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LOOKING FOR AN excuse for why you spent three hours on the couch last night? Trying to figure out why you still haven’t gotten around to doing that thing your boss asked you to do?
Researchers in the United States may have an answer. Scientists at the University of Missouri have found that laziness may be genetic – which means no matter how good your intentions, it may be in your DNA to be a lazybones.
The scientists at the veterinary department of the university were able to selectively breed rats which were either extremely lazy or extremely active. They say that these rats show genetics could play a role in whether people are motivated to move around and exercise or not.
Professor Frank Booth who carried out the research said it could help to identify people who may become obese in later life.
“We have shown that it is possible to be genetically predisposed to being lazy,” he said, adding:
It would be very useful to know if a person is genetically predisposed to having a lack of motivation to exercise because that could potentially make them more likely to grow obese.
In the research published in the American Journal of Physiology, Booth and fellow research Michael Roberts put rats in cages with running wheels and kept records of how much each rat willingly ran on their wheels over the course of six days.
They then bred the 26 rats which ran the most with each other, and bred the 26 rats which ran the least with each other. They repeated this process through ten generations of rats and found that the rats which originally ran the most ended up choosing to run ten times more than the ‘lazy’ rats.
The scientists then found differences in the muscle cells of the rats and their body composition.
“While we found minor differences in the body composition and levels of mitochondria in muscle cells of the rats, the most important thing we identified were the genetic differences between the two lines of rats,” said Roberts.
“Out of more than 17,000 different genes in one part of the brain, we identified 36 genes that may play a role in predisposition to physical activity motivation.”
The scientists are planning to continue to research the effects each gene has on people’s motivation to exercise. In the meantime, you can tell yourself this when you’re questioning why you still haven’t done the washing.
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If the BritIsh government was trying to have this much of a direct influence on the outcome of a referendum in the Republic we’d be rightly up in arms.
800 years Jane. Eight. Hundred.
The Fine Gael government has decided to bull ahead (well, its what its fairy tale telling, leader does all the time anyway) and say that it knows the Ireland people majority want England to stay in the EU. The fact that FG seem to know what a majority is thinking in Ireland on this issue, might be judged remarkable. Has there been an official vote or pool taken on the matter?
Regardless, the Fine Gael government has decoded to say without confirmed credibility, to say the citizens it knows what everyone is thinking on the matter. Doing this probably is one of the few times that Fine Gael and its backers, is actually is willing to get up and do something before they swan off again on more self-awarded, public paying, expensive holidays.
When they come back, there will still be the small matter of a six year wait for Enda Kenny and this party that got money from REDACTED, to hold investigations in to everything surrounding him, IBRC, how he has such a monopoly on the Irish media, how companies surrounding him continuously got finances slashed when he became involved – and more.
We of course here by even raising all this, risk REDACTED pulling out the now usual threat of solicitors being showed don throats of those that might even dare question just what the hell is going on in our country and anything he might be connected to. Don’t dare comment or ask questions on anything surrounding REDACTED – the threats come out, trying many to be forced therefore into silence – which is exactly what someone might want!
Meanwhile the spineless Enda Kenny and FG Party that stated six years ago, they would do something about all this – the public is still waiting – instead, is again sucking up to the EU, one sided interfering in another countries referendum – having supposedly read our minds?
Just maybe their pre-holiday time might be better spent on other things instead like the 8th amendment they are ducking as an issue, the homeless crises they are trying to gloss over, the HSE privatisation by back-door agenda going on, the bin weight charges issue they are ducking, the NAMA/IBRC operations that are crying out for investigations and a lot more?
“Hell no!” says Fine Gael. Before we swan off leaving a lot hanging, lets stick our noses un-royally into England affairs! To some it would appear they are more interested in others before the very people at home and their more core issues. Given Fine Gael’s previous activities, sucking up to EU heads, this comes as no surprise to many in Ireland whatsoever!
Old Politics and its connected antics, still continues.
Being in this europe erodes nationalism and gives power to european bigger countries . Europe needs to change or most small countries need to think of exit
800 years ago was the Normans you numpty.
England to stay? It’s a UK wide decision numpty.
800 years what, Daniel. Eight. Hundred. What.
Kenny,Ahern and their cronies running around UK asking Irish people to vote on a referendum on whether to stay or leave the now defunct EU .Time the Irish people at home were given the same choice.
Didn’t our own government tell ukip to but out of our referendum on europe.so what makes the Irish government go to another country to try ‘influence’ its voters what way to vote.
