Voteless

Max McGuinness is disenfranchised

Since I spend half the year in Blighty, I will be unable to vote today.

This is frustrating and ridiculous.

French, Italian and American citizens abroad are all allowed to vote in their countries elections - so why not us? No explanation has ever been provided.

It may have something to do with the allegedly enormous number of Irish passports floating around the world ever since Haughey started trading them for racehorses but if someone is an Irish citizen, they ought to be able to select the people who will govern Ireland.

In the Eighties, the disenfranchisement of the diaspora was arguably crucial. I would suggest that emigrants are generally smarter and more driven than those who stay at home. So when tens of thousands of bright sparks were fleeing every year,  the stock of gombeens grew proportionately and clearly the gombeen vote was not going to Garrett Fitzgerald.

Anyway, do all get out there and make up for the dent made by yours truly in the turnout figures.

The Irish Independent has decided to forgo its previous endorsements of Bertie so I will second this positive trend. If journalists have done their jobs properly then endorsements should be irrelevant - all the necessary information should already have been provided.  So following last week's debate, you will be aware of Gerry Adams's sinister vacuousness while Frank Connolly has helpfully revealed that Bertie didn't fess up entirely when he should have done and Newstalk has discovered that  despite the fact that we are rolling in cash, 1,000 jobs will have to go in the HSE.

Those are the facts. It's up to you now.

Comments

[thestudent]

There have been many Letters to Madam, etc., on this topic. I, for one, don't have all that much sympathy for people with this complaint. Particularly, a lot of citizens on holidays are griping that they can't vote from their villa. Sorry folks, but your every need cannot be accomodated by the State.

In a fantastic future of electronic voting and enhanced internet security, the dream of online/text voting might become a reality and Fickle of Foxrock can indicate his preference from sunny Marbella.