lot of teachers will leave the profession due to such high levels of dissatisfaction. What will we do then? To survive such an eventuality we would need thousands of young, motivated graduates just itching to get themselves into teaching positions, but alas…. (Somehow doubt a single teacher would leave the profession over this, deep down they know how sweet they have it even if they won’t admit it.)

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    Mute Niall H
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    Nov 12th 2013, 5:12 PM

    My brother is a permanent teacher working in Dublin and is leaving for oz next August.
    Not trying to wind u up silent majority it is just a fact…

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    Mute Silent Majority
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    Nov 12th 2013, 5:22 PM

    Fair enough, but there aren’t exactly huge numbers leaving the profession which is always the best indicator of conditions. Look at banking for example, conditions worsened for employees after 07/08 and huge numbers have changed career paths. IT on the other hand is offering very good remuneration & conditions relative to other industries and there is a rush to get into that industry (not necessarily in Ireland but that is more due to skills shortages than desire). There are not very many teachers changing career paths, and in fact we have an oversupply as evidenced by the number of NQTs trying to enter the profession – this is indicative of teaching enjoying superior pay & conditions relative to other professions which require similar standard of qualifications. (I assume this will just red thumbed by teachers with none even attempting to counter the arguments, but red thumbs do not change facts.)

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    Mute Niall H
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    Nov 12th 2013, 5:48 PM

    I agree with you to a certain extent. I just think with the IT skills you’d have working in a bank it would be easier to change jobs compared to a teacher (just my opinion, completely open to correction there)
    One question for you before I finish: in a civilised society do you think that groups of people should have to leave their jobs before something is done about the problem in that job?

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    Mute Niall H
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    Nov 12th 2013, 5:49 PM

    Oh, and yr way off when you mentioned our superior pay by the way, that just ain’t true

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    Mute Silent Majority
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    Nov 12th 2013, 6:08 PM

    I said superior pay & conditions, the two have to be taken as a unit effectively. So while your job security, long holidays, and early finishing times may not have an easily quantifiable monetary value, they do have a value to teachers themselves. Conditions like these are always taken into account by prospective applicants, whether consciously or otherwise.

    To answer your first question, sometimes but not necessarily. Generally, if pay and conditions got so bad in a sector people would leave, and more importantly, no new entrants would be attracted. This will force the the pay and conditions up as the roles still require human input. All industries are competitive, in that they are all competing for human resources. The opposite of this is the case in teaching however, with an oversupply of human resources in spite of what incumbents decry as poor pay and conditions. This contradiction would appear to indicate that the pay and conditions of teachers remain superior to other roles that require a similar level of qualification.

    Also, having non-transferable skills is not a reason to demand better remuneration, quite the opposite in fact. And teachers all have primary qualifications, so a one year conversion course and they can do most things. This is the option most bankers pursued, not just transferring existing skill sets to new roles. Those in the building industry did not have this luxury, so your skill set isn’t as non-transferable as you might think.

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    Mute Niall H
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    Nov 13th 2013, 1:04 AM

    Meh

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    Mute Miriam Doran
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    Nov 16th 2013, 7:54 PM

    Dah!!! Career change to what exactely? If there were options there would be mass exodus. Noone can just change career in Ireland now. Remember the celtic tiger!!! Teaching jobs and substitution staff couldnt be found for love nor money esp in maths and science! Teaching careers were not so attractive then…

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    Mute Anthony Quinn
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    Nov 12th 2013, 2:18 PM

    For a crap job..theres a lot staying in at it..i think they should spend a month doing a job swap with a private sector worker to get some perspective

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    Mute Michael Berigan
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    Nov 12th 2013, 4:24 PM

    Anthony I’ll do a job swap with you then you can see how ‘easy’ teaching is!

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    Mute Alan O'connor
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    Nov 12th 2013, 5:22 PM

    Unlikely he’d last longer than ten minutes before running out screaming.

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    Mute Connaughtabu
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    Nov 12th 2013, 12:09 PM

    A real live-wire today, aren’t we, Matthew F!

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