They are only influencing our citizens and passport holders i.e. The Irish in UK, so have every right to do what’s best for our people.
UK passport holders cannot vote in Irish elections/referendums. Irish passport holders can vote in UK elections/referendums. Its completely different. This isnt just butting in somewhere you have no leverage in. Irish government are having their say with Irish people. I dont necessarily agree with it, and as an Irish person who will be voting myself on the 23rd I can make my own mind up, but the irish government are involved in this referendum in a way that no other country is in the UK. Their people have a vote, and they are going to attempt to sway that vote. Any other country would do the same in their position.
UK passport holders in Ireland can vote in Irish elections, but not in constitutional referendums.
Irish in the UK, can vote in UK elections but the issue of something that might be construed as a “constitutional referendum” in the UK is so rare that there is no provision for what to do.
As such they went with the Electorate for a general election which, IMNSHO, is a travesty.
“a right to do what’s best for our people”
Who gets to decide that? It’s a referendum, you get your own vote, you aren’t sent out brainwashed to do your governments bidding. Staying in is what’s best for us… in YOUR opinion.
In that case why don’t they come back and work here,the Brits won’t forget this interference when negotiating post Brexit,I wonder how many of our Euro loving citizens living in the Uk will stand by their Principles and leave the UK after Brexit.
U K passport holders cannot vote in Presidential elections either.
Sending Enda & co to Blighty will probably damage Cameron’s cause – fill your boots lads!
If Kenny did nothing in tryjng to support the Irish there you would complain that he did nothing.
It’s his job, that’s what he is paid to do!
The E.U. is an anti-democratic behemoth which viciously protects the interests of capital over the welfare of the majority. In the past number of years, we’ve seen de facto coups in Greece and Italy and the subjugation of the Irish, Spanish and Portuguese working classes (with the collusion of our own governments) to pay for the failure of speculative finance capital. The E.U can’t be reformed to meet the needs of the majority. It’s time to follow Britain’s lead here and have a referendum on exiting the E.U. trap.
No truer words Wally.
Except leaving the EU is bad for the working class and workers Wally and that’s why the left and socialists want to stay in EU and the far right like UKIP and you (bizarrely) want out?!!
When almost every organisation that is often on opposites seems to be on the same side for this, then you must ask why.
Sinn Fein, SDLP in NI and all major parties here, UK Labour and Conservatives, all the main unions and business together in UK campaigning to stay
Workers rights would be eliminated under a brexit:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36039925
We have always been better off within EU Wally. Workers rights, human rights, free roads, farmers grants, environment …..Yes changes are needed but best to influence something from within.
This country has been a net recipient of European funds since we joined the EU, and will remain so throughout the duration of the current EU financial plan, the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
This basically means we get more money out of the EU than we put in.
Enough of the working class nonsense, we’re not living in Downton abbey
Eh, No Greg. Just a couple of examples from thousands, The E.U. is now imposing a 6 day working week on the Greek working class to cover the debts of speculative financial capitalism.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/sep/04/eurozone-six-day-week-greece
While over here we had the ECB strong arm Ireland into the Troika bailout (stitch up) in 2010 under the threat of collapsing our financial system which ensured ever red cent of odious banking debt will be paid by the Irish working class. The E.U serves the capitalist elite, much the same as you Greg.
Greg,
You surely can’t be defining the British Labour party as “left”? They sold out a long time ago, the same as our own Labour party.
In contrast the Socialist party in Britain under the Trade Unions and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) are campaigning for a Leave vote :
Dave Nellist, the former Labour MP who now chairs TUSC:
All the opinion polls are showing what we have experienced on the ground – that what working class Labour voters do will be critical in deciding the outcome of the EU referendum.
For that reason the government, and the majority of the capitalist establishment in Britain who desperately want a Remain vote, are determined that the voice of Leave should be dominated by pro-market, pro-austerity politicians who will argue their case within the same economic and political framework as the equally big business-dominated ‘Britain Stronger in Europe’ Remain campaign.
TUSC, on the other hand, would have offered a completely different standpoint and in providing an anti-austerity, anti-racist and socialist alternative to the EU in the traditions of Bob Crow and Tony Benn would have been particularly attractive to Labour voters.
So it is not a surprise to us that the Electoral Commission has bowed to political pressure and chosen the opponents that the establishment want to fight and not the ones who could have given them a proper contest.
