Stop cock up
Our gubmint have fucked up again.
There is nothing unusual about that, and in fact I would be amazed if at any stage they got something right.
Following hard on the heel of the household charge fiasco, where half the population resoundly told the gubmint to go fuck themselves, by refusing to pay, they are now up to their necks in trouble over their proposed water metering scheme.
When the EU called our Glorious Leader Dame Enda into the headmaster’s study and ordered him to implement these charges, Dame Enda [being a spineless little lapdog] immediately did a “yes sir, right away sir” without even thinking of the consequences, thereby landing himself in the ubiquitous pile of steaming shit.
One of the things that came to light after my last little scribble on this subject [a mere six days ago] is that apparently they can’t install the meters on private land. They have to be installed in the pavement outside the property boundary.
Now this suits me down to the ground [as it were] as I don’t live in the suburbs, and I don’t have a stopcock on any pavement [because there aren’t any pavements here] or even on the public road. If there is a stopcock that I am not aware of then it certainly serves more than one house up my lane. So that kind of fucks up the gubmint’s plans. If I refuse to pay, they can’t cut me off. Heh!
Now for some strange reason, the gubmint seems to have gotten it into it’s pea-brained head that we all live in the suburbs, with nice pretty concrete footpaths and tidy little stopcocks embedded in said footpaths. But now Dublin City Council have now pointed out the obvious – that a third of all houses are unsuitable. And it that many are unsuitable in Dublin City centre, what the fuck is it going to be like outside Dublin? It wouldn’t surprise me if nine-tenths of houses are unsuitable.
So this all means that I will be eligible for a flat standard charge. Which means in turn that the gubmint will be in line for a flat standard fuck off from me. And there is sweet flat standard fuck all that they can do about it.
I have said before I have no intention of paying for water. It is not a service. It is not even a basic human right. It is a basic human essential. There are only two – oxygen and water, and without either, we die. Plain and simple. If my water is cut off [even if they could find a way to do it] I have no alternative source of water as there isn’t a public water tap for miles. In fact I couldn’t even tell you where the nearest water tap is. That means my entire water supply would have to come from the local shop which I am damned sure could be challenged under some law or constitution or human rights issue somewhere.
It really saddens me to see otherwise intelligent people coming up with statements like “I think everybody should pay for drinking water” on the basis that “every other country does it”. This is the Lemming Principle and is a pathetic argument. We pay our taxes and in return get discretionary items. Every single item that we get in return for our taxes is discretionary, in the sense that we would not die without it. Water is an exception, and the only exception, and that is why I refuse to pay any extra for it. It is the very first thing my taxes should be used for.
So the gubmint can collectively go drown themselves.
If they can find the water.
I don’t want to make waves but
ALL resources are owned, including human resources, and we will all pay for life essentials.
Unless we do something about it.
Quiet Reader – Water is not owned. It’s a natural and essential resource. I concede that such items as reservoirs, filtration plants and pipes are a different matter, but they should be “owned” for the common good – in other words, they should be paid for out of central government coffers which is, when all is said and done, our money. Having paid said money, I refuse to pay any more.
As soon as public money is spent installing these meters the company will be sold off thats guaranteed. Look what happened in the UK for years all these services water gas and electric were in public ownership then they were all sold off. Now the prices are sky high and all these companies are owned by foreign companies. The ESB will go the same way in fact thats part of the deal to see off the all these companies. Its just more plunder by the banks that caused the problems in the first place none of these crooks in government are interested.
I just would like to comment of what I saw the other day about how these gobshites are living in another world. The jobsworth appointed as secretary general of the Department of Health will be paid €200k a year. He is on a pension on €107k a year for life [he’s only in his late 50s] He got a payoff from his last jobsworths job of €324k. He’s a multimillionaire and he’s going to be looking after the interest of people struggling to get health service.
I see they stopped the pension of some old dear who won the lottery that will save a few euro.
Poor ol’ Dame Enda was contrading himself on the matter a few days ago if I remember correctly. He mentioned in one public interview that (and I qoute): “water is essential for life”, while in the Dail the day after he asserted that this will be treated like any other utility bill in that: “it’s like your electricity bill or your phone bill; if you don’t pay you get cut off”.
So government contradiction season is open lads. I knew they’d start slipping on their own shite on this matter at some stage.
i seriously think you are being groomed to live in canada….we sit in a steaming pile of government poo as the norm
Peacock – The Gubmint has stated that there is no way that they will ever privatise the water industry. Hey, look!! There’s another pig flying past!!
InisEanna – Poor Dame Enda is a two faced cunt. He trots out one story for Brussels and another for us. Even worse, he keeps getting the two stories mixed. And then to cap it all, he puts Hogan, our Minister for Cock Ups in charge. Yup – the same idiot who ran the household charge campaign. Hah!
