Poland Parliament elections in October 2011

Quite normal in Poland. Generally speaking, by comparing different sources (and definitely where source material is provided) - you can ascertain the truth. For instance - Gazeta Wyborcza tends to let the leader of PiS hang himself by simply providing the video where he says stupid things.

Truth is, the Prime Minister is simply trying to repair the damage done by the last Government. It's true, he's on good terms with Germany and Russia - but this is simply common sense when you're located at the crossroads of Europe. The last Prime Minister had diabolical relations - probably the worst they'd ever been since WW2.

Selling Polish assets? Well, there has been some privatisation - but the Government has retained strategic shares in many industries, as well as loading the rules against private investors. I don't recall what company it is, but at least one large company is minority-owned by the Government, yet the Government has the majority of votes.

Generally speaking, the key industries are still very much in the vice-grip of the Government while less important ones (couple of banks, an insurance company) are being slowly privatised.

It's worth pointing out that older people in Poland tend to be brainwashed by simple slogans. Many of them spent so long opposing (even passively) that they simply cannot see that Poland is free nowadays - hence why they believe such idiocy like "TUSK IS A RUSSIAN SLAVE" and so on.

Also - PO do threaten many of them, especially the ones who enjoyed quite privileged positions under Communism and who now lost their way in the free market.

One other reason not to vote PiS - their President has publicly declared that anyone who says "the wrong thing" should be punished. What that means, I don't know and don't want to know.

Except for teachers - they are getting pay rises this and next year.
I will not bite the hand that feeds me, Ok? :):):)

Giving with one hand and taking more away with the other. Are you familiar with 'set a sprat to catch a mackerel', pawian? That's what PO are doing.

DD, thanks. I could post so many contradictory things I hear from so many different people I bump into that it would risk trying your patience, so I won't. Thanks for taking the time to give me a flavour of things. I hope whoever wins the election they strive to genuinely put the welfare of non-racist, non-homophobic, decent Poles and Polish residents first. (I would like to say the same for the UK, but there I have totally given up all hope.)

Pawian, can you answer me a quick question?

I see that teachers have both "basic" and "average" salaries listed. What's this "average" salary made up of?


The best piece of advice I can give you is to look at the agenda of who is talking to you.

PiS voters can actually be compared to those Labour voters who vote Labour, their fathers voted Labour, their grandfathers voted Labour and their sons will vote Labour - irrespective of policies.

Ooops. The question is quick but the answer isn`t. You are a demanding interlocutor. :):):)

Basic means crude salary of a full-time teacher. Minimal, so to say.

Average means crude salary plus extras, or bonuses like: motivation wage, conditions of work, years of service/seniority, overtime and replacement lessons, prizes, functional allowance etc.

You're a star, thank you :)

What's surprising to me is that the Polish system pays extra for overtime - the UK system is very much "you've got extra lessons, deal with it" :)

Nobody knows how long Polish teachers will keep their priviliges. The government is planning to introduce major changes after elections. The rumours about new limited curriculums and less work for teachers are not too optimistic. :(:(:( The current Education Minister is accused of being the worst in history, for destroying Polish education. I suppose mass strikes will take place sooner or later. I am wondering what I will do then.

However, comparin UK and Polish teacher salaries.....

tda.gov.uk/get-into-teaching/salary/teaching-salary-scales.aspx

Main pay scale

England and Wales Inner London Outer London London fringes

Max £31,552 £36,387 £35,116 £32,588
Min £21,588 £27,000 £25,117 £22,626

You know, I like PO in general, but their work with education - well, the current minister is...I can't even begin to comment.

The plans for the Matura to have several subjects cut (including Philosophy!?!) is just... I can't even begin to talk about the stupidity of it. It seems to me that they really have absolutely no idea what they're doing - and that's with really passive teaching unions who are quite happy to accept changes.

How it is good that we have the Internet. If not, I would certainly miss the elections.

As my Japanese students told me, 'it's almost erection time' ;) ;)

Tusk just needs to avoid blunders and he's home and dry. Poles will make Poland, not him.

what do you mean?

In the Polish context, the same as giving sand to poor Arabs.

Actually, Polish sand used to be sold to some countries in the Sahara region since local sand was impure and could not be used for water filtering purposes ;-)

Tusk is ready to listen to Arab bidders and many Poles have told me the same. Money talks, BS walks.

Arabs buying sand. What has the world come to?

They meant volcanic erection, of course, just like mine. Students, of course.

Nah, I don't think so ;)

The newest poll. Can we keep it up till October?

That poll is a disaster for PiS - PO would almost certainly get the 1% extra from the disqualified votes (due to the 5% threshhold requirement) to give them a majority in the parliament. And in all likelihood, between them and the SLD, they'd also get enough to pass the amount needed to enact constitutional change.

PiS absolutely must get 33% of the seats in the Sejm or they're going to be in a world of pain.

Yes, but the elections are in October, not today. Unfortunately. :(:(:(

What about SLD? What concrete proposals are we to see in their manifesto?

Will anything really happen between now and then?

Must admit, I'm not a fan of them holding the elections in the middle of the EU Presidency - I can see why, though.


Usual modern European social democrat stuff. They really don't need anything concrete - everyone knows what they stand for already.

I can't say I followed Napieralski that closely, delph. I should as Napier is Scottish :) :) Social democrat fits the model of Poland better.

The latest poll by CBOS- PiS is going down.

Looks like there'll be nothing left of them by October, providing Tusk keeps wowing the audience during the EU presidency and Ziobro keeps making a fool of himself.

We must keep our fingers crossed. :):):)

Conspiracy theories abound:

I did not know that translating the excerpts from Polish sources is prohibited here. I have been doing it all along - translating both fragments, as well as full articles from Polish to English. And I always provide links to the Polish sources so people can verify the text if they want to.

No, there are no links in English to the pieces I translated.

@pgtx: that's reasonable, isn't it? I mean, providing a link is evidence that you're not making stuff up. Translating or providing an English synopsis of a Polish-language link is just fine.

The alternative is, that you enforce a situation where the only 'authoritative' quotations on Poland etc. that are allowed to be posted here are in, erm, English.

@pgtx: this is not a personal dig. I just think that the rule book which you are working to (and I commend the fact that, in the name of fairness to all, you are taking a hard line on it) needs a little qualification here.

From our side: just to help the mods do their job, @boletus - perhaps we can make it a bit more explicit somehow that the English is in fact a translation or synopsis of the link? ie,


rather than just


?

I try to do that - but don't always remember. Probably makes it clearer for the average reader, too.

Back to topic: PiS going down? Man, my heart just bleeds.