BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style

Subject: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Oct 08 - 08:03 AM

This morning NPR ran a story on the Irish budget cutting funds for elder health care. The protests were unexpected. The vehemence more so.
The story included sound clips from a rally of about 2000 seniors singing We Shall Overcome and attacking some poor foolish politician who tried to speak to the crowd. "No politicians here!" yelled one old lady while the rest rushed the stage, grabbed the mic and sent him packing without a chance to give his speech.

I hope there are clips of this somewhere.
Trust no one under 80!

Subject: RE: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Oct 08 - 07:47 PM

the anti-war protesters still protesting against injustice

Subject: RE: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Oct 08 - 07:52 PM

There are pictures HERE. Nothing on youtube, yet. Good for them!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: maire-aine
Date: 22 Oct 08 - 08:37 PM

Good for them!

Subject: RE: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: gnu
Date: 22 Oct 08 - 08:51 PM

Cutting funds for elder health care? Sweet Jesus save us! What is happening?

Subject: RE: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Oct 08 - 10:34 PM

Sort of reverse "Modest Proposal", gnu.

Subject: RE: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Oct 08 - 12:07 AM

Looks as though the folks around Cork are in a feisty mood this year: Fishermen protest, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: Gulliver
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 12:43 AM

The 2000 (actually 1800) were out on Tuesday. They had intended meeting at a hotel but there wasn't enough room for the unexpectedly large turn-out, so they got the use of Westland Row church (one of the biggest in Dublin) to hold their meeting. That's when they thrashed the politicians.

On Wednesday there was an estimated 15,000 old folks demonstrating on the streets outside the Dáil (Irish parliament).

The cause of the row was that before the 2002 election, Fianna Fáil (largest party in Ireland) promised the Medical Card to all citizens over 70 years of age, if they got into government. They did get in and the over-70s got their cards, which entitled them to free medical care, among other things.

Then when the new budget was announced last week, one of the cost-cutting measures was to introduce a means test for holders of the Medical Card, which would mean most over-70s would lose their card. And of course it would be almost impossible for them, at their age, to get medical insurance. There was a HUGE outcry against this.

The government caved in under the protests, and have revised their plans (several times), so that now about 90% of over-70s will retain their cards.

However, this move by the coalition government (Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and a solitary Pregressive Democrat) has left a bad taste in the mouths of many people, not least the senior citizens, and will have repercussions on future elections.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: Gulliver
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 12:53 AM

In 1924 Ernest Blythe, the then Minister for Social Welfare in the new Irish Free State, took a shilling off the old-age pension. He was castigated for that, and although he returned the shilling in 1927 he (and his party) were never forgiven for that move, and the memory of that injustice has always remained in the public consciousness, even up to my time. The old folks didn't make much of a protest at the time (times were hard, I suppose), but they are making up for it now! Don

Subject: RE: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: Thompson
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 04:00 AM

By the way, for non-Irish people, a medical card is a card entitling its holder to free medicine and medical treatment - the doctor, nurse, various ancillary things like incontinece pads and treatment of ulcers by a nurse in the home.

Free, but not always very fast - people with private health insurance notoriously get urgent heart or cancer treatment within days or weeks, while medical card patients wait months or years.

But it's still the difference between survival and hunger for many people.

And it's the difference between being able to live at home and being in a nursing home and a total charge on the state for many old people.

This bright idea - product of a failed right-wing party - was badly costed; the Government's own economic advisor on health was on the radio explaining why it wasn't a wizard wheeze within a day or two of it being mooted.

It's typical of what governments are doing now - panicking and slashing at the poor, sick and old, rather than sitting down and working out how to get out of this fix with hard work and earnings.

Other bright ideas in the budget include *increasing* class sizes (already in contravention of EU limits), cutting back help for Travellers (just when the first generation of Travellers ever were going to university), raising university fees by something like 30%, and cutting off the hiring of teachers. What a bunch of loolas.

Subject: RE: BS: Irish Elders Protest 60s Style
From: MartinRyan
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 05:31 AM

The subtext is that when the "free" medical cards for over-70's were announced, the Government hadn't negotiated a deal with the medical profession in advance! Needless to say, the latter then screwed the Government over terms. A charitable interpretation of the last week's events is that the real targets were the medics, not the aged. It appears the deal will now be renegotiated.

Regards