You’re just scaremongering Greg, it’ll be just some short term traded for long term gain.
Greg,
You should also understand that the only reason Ireland needs E.U. money is that we’ve ceded monetary sovereignty to the E.U which they’ve used as a weapon to crush the working classes of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland etc in the interests of capital. The currency union is a major component of the neoliberal E.U trap.
Britain in contrast is a sovereign floating currency issuer and never needs to obtain sterling from external sources. It spends its own currency into existence at will and them taxes it back out of circulation in a continuous flow.
You’re just scaremongering Greg, it’ll be short term pain traded for long term gain.
Really Greg, I suppose all the fish taken from Irish waters over the last four decades was worthless yeah??? The EU have gotten just as much from us as we have from them!
Wally,
Corbyn with Labour is certainly to the left (hardly centrist now is he?)
Then why are most of the unions like unite, unison and the trade union congress (TUC) are all campaigning to stay.
TUC report finds that workers would be on average £38 worse off a week if UK leaves EU
Greg,
Corbyn is an old style social democrat who leads a Labour party which is now a party of the right almost in its entirety. He was elected despite the best attempts of the Labour establishment to scupper him and they’ve been trying to oust him ever since. The British union leadership like the Irish have also largely sold out and have been absorbed into the capitalist system.
P.S. Any comments on how the coups in Greece and Italy were in the interests of their working classes?
Yes indeed; I would vote for anything the neo-liberal Kenny was against. Anyway we have to leave the EU to regain our competitiveness, instead of propping up Germany (which is what this whole EU project is about at this stage) which our nation of cap tippers support.
Independence is not in the physic of most of our political class and as soon as the English left we needed another master; what a bunch of sniffilly cowards we are and wouldn’t it be nice to have some real independence?
Wally you well know that it is in the better interests of the Greek people to be within EU and to have received the fundung to survive as a country. Of all people you should support this as you were supportive of the hard left Syriza party and they looked at every option possible (including leaving EU and/or euro) and yet chose to stay in EU as best option when cards were in the table.
Paul you are talking nonsense. We are and have been net benefiters of the EU for every year since we joined. We get more out than we ever put in.
In fact, when the English left they were replaced by the catholic church who were only dumped due to child abuse, which was exposed by the international media.
We then replaced the clergy with the EEC and one would have to wonder when Ireland is ever going to have its independence, instead of acting like a released prisoner who cannot function on its own merits.
Greg; Troika, bank bailouts? Really net winners? NO
Wally. Why didn’t Syriza take the Greeks out of the Euro and out of the EU for that matter if it so bad? Why did they try so hard to negotiate a deal inside the Euro zone when they could have left, returned to the Drachma and printed all the money they pleased as you suggest we do with the Punt?
Greg, ask left of centre voters in Norway, Switzerland etc. why they have no interest in joining the EU
Greg, I’d rather have the freedom to say what I think than have a good economy, even if all your scaremongering is true. The new EU ‘hate speech’ laws are a load of b*llocks, and I’m not happy being part of an authoritarian regime trying to police my speech.
So take your EU and shove it. thanks.
Greg after that statement there really is no point in engaging with you. You really haven’t a clue!
Mick Jordan Putin was prepared to back Greece and fund the return to the Drachma. But the price was to high for Syriza.
Putin wanted control or the Greek railways and a few Greek ports in return for the money.
Greece could change their minds yet.
I think the figures went like…800+ billion on the value of fish taken from Irish waters and 300 billion taken back by Ireland. It’s made us a major net contributor.
David. Wally advocates that a Sovereign Nation in control of it’s own national currency can just print more money to get itself out of financial trouble. So my question for him is Why his Comrades in the Hard Left Syriza party currently in Government in Greece not take Greece out of the Euro if it such a terrible thing and bring back the Drachma which according to Wallynomics they could just print at will and solve all their financial problems.
