David McWilliams - In Search of the Pope's Children

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sherib

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Did anyone see David McWilliams new show this evening? Only so-so I thought. Hyperactive photography and a lot of it a re-hash of his book. Maybe it'll get better.

He claimed the foundations of the New Ireland aren't half as stable as we'd like to believe saying it was founded upon three economic factors: cheap credit, cheap energy and cheap labour. One gem was an interviewee from China saying he hoped that his people would buy up all of Parnell Street - then we'd have our very own China Town. Another was that when fuel prices rise by 20% people would accept nuclear power to maintain our new living standards. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he's right about that.
 
One big ad for his overrated book. I like him but he's in danger of becoming a bit of a parody of sorts. I think he needs to come up with something new. He has flogged this property crash thing to death at this stage
 
sherib said:
One gem was an interviewee from China saying he hoped that his people would buy up all of Parnell Street - then we'd have our very own China Town.
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Look at how many places in Britain and Europe have changed over the last generation or two. In some areas, you are in a minority if you are ethnic white.

Still, I suppose we cannot complain if a nationality takes over a street or area. Look at how we "colonised" Cricklewood and Kilburn etc, not to mention Glasgow, with Irish migration. Question is, will the Chinese form their own soccer team...Dublin Celtic ....and sing C.R.A. songs / wave Chinese flags at the matches ? lol
 
I'm hoping that the first program was just full of sound bites for the next few. Heard a lot of statements made about the economy but don't know if he has anything to back them up or if it's just his take on it. Found music and flashy camera work irritating and a distraction.
 
liteweight said:
Found music and flashy camera work irritating and a distraction.
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Absolutely agree, I started to get a headache trying to follow the images, seemed as if nothing was on screen for more than two seconds. It was like watching a high speed economic documentary produced by MTV. Most of the points were a re-hash from the book but I found it interesting enough to watch all the way through to questions & answers :)
 
sherib said:
Another was that when fuel prices rise by 20% people would accept nuclear power to maintain our new living standards.
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he also said that if fuel prices went up by 20%, then peoples disposable income would go down by 20% - which is a nice soundbite but isn't factually correct.

I also enjoy him and find his points interesting but this show was only of interest to anyone who hadn't read his book or his articles in the Sunday Business Post - there was nothing new in it.

George Lee's Boom show earlier on in the year was more interesting, imho.
 
Yeah! pretty much agree with most of the comments above - tho to give the guy his credit he is pretty much the only one out there trying to make a fist of trying to explain the last 15 years or so (there is a distinct lack of commentary both verbal or otherwise on this - wonder why?)

You could argue it had a lot in common with George Lees' Boom - I believe they come to the same basic premise - that unless we start thinking about movin on economically , the whole edifice is being built on the property boom - shaky foundations. Personally I do find the categorisations and the jump from one arguement to another very very fast and the sometimes hard and fast way he has with stats when they suit him a bit much at times( Irelands inward legal migration rate from the Eastern European states is higher than France or Germany's - Well no s**t Dave! wouldn't be anything to do with the fact that neither have opened their employment borders to these states yet would it!)

While I personally found Lee's programme better (so far) , as regards basic economic arguement - I think that Mcwilliams style will appeal to far more people .

If I've learned anything in my life so far , its that the vast majority of people , despite all the protests to the contrary , love being categorised and stereotyped and put into groups and especially class - McWilliams does this with aplomb - his talent is he makes you feel you understand economics and all criticism above withstanding : the programme will definitely get folks who ,normally at the sight of a suit and a mention of economics would be watching sky at the drop of a hat , to tune in.

I got the book for christmas last year - read it in 2 days or so - passed it on to the old man - who has now passed it 5-6 times to his friends - all he could talk about was how he could recognise the various characters and subsets that McWilliams has in his arguements - the decklanders etc etc and to my amazement and shock , for the first time in all the time I have known him , we are having conversations about economics , the future ,politics etc etc - this from a man who before when asked about his political leanings would reply "its a secret ballot" and that would be it until the next election . I 've had similar conversations with his friends.

So ,even tho the book was a bestseller , Im quite sure Cecila Ahern has quite comfortably outsold him by a considerable margin - if the TV programme, which will hit a far wider audience , can get people talking and debating about the subjects he raises - well and good - he's done a public service and fair play to him.
 
The book and the Tv programme have the same author & the same name - yet some posters are critical that they were similar ?

What were you expecting :confused: ?

It's something that is very easy to criticise - he's a braver man than me for going out in public with THAT quiff ;) - but it's something that isn't discussed enough. Many people in Ireland have mortgaged their futures to pay for the present and, to paraphrase the late John Healy, no-one has shouted stop, least of all the political elite who claim to be responsible for the boom.
 
The TV show "In search of the Pope’s Children" will it have any effect?

I was watching Dave McWilliams excellent show last night on RTE and I was wondering if people though it would have any effect on the man in the street? Or will we happily keep spending themselves into oblivion?

Has anyone been in any watercooler conversations about the show?
 
Re: The TV show "In search of the Pope’s Children" will it have any effect?

whizzbang said:
I was watching Dave McWilliams excellent show last night on RTE and I was wondering if people though it would have any effect on the man in the street? Or will we happily keep spending themselves into oblivion?

Has anyone been in any watercooler conversations about the show?
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I watched it and thought it was very entertaining but I am not sure that anything he said justifies anyone changing any habits - he seemed to spend an awful lot of time making up special names for different types of people and seemed to just skim over the impact of any future shocks on the economy - I think the programme was light on economics and heavy on shots of McWilliams poncing around in his 06 Saab rehashing his book (which I haven't read so I may be doing him a disservice).

