Does my bum look big in this?

The #GE16 button has now well and truly been pushed and as we now countdown the days to polling day, 26^th February, we have already seen our streetscape change and alter with the plethora of election posters proliferating every lamppost and telegraph pole across the City and County.

Despite the best efforts of storm Imogen to blow these posters from the poles and posts, over the last week, most have managed to cling on due to the wonders of the modern day cable tie, which obviously has amazing tensile strength.

Having observed the many posters and leaflets, that have started filling up my letter box, I started to consider if the candidates “on offer/for sale” actually fit the party they are supporting and standing for.

For example you will know what I am implying when you see a picture of a friend or family member with their pet and you start to see similarities in looks and there are many examples of people posting pictures on social media and they look exactly like their pet!

It is uncanny that some people and their pets are a perfect match and I started to wonder if this was the case with candidates and their political parties.

Nickel mining.

This got me thinking if our #GE16 election candidates actually mirror their party and vice versa, basically do they do exactly what it says on the tin?

For example, if we have a candidate who is promoting an eco-friendly all things green ethos, does said candidate travel around the City and County, electioneering, on a bicycle or perhaps they might have one of those Nissan Leaf cars that is promoted as being Polar Bear and Penguin friendly. But in reality the energy and technologies needed to actually produce the car in the first place are in fact far from eco-friendly. I would find it hard to give such a candidate a vote if in fact they did not practice what they are preaching and could be seen driving around in V8 petrol Range Rover.

I suppose that we all need to listen to what our candidates are advocating and decipher whether or not they are actually practising their pulpit ramblings and electioneering husting promises.

Those candidates on the right that are promoting a business agenda, job creation and a commercial recovery under their party manifesto, which in all honesty is a book of pipedreams and fairytales, do they have any track record in creating, developing and nurturing a business?

Unless you have been in the extremely stressful position where you have to actually generate €10 in sales to make €1 to spend you will have absolutely no idea just how hard it is to succeed or fail in business. If your role in life and specifically your salary is not dependent on actually making your own money to live off then how can you possibly be in a space that relates to a business specific mantra.

Alternatively, those candidates on the left hand side of the centre line, who are championing Citizen Smith’s “power to the people” politics, are certainty not in the same space as many of the electorate they are proposing to support. After all how can you possibly be in that space when your Dáil salary will be circa €87,000 and average annual expenses available could be as much as €34,000 (net) and then there are other allowances on top of this to add to the gravy train.

Who bought one of these?

It is all very well that these candidates are talking about cutting this and cutting that but I do not see many of these people offering to accept the average industrial wage or in fact a living wage! And I do not know how many of us also get paid to travel to and from work, so why are such large and excessive expenses needed as well?

So to come back to “does my bum look big in this”? I do think that we have to look at what is on offer and ask ourselves if any of the candidates essentially match the politics being championed. 

If you have to question this then maybe you will have to look elsewhere.