Patrick. Have a read of this Catch value data collated by a US academic fisheries impact project shows that Ireland has benefited significantly from being an EU Member State. The Sea Around Us Project, based at the University of British Columbia, collected data for Irish waters from 1950 to 2004 that dispels the myth that Ireland lost out on Irish fish catches to the rest of the EU after we became a Member State. Calculated in US dollars at year 2000 prices, the value of all fish extracted from Irish waters from 1950 to 2004 is $16.8 billion. Before we joined the EU the catch value from 1950 to 1973 was $4.8 billion and after we became a Member State it was $11.9 billion between 1973 and 2004. Up to 1973, Ireland took just 12% of the catch from Irish waters. After becoming an EU state the share rose to as much as 40%, and averaged out at 30%. The French catch from Irish waters, on the other hand, halved from 42% before we joined the EU to 21% in 2004 – and it continues to decline. The Russians, who used to hoover up another 20% of Irish fish, are now virtually excluded from our waters. Since we joined the EU, they have managed a paltry 3.7%, most of which was in the years 1973-1977, before the Irish Marine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) was formally defined. Part of the reason for the low Irish catches prior to EU membership was our inability to patrol Irish waters, and the lack of legal recognition for the exclusivity of those waters beyond the 12 mile limit. That changed in 1976, when the Irish Marine EEZ was extended from 12 to 200 miles, and the EU paid for four new fisheries protection vessels – the LÉ Deirdre, the Emer, the Aoife and the Aisling – so we could patrol our own waters. The US data shows that the Irish fish catch has never been more than 1.25% of GDP. In fact, since the late 1970s, the whole value of fish taken from Irish waters has never exceeded 2% of Irish GDP in any year, and was only worth a quarter of a percentage point of our 2004 GDP. The figures indicate that at no point before becoming an EU Member State were we ever a viable fishing nation, even if we had succeeded in taking absolutely every fish caught in Irish waters for ourselves.
Paul lane and Paul J
Ireland is a net recipient of European funds and this will remain the case throughout the current financial plan until 2020. In 2012 Ireland contributed €1.24 Billion to the EU Budget and €2.01 Billion of EU funds were spent on projects in Ireland. The graph2 below shows the net spending (spending on a country minus its contribution to the EU budget) for each member state in 2012. Ireland is at the medium range, with a net benefit of €777 Million, which is about 0.5% of Irish GNI, so yes we ARE net beneficiaries
Mick Jordan, Wally is correct. But you either don’t understand the issue, or the issues involved in re-instating the Drachma. So trying to simplify it as an excuse to get at Wally, shows how much you actually know.
Dave. Wally is correct in saying a country can just Print more money to pay off its debts? You may want to have a look at Zimbabwe’s history of doing that. It went from the second richest nation in Africa to one where 1 Billion Zim Dollar notes were common place and had an inflation rate of 72,000,000% and are now instead of using their own domestic currency using US Dollars. Or take Peru they kept printing money until they reached an inflation rate of 56,000% until they pegged their currency to the US Dollar. Or what about Argentina who also suffered Hyper inflation or Venezuela who’s inflation rate is currently at 700% and rising fast. All thought they could just ignore international markets and print money as they saw fit. And as for simplification it was Wally who made the suggestion that just printing money is they way to go. Btw Dave would you be Willy’s alter ego? The way you express yourself is very similar to his.
Mick, A nation which issues its own floating currency can never get into financial trouble in that currency in the first place. They can never run short of a currency they create at will. This has been explained to you dozens of times. Those nations can of course face real resource constraints (energy, water, skilled workers etc) but never a financial limitation in the domestic currency. The introduction of the Euro was years in the planning. So It’s not a trivial matter for Greece to switch back to the drachma. It would have taken at least 6 months and all the while Greece would be under relentless economic assault from the neo liberal E.U. That’s why Syriza chose to remain inside the currency union as they had made no contingency plans to exit. When they realised that the object of E.U negotiations was not to find an economic solution but to crush them as a political lesson it was too late.
Mick, you know what Wally is saying, and you also know what he says is essentially correct. You just like playing silly beggers as an excuse to show off, nothing else. As for Wally being my alter ego, i’m not Wally, though i do admire his courage and unflinching determination to raise awareness among people about the greed of rampant capitalism and the damage it is doing to society. I wouldn’t agree with him on some issues, but i don’t have to pour derision on him, it serves no purpose, it just shows ignorance.
All the Sth American countries you mention, have in recent history, tried to go their own way, to keep hold of their sovereignty. What is happening to them is down to the spite of the USA and its neoliberal controllers. Brazil will be next, in all probability. The IMF will be like vultures to pick the bones of what’s left, it’s how they operate. Zimbabwe’s problems are down to the corruption of Mugabe, his family and cronies.
And the countries I have mentioned that had their own sovereign currencies? They all printed money to beat the band. Yet all had major problems with Hyper Inflation until they either switched to using a foreign currency or pegged their own currency to a foreign currency. Just as the Greeks would have had to peg the Drachma to the Russian Ruble had Syriza taken Putin’s deal.