That said I enjoyed watching it (and despite what i said above I am a bit of a fan of McWilliams; I still think he was the best morning show presenter that Newstalk had), I laughed out loud a good bit and thought some of his people groupings were very good - maybe the next two shows will look at the potential problems in more depth.
 
I didn't watch it, because I too had a feeling it might be based on the book. I bought the book allbeit as the 3rd book in a 3 for 2 offer, I thought it might do for light entertainment on my holiday flights - I struggled through Chapter 1, then defeated and disgusted with myself for adding to the man's fortune, I closed the book.
 
One point he made last night was about the amazing productivity gains in Ireland over the past few years - if I remember correctly, he said it was double that of the EU.

Is this true - I remember seeing data a few years ago that suggested that the increase in Irish GDP tracked linearly with the increase in population ie. there was no productivity increase associated with the Celtic Tiger, gains in the economy were directly as a result of adding more people.

Or it might make sense if it is based on house price inflation - it takes the same number of people to build a 1500 square feet house as it did 5 years ago, only the price has doubled
 
Markjbloggs said:
One point he made last night was about the amazing productivity gains in Ireland over the past few years - if I remember correctly, he said it was double that of the EU.

Is this true - I remember seeing data a few years ago that suggested that the increase in Irish GDP tracked linearly with the increase in population ie. there was no productivity increase associated with the Celtic Tiger, gains in the economy were directly as a result of adding more people.

Or it might make sense if it is based on house price inflation - it takes the same number of people to build a 1500 square feet house as it did 5 years ago, only the price has doubled
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I have often wondered about this too. we know that some (many?) multinationals declare profits here that were generated overseas to avail of our lower taxes. I assume this increases our GDP while not necessarily making us any more productive.
He claimed we work the most hours in the EU, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're more productive either.
 
TarfHead said:
The book and the Tv programme have the same author & the same name - yet some posters are critical that they were similar ?

What were you expecting :confused: ?
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For me, it's not that the content was a surprise, rather RTE basically commissioned a 3-part serialisation of his book and I don't really agree with that. I mean, I was surprised David McW didn't turn to the camera and say something along the lines of 'my book, "The Pope's Children" discusses this in more detail and is available at all good bookstores for E9.99'. Also, when I hear all these attempts to 'coin phrases' like 'decklanders', 'kells angels' etc. etc. I can't help but think he is desperate to apply some sort of dublin wit in explaining economics and that just turns me off. Like I said, I think he needs to come up with something new.
 
Honestly I thought it was pure rubbish, and I won't be watching the rest in the series.
Yet another load of drivel from the makers of "30 things...." which was such a satire on the irish republic, what a waste of the tax payers money.
 
I hadn't read the book so was fairly interested. I agree the style of the program was a bit too noisy and busy but I have to say - I would watch him any day over Eddie Hobbs and a lot of people thought Eddie Hobbs was worth watching! Ah it's interesting enough simply cos what's happened in this country could do with some insight and discussion. Fair play to him. I'll probably watch it again.
 
I enjoyed the programme too. I haven't read too much of David McWilliams or bought his book (yet) so maybe that helped. I didn't listen to him on Newstalk as I love the Morning Ireland show, I think they were on at the same time. I found the script funny, entertaining...had a good laugh at the people in Donnybrook and their cars, how the Popes children came to be :D and so on. It was a light programme about Ireland's economy and maybe too light for people who are already very clued in. Perhaps it was just an intro and he'll get to the nitty gritty next week. I'll watch it next week as I found it entertaining, maybe not as informative as it could have been, but very entertaining.
 
I'm surprised at some peoples negative reactions to the programme.

It was very informative, without being bogged down like many other economic programmes. It put a tongue in cheek slant on how many people live their lives.

I found the music and camera work fine. Especially some of the background music that was taking the p*ss out of scenarios. The American Beauty theme was hilarious, myself and a mate instantly said it was a pity he couldn't have managed to get a Ford Focus in every driveway - ala Kevin and Perry...

The stuff he's trying to quantify is pretty messy - he made a very good stab at it. His economic arguements are sound and he did back them up with economic data and entertaining case studies. However, when he gets into the social classing and old hibernia v's modern thinking he does drift into grey areas - but to be honest these areas are what really make you think!

The friend I watched it with and myself brought the programme up in both our offices yesterday - not a single person had watched it or even had an opinion on one or two of his points that we brought up.... Just shows the picture he painted of lemmings looking for our prestige cars, decking, 70 hour weeks, red bull on the way into work and a bottle of wine when you get home isn't far from the reality when you hop the ball in a modern day work environment!
 
Is he really telling us anything that "features" writers dont put in the papers on a regular basis?

Newsflash:
People have long commutes
People enjoy spending their new wealth - theres some conspicuous consumption
Quality of life has deteriorated for long commuters working long hours
etc.

All the above are very obvious and me & mates have been talking about them for years - that why we've all left the greater Dublin area (all non-Dubs).

McWilliams seems to think that trying to coin some clever phrase for the bleedin' obvious makes him a social commentator/economist extraordinare. His one definitive claim is his clucking that the sky is falling in on the property market & its going to crash. Sure it you stick to a slogan for long enough it may well eventually come to pass - but after, say, 10 years from his first revelation to the public that the property market is doomed will he admit he was premature/incorrect on that one.
 
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