Unparliamentary Language

A member of the Dáil Éireann (Irish parliament) makes his NSFW opinions clear on a colleague.

• [Anonymous]

  Wow, Irish politics on Boing Boing! The TD (MP in Irish) that the unparliamentary language is directed to has a colourful history himself. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmet_Stagg for a good over-view. I wondered watching this if there wasn’t a little more going on than just “Passion in Politics”…

• [Anonymous]

  For those of you wondering why there are so few people there it’s because Td’s aren’t required to show for every Dáil meeting. They only show for topics that concern them or that need a vote. So basically they only show up when if they don’t they’ll lose seats. They show up for important topics like NAMA or the church abuse scandal.

• [Anonymous]

  the dance remix that hit the tube within hours: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-fNPFfzHhU

• [holtt]

  Maybe Dick Cheney could get a seat there?

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  In the US, we have the Mace, the very dignity of which will awe an unruly speaker into civility. The Speaker of the House commands the Sergeant at Arms to display the Mace to the miscreant, who then falls into an attitude of respectful compliance.

• [Anonymous]

  I guess the deputy shouldn’t have shouted “you lie”

• [freshacconci]

  Where is everybody? Most of the seats are empty.

• [jacobian]

  The best argument he can make is a claim to have a sincere belief that screwing the poor is the appropriate response to the economic crisis. That and some harsh language. What an idiot. He’s right though that he isn’t getting elected again. People see now that the Greens are just a foil for FF.

• [alexx]

  The government (meaning the Prime Minister’s coalition) makes a lot of the policy outside of actual chambers, and so there’s not a lot of debating during the sessions. Less important representatives have the chance to debate then – like this Gogarty guy.

  • [Anonymous]

    You spelled Prime Minister wrong. It’s “Taoiseach.”

• [dole]

  If only “Ireland’s Most Unparliamentary” would fit into my Rock Band band name.

• [Anonymous]

  I offer http://fuckyoudeputystagg.com/

• [Anonymous]

  Is this guy related to Oliver St. John Gogarty? (The inspiration for “STATELY, plump
  Buck Mulligan”)

• [cymk]

  Maybe someone can enlighten me on Irish politics, but where is every one? It seems like there is only a handful of politicians there, is this common? From a cursory search online, it looks like Mr. Gogarty is upset at the corruption in Irish government, corruption that his party (and possibly him) help vote into power. I can understand his feelings of helplessness, watching this go to shit and not being able to do anything about it, but if he had a hand in starting the problem he should acknowledge it and try to fix it.

• [RevEng]

  I couldn’t really tell what the guy was saying, short of Fuck Off, because both his opponent and the house were too busy talking over him. Given this, it’s really hard to tell if this guy was out of line or just trying to make his point.

  Unfortunately, this is an all-too common occurrence. Canada’s parliament is terrible when it comes to people interrupting the speaker. Have these people never been to a debate class? You let the speaker say his peace, then take your turn to rip apart his points — yelling loud enough to drown out your opponent doesn’t make you right. In any other profession, this would be considered unprofessional conduct and, with repeated offense, would be grounds to lose your professional status, but politicians seem to be free to make a spectacle whenever somebody brings up a good point. It’s no wonder real decision making happens behind closed doors.

  It’s time country’s started taking their decision making seriously. Canada, please be the first. The chairman is supposed to be responsible for keeping things orderly. If people interrupt, they get a couple of warnings before they are removed from the house for the rest of the day. Believe me, if your MP spends every day kicked out of the house instead of standing up for his constituents’ interests, he won’t be around for long.

• [Kimmo]

  It’s nice to see a bit of passion, IMO.

• [Anonymous]

  If you are in the US, and ever turn on C-SPAN, the network devoted to covering the US House of Representatives, you might notice that most of the seats there are empty too most of the time. In almost any parliament or legislature, there tends to be a lot of “down time” for making speeches on minor issues or speeches on things which do not lead to votes anytime soon. Legislators and parliamentarians show up anyhow a few at a time and speak to an empty or near-empty chamber so they can get their remarks in the official record and/or get some camera time. Most of them have pagers or blackberries to let them know when a vote is coming up, so they can all get into the chamber and cast their ballots without having to be physically present in the chamber for a million speeches everyday.