Mick, Hyperinflation is always and ever related to a lack of real goods and services to purchase. This is generally the result of political problems or in the most extreme case war. Greece had a floating drachma before they joined the Euro and will have no need to peg their currency to any other when they leave. Pegging a currency is almost always a mistake as Argentina did under advisement from the neo liberal IMF.
Britain also tried to peg it’s exchange rate to the dollar in the 1970s and failed. They called in the IMF to borrow dollars to try and maintain the exchange rate but we’re ultimately forced to float sterling.
Fundamentally currency is just a tool of the state which issues it. The money is used to measure and allocate the real resources produced by the workers. A sovereign currency issuing state can afford to buy anything which is for sale in their domestic currency. This includes idle labour resources which is why the unemployment rate is a policy choice of the government. Britain could have zero unemployment if it chose to hire all the unemployed who will work for the sterling which the state creates at will. They don’t do this as unemployment is used as a lever to control the working class by reducing wage demands which of course benefits capital which our governments really act for.
@Wally, Has the EU ever invested in infrastructure in Ireland?
And again Fintin. With a sovereign floating punt, why would we need E.U. money to invest in our infrastructure? The Irish state could always afford to build and maintain infrastructure once the real resources were available to do so.
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Greg
Enda Kenny does nothing to support the Irish in Britain.
His concern is about HIMSELF, nothing else.
Greg
Kenny is paid to do his job IN IRELAND . . . does he do it?
Not according to what I continually read. Now THAT’s what his focus SHOULD be, rather than attempting to manipulate the Irish in Britain into doing his bidding.
Printing money to lower the unemployment rate as u mention would devalue the local currency thus making imports more expensive.
Now you will say that exports would be cheaper ( for foreigners to buy) but the having a zero unemployment rate paid for by printing money would tend to drive up inflation and this exports would become more expensive for foreigners negating one of the the benefits of a weak currency.
Why would the tax payer devalue their own assets to transfer wrath to those who can’t/won’t work?
I bet they do like they do in Ireland. Wrong result… we vote again
I don’t think the British would stand for that
Nah thats just Ireland. In the UK the public actually expect their politicians to act like somewhat respectable people and stick to what they say. I know, shocking concept.
I agree. They lose, Brussels offers some new deal and then a magical new deal and another referendum.
I don’t think the British in either camp would stand for that.
You’d have to be pretty stupid as a nation to stand for that again and again.
Whether you are English or Irish we really have no say in what happens. The politicians lie and manoeuvre around us. If they don’t want to do it they say they don’t have a mandate but they quickly forget their mandates when it suits them. The last time the English got out of their prams was over poll tax and now they are paying extremely expensive council tax instead with barely a whimper.
Nah. If the Brits vote out, they’re out. There’s absolutely no way the tories would get out of that one. People from both sides of the debate would attack them for not respecting democracy. It’d be the end of the party if they didn’t uphold the will of the people.
Politicians may get sway with swindling out of small issues, but referenda are far more powerful things and every vote counts.
I would sincerely hope NOT, Shane Hickey – but I guess time will tell.
Dictated to does not sit well with the British. They will exit.. We on the other hand accept all thrown at us. Yet only now when Ends and his cronies say, Europe says we must pay IW, people are awakening to the monster European state. Enda has swayed even bigger numbers against being in Europe in his efforts to have IW privatised and the enslaving banker tax enforced on us…. Time for Irexit..
Never understood talk of the northern border – Ireland & UK are not in the Schengen area, so why does it matter if one country is in the EU or not? The “common travel area” existed before Schengen, and is the main reason we never joined the agreement. We still need to show a passport jumping on a boat to France etc., so it’s none of the EU’s business what we do with our land border from what I can see.
Seems to be simple, old fashioned, scaremongering to me.
It won’t necessarily be a passport border but it will be a customs border
It is scaremongering pure and simple – both the Irish and British governments are trying to frighten to North into voting remain by evoking old demons.
There are already passport controls at the air and ferry ports in the North – all the staff in these facilities need to do is look at the passport, and if someone coming through is neither British nor Irish they stop them. There is not need for checkpoints on the border between north and south.
Cameron has tried similar fear tactics in Britain by mentioning the wars knowing how those conflicts still haunt us. It’s pathetic.
