Election Diary 03.06.09
This will probably be the last diary entry before the election, as candidates and parties wound up their campaigns in advance of the broadcast moritorium on Wednesday. From Midnight, TV and radio are prohibited from broadcasting election coverage until the day of polling.
It’s offician, John Curran TD of Fianna Fail is a complete muppet. The Limerick Leader reported his comments at two Fine Gael local election candidates accusing them of racism. Curren was referring to recent comments from Councillor Jim Long and Cllr Liam Galvin. The former claimed that migrant workers contributed nothing to Limerick, while the latter claimed that foreign nationals were coming into the country, signing on for social welfare, and flying back home again. Whilst both men ares’ comments were indeed idiotic, Curran is in no position to accuse anyone of racism. It was Fianna Fail which cut funding for the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI), It was Fianna Fail who castrated the Equality Authority by cutting it’s funding and decentralising them to the arse end of nowhere, It was Fianna Fail who introduced draconian rules whereby a foreign national who has been made redundant has to wait eight weeks after a job has been advertised before they can apply for it, and it was Fianna Fail who rewarded a TD in their party with a cabinet position after he defiled the Dail chamber with racist language. Can you fit the words Pot, Kettle and Black into one sentence?
Some good news, I got my count centre access, and hope to be there on Saturday.
Returning to the Leader, a brief rundown on Councillors’ attendance records.
Only one release received today, that being from Kathy Sinnott. This is below the fold
Independent (Europe) Received 1619 hrs
Kathy Sinnott, Independent MEP for Munster has today, as promised, released her campaign expenditure.
Out of a total spending limit for candidates of EUR 230,000, Mrs. Sinnott has spent EUR 49, 389.94 to date. In comparison, most Euro campaigns cost in the region of €100,000-230,000.
Kathy Sinnott received a total of EUR 13,905 in donations. Donations were received only from individuals mostly in donations of €100 or less. No money came from groups or companies.
Commenting, Kathy Sinnott, who was recently named 18th most transparent MEP out of the 785 MEPs by independent think tank Open Europe, said “Today I am laying my cards on the table and publishing my campaign spending and total donations in the interest of transparency.”
“I decided at the time of the budget cuts not to hold any fundraising events because so many charitable organisations were struggling to fundraise just to cover the cost of the cuts. This has meant that I haven’t done a lot of flashy advertising or fleets of branded jeeps. What I do have is a network of energetic and enthusiastic people who I have helped since 2004 spreading the word on the work I do.”
“I have kept my election campaign very simple. After the election in 2004, I decided to save and reuse my posters in this campaign. In preparation for this election, I ordered a lot fewer posters and supplemented them with almost 700 recycled ones,” said Mrs. Sinnott.