Cat – I hate to disillusion you but we would beat you hollow in the Pooishness stakes. We would have to go back to the Sixties here to find a reasonably sweet smelling gubmint. Since then the stench of rank manure has been hanging over the country like a thunder cloud.
You know and I know that water is a natural resource, but those in contol of the resources are not so generous.
Somehow the analogy of teasing a dog by tickling its ear comes to mind. If you keep it up sooner or later it’s going to bite your finger off.
Another example of stealing what belongs to the people would be charging folks to view the Cliffs of Moher, opening a “visitors centre” and banning folks from selling items there without a licence. Funny how I always assumed that the cliffs themselves were created by the forces of nature :-/
I am in agreement GD, water is an essential for life.
I used to live in Meath (I have since rectified that) when water charges were the norm. If you did’nt pay, then the Council (bastards) removed part of the stopcock and filled it in with molten lead, so you could’nt reinstate your supply. They would then charge £100 to reconnect plus the outstanding amount, fuckers. No consideration for any UN Charter of Human rights.
Anyway, as the supply came from the Tolka River via a treatment plant there were always problems with the quality of the water (it was shit). I complained to The Council (Cunts), only to be told I was being charged for the service, not the water, for fuck’s sake. I asked, if I was getting crude oil or Guinness out of my taps would I have to pay for that too. No just for the service, in other words, the pipes that came to my house, jasus.
Be prepared for the same shite, they’ll make it up as they go along.
If you don’t want to pay to have clean safe drinking water delivered to your home you could always walk down to the river with a bucket. Somebody has to pay for the service.
I have a dilemma with this one, I have a public water supply but don’t use it. My other half is a macro biologist and works on contract for whoever wants her. We built a laboratory at home many moons ago where she can process experiments and the like but guess what? the water supply was not clean enough! Apparently it was ‘ok’ to drink and bathe in but it was too contaminated to use for experiments. So we sank our own well and installed aeration tank water treatment filters costing mucho denarii. We use this supply for domestic use as well but now could be faced with a standing charge and meter installation cost for a substandard public supply which we dont use! When they come to install their smart meter they can take the pipe with them.
You’re missing the point, tt. The problem with people is that why should they suddenly start paying for something just because an unelected foreign EU/IMF gang breeze in and order our government to start charging for it?
Another point (as Slab correctly pointed out) is that we’re expected to pay for a water supply which in a lot of areas across the country are of poor quality? The system itself is in most places outdated, with cracked underground mains pipes pissing away treated water. Are we expected to pay for them to be repaired also?
The point about the quality of the water is a good one. My water here used to come from a well up the road. It was the sweetest water and was a pleasure to drink. A few decades ago the council stepped in and started “purifying” it, and as a result it is undrinkable without some kind of masking for the fucking fluoride or chlorine or whatever the shit is that they put in it. I can say with all honesty that sometimes when I run the kitchen tap, the room fills with the smell of a public swimming pool. If I did [in some alternative universe] ever have to pay for water, I would expect it to be absolutely pure, and not some cocktail of chemical shit.
I use a filter for drinking water. Just to get the chlorine out. (After it has done its job and killed the nasties.)
We have a 19th centuary water mains system, in Dublin, which was only properly maintained by The British Authorities when they were running the ship. We have added bits and pieces on over the decades in an ad hoc fashion, ending up with a system of leaking pipes where upwards of 50% of water ‘dissapears’.
The problem is not what the EU are imposing. It is the fact that our systems, like in Dublin, are so poor, inefficient and broken, they need urgent repair. It could have been all paid for during the boom time when there was a splash of cash, but now we will have to pay to sort it out. The EU excuse used by The Gubmint is only the stick to beat us into submission.
I am being told I will have to pay for may water, as we have to protect our ground water sources (so Phil Hogan says). I also have a well which I could use, except the fucking council have built a graveyard up the hill from my gaff. Protecting the groundwater, my bollix, Phil. Do I really want to drink well water with added Formaldehyde and Nitrates from rotting corpses.
The truth is simple. This a tax, nothing more, to get us to pay for the repair, upkeep and supply service of a modern water supply system, weather we like it or not.
Slab – What you are talking about is itemised taxation. The water system is broken so we need a water tax. They had the same idea with car tax to pay for road construction and maintenance. Did that work? No, the money raised never went near the roads. It wouldn’t surprise me if they talked about a teachers’ pay tax or a garda tax, each supposedly “ring fenced” [hate that cliche] for its particular purpose but in actuality just vanishing into the gubmint’s coffers.
I mearly point out the obvious GD