So tell me all the eastern European welfare tourist who want everything for free where will they go if the UK leave the EU. #1 go home #2 cross the irish sea or northern irish border to the next best welfare state in Europe. If the UK leave we have a much bigger problem than just trade agreements to worry about.
Welfare tourists? 2004 called and said you are talking rubbish. Evidence please? Eastern Europeans have been great for Ireland and the UK.
The ones that work have been great to our economy. I know a lot that dont work and do well on welfare aswell.. My evidence is last year when i go sick and could not work for a number of months, i went to my local dole office to sign on only to be told after 20 years of paying tax because i was self employed for 10 years i ant entitled to a penny. Most of the other people there that day hand not got irish accents and bad English at that. My question to you Emily is do you think more inword emigration from Europe by many unskilled emigrants while our highly skilled well educated leave is really a sustainable way to continue?
You shouldn’t be going sick from work you lazy good for nothing.
If you are looking for scam artist there is about 500 times more that are Irish. You’re clearly bitter and are looking for some one to blame but I’m sure things will turn around for you if you stay positive
That true a lot of irish scam artists as well and yes i am bitter about the fact i was born in Ireland paid tax here all my life and ant entitled to any help when i needed it. Had to go private for an operation which set me back 20k. But yet a person that has only landed in ireland can apply for social welfare housing and get free health care to go with it at the expense of the irish tax payer a lot who like me are entitled to nothing….
Emily, spouting rubbish like that is exactly what the comment section is here for. When did you ever read the comments section then sit back and contemplate how educated, informed and wise the majority of commentators are???
That is plain nonsense Ennis. The overwhelming majority of immigrants from the EU are in work and contributing both to production and to the tax take. It would be great if the million Poles in the UK moved here after a Brexit – we need to grow our population to about 10 million to create a self sustaining indigenous economy.
We may build a few more houses so if your expecting a million of them or we can just continue to ship young irish to Australia Canada anad the UK to make room for them.
How thick are you that you worked for 20 years self-employed and didn’t know you weren’t entitled to welfare when you got sick?
Totally agree with you on that P. Well said.
@ traiq ibn ziyad, social welfare is means tested for self employed people so we dont automatically get it if we are unemployed unless we have less than 5k to our name and our partners are on a low income and can not support you as i had a few extra euro in savings and my wife has a decent job i wasn’t entitled to welfare support . I can tell you after a few months of not working plus medical bills i was at at a stage were if i went back in i probably would of got it but as i was well again back to work i went and could not be happier. Your health is your wealth but a little bit of help from the government when you need it would make things a bit easier when your in need… Sorry if i lead you to think i am thick!
@p.ennis. The appalling treatment of the self-employed has nothing to do with eastern European migrants.
P. ENNIS mobility in the EU is for workers, not anyone.
If you arrive in another EU state other than your own and claim benefits (that you haven’t transferred from your home country, which you can do for a short time) you are not entitled to claim benefits there.
If the new member state pays you benefits that’s their problem not the EU’s doing.
P.Ennis, i can only speak for Bulgaria. Many young, highly educated people have worked all over Western Europe, Germany, UK, Ireland Spain etc, some in the USA. many, have returned to take their experience and work back home in Bulgaria. I personally know, and work with some of them.
I also work with Russians, Turks, Greeks, and Bulgarian gypsies here. It’s not all one way traffic, for “benefit scroungers” as you are trying to suggest.
How is it even legal for agents of a foreign state to campaign on a political issue this serious in a country? They should all be arrested and deported if you ask me.
Because they are Irish people that they are supporting and the government here is …. hmmm Irish and its their job.
Would you rather they left the Irish in UK hung out to dry and would all have to leave under a Brexit?
I would love it if Ireland left the European Union, they’ve screwed us
That’s right Emily they really have screwed us with all the free roads, farmers grants, free money , workers rights, human rights, equality the list can go on….
The country has been a net recipient of European funds since we joined the EU, and will remain so throughout the duration of the current EU financial plan, the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
This basically means we get more money out of the EU than we put in.
God love you Emily…
@Gregg, to you they may appear as fee roads, farmers grants, fee money but to those Irish paying excessive UK taxes to pay for EU largess they are anything but.
The ‘r’ on my keyboard isn’t working to well. fee == free!
You’re delusional, Greg Kelly! On which planet do you reside?
Enda Kenny cares not a jot for the Irish in Britain . . . he’s merely watching his own back.
Our politicians should keep nose out. If UK MPs came over here trying to influence a referendum people would be up in arms. As others mentioned earlier.. Anyway our slimy Government reptiles will probably push voters the other way. Utterly repulsive…… UK voters should be left to decide for themselves…
In 1975 my wife and I were having dinner in the House of Commons as guests of a Tory M.P. She told him that I had voted in the recent referendum to remain in the then E.E.C. because it was in Ireland’s best interests. He never spoke to me again after that dinner even though we worked in the same firm.
I can see now that Irish people, and other ethnic minorities, who have chosen to live in Britain should vote in Britain’s best interests, not as agents of a foreign government.
Patrick Brompton
I’m amazed you didn’t see that PRIOR TO your unwelcome experience!
Seriously, I cannot comprehend the logic behind supporting the country you left over the one in which you now reside.
Why? – because of a mass affliction of Stockholm Syndrome in Dail Eireann, that’s why.
Funny listening to the Irish givernment why the UK should stay in the EU – because it’s in Ireland’s interests. Why is that a valid reason to lobby Irish to vote for THE UK to stay in the EU. Irish people have no shame and are an embarrassment just like in the upcoming Euros where fans will be going along for a sing and a laugh and a lot of drink.
Everyone has self interest its human. Lobbying any Irish with a voting card in Britain is exactly what there supposed to do. As for slating Irish fans for enjoying themselves. Muppet
The second half of your comment is ‘an embarrassment’, you obviously have some kind of nationality inferiority complex. COME ON THE BOYS IN GREEN!!!
@Greg Kelly – TTIP ring any bells with you at all? The project that was Europe is failing & Brexit is on the cards because of the massive disconnect between Brussels & the ordinary citizens of Europe. Don’t forget how much debt has been saddled on every citizen of Ireland thanks to our useless government & European overlords. Net recipient indeed. As for Kenny & co interfering – the average British voter will right through their bull & probably resent their input which works for me!
As an Irish Citizen resident in the UK , I would prefer to hear from these people what they will do to protect us if/Britain leaves? At the moment if they leave it will be a number of years before anything happens and from talking to people here Scotland may vote to leave the union and join back in Europe . But will enda support Irish citizens if/when UK leave … that’s the bigger question !!!
And an easy question to answer, Bernard Lyons!
Kenny would NOT offer any support whatsoever to the Irish in Britain.
The only surprise is why anyone would imagine he might.
We’ve come a long way from “no dogs,no blacks,no Irish”
Well with the ongoing mass uncontrolled immigration (no green card required like the USA and Australia) here it’s only a matter of time before there’ll effectively be no Irish here, as we’re well on our way to being a minority in our own country, not just ruled by the mass immigration insisting foreigners abroad in Brussels, but here at home too.
Sean that’s largely an urban myth.
And a long way from being pulled over to have a chat with an anorak wearing special branch man as you went through the customs shed in Holyhead.. kids today have no conception of what it was to travel to England as a young Irishman in the 1970s and 1980s.
Strong silent type that is an urban myth
HotBank do you resent the British authorities acting to protect their citizens from one of the deadliest terror organisations of its day? So you were questioned and take umbrage from that as some sort of anti Irish bias? The fact is the Irish have always had the same rights as everyone else in the UK – both when Ireland was part of the UK and from 1949 to present day (it’s specifically enacted in law). That some individuals in the 50s may have exhibited some bias towards Irish navvies again isn’t institutional bias.
No I don’t resent any State acting to protect its citizens. I did resent being singled out and the presumption in that, that I was a terrorist. And there was an institutional bias against Irish people in England and in Scotland. You may not have experienced it but plenty of us hid our Irishness as best we could.
The fact remains “We’ve come a long way from no blacks, dogs, Irish” is wrong because The Representation of the People Act 1918 gave almost universal suffrage to all males in the UK (including Ireland). The Ireland Act 1949 passed by the UK (by then excluding Ireland which formally became a Republic in 1948) formally recognised that the Irish state had ceased to be a member of the Commonwealth, but provided that Irish citizens would not be treated as aliens under British nationality law. This, in effect, granted them a status similar to the citizens of Commonwealth countries. To this day Irish citizens resident in the UK are eligible to vote in all UK elections and referenda.
Can you testify to that, Bernard . . . that the Irish suffer from the effects of prejudice against them in Britain?
Be assured it is, most certainly, not the case.
Elizabeth – I stated facts: Irish are not considered “foreigners” by law since 1949 and obviously weren’t anyway when Ireland was an integral part of the UK. You want to fly the victimhood flag, “the Irish” suffer prejudice just for the fact they’re Irish and nothing else. The error in this is the lumping of “the Irish” into one homogeneous lump that’s so drastically different to English, Welsh, Scots or anyone else for that matter. No Irish I know has experienced “prejudice” in a society that’s much more diverse, multicultural and open than here.
Kenny as an agent of the Rothschilds is doing his bit for his masters, in trying to influence the Irish community in the UK to stay in the EU. That’s the bottom line.
If people in the UK and in Ireland knew the real truth of the French strikes and unrest, which is being kept out of MSM, no one would want to stay in the EU.
The French government legislated, by railroading through their parliament without a vote, laws that would make it easy for employers to hire cheap migrant labour, and fire the native French workforce. It’s not simply about a 35hr working week, the only issue touted when mentioned in MSM, to give the spin that the strike is about lazy French workers.
This change in legislation was lobbied for by French and multi national corporations, to take advantage of the big pool of migrant workers there, for cheap labour.
This is the reality we all face from the neoliberal governments of the EU, controlled by the undemocratic ECB who now controls the EU. Ireland is going to be facing the same if ever TTIP becomes a reality here.
The EU desperately needs the neoliberal government in the UK to remain in the EU, otherwise it’s plans to turn the EU into a cheap labour economy could be scuppered.
Down with the union!!!!
Base on my meetings with British people while on holiday I have spoken at least a hundred and I have yet to meet one who intends voting YES. I don’t think it will do Ireland much hurt as Britain will always trade with Ireland. It might be good for Ireland is so far as we might actually try to export to other countries.There is so must business out there and it seems Ireland is not competing.We have really good products but we are not in the race compared to other European countries.
The ones who are calling for a stay vote are the very same ones who want banks and bankers to get richer at the expense of citizens, the E.U. does not give money out. We give them money for being a member each year and we get 90% of that money back as grants and payments labelled as from the E.U.
THE E.U. IS A JOKE AND AN ANTIDEMOCRATIC ONE AT THAT…
Who made people in Cyprus take a “hair cut” on their savings, who brought in austerity, who caused the banks to be in debt in the first place, who told the banks to loan as much money out to people in the first place to increase the value of the EURO by having cheap loans available but the E.U.
THEN WHO TOLD THIS GOVERNMENT TO CREATE NEW TAXES and who did our budgets, who looks after banks but the E.U. Who runs the E.U. but the Eurogroup and the Troika. Who will privatise everything and turn the HSE into an U.S. Style system but the E.U.
THE E.U. IS A MONSTER…
If Irish citizens were the deciding factor in this referendum, and they were acting in the interests of Ireland, it would be an affront to democracy.
Enda Kenny is just over there to get a few foto opportunities. It’s none of our business and Britain isn’t going to be influenced by us. As well as that those who are going going to protest against Trump……Paul Murphy etc would also be better to mind their own business and protest and try and rectify issues at home. Trump doesn’t give a fiddlers what we think and he’s right. He would soon sort out our mess.
Uk exit from the EU looks likely and the Irish political class supine adherence to a Federal EU SSR shows up the Irish political class will do anything to avoid the ending of the cushy jobs that they may get in europe.
I am Irish living in London and I am voting out. Up yours Mr Junker and your unaccountable cronies that have eye watering pensions. I don’t mind showing my passport crossing a border. Why should I? Angela from Berlin or Obama from Washington, why are you worried about me? All you lot are in the pockets of big tax dodging multi nationals. Tony (the liar) Blair now tells us we will never work again if we vote to leave. Says it all!
“YOU CAN’T REALLY speak of an ‘Irish vote’ in Britain: and that shows our success in assimilating”.
So we are no longer Irish then?
Most of us have kept our own Irish ways here and have not assimilated.
Interesting how the Irish also ask US children to assimilate into Irish culture.
Have we learned nothing from native American and Aboriginee “assimilation” and destruction of cultures.?
Who needs to be love bombed in order to make a simple decision on EU.?
Side
“It has not even acted on last year’s report urging that Irish citizens abroad be given the right to vote in Seanad elections.”
Why should it???
No way should anybody not living and paying taxes in Ireland be given a vote for the Seanad when huge amounts of Irish citizens who still live in Ireland, still pay taxes, rates, charges here are not allowed to vote. When there is proper universal suffrage to the Seanad, then they can talk about giving it to those who left the country (for what ever reason)
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