Ireland General Discussion

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Oh good lord.... There goes my chances of voting for SF from minus zero to minus infinity

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What is this... I don't even.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

[ObserverIE]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

At least you're spared having to vote for them.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

At least you're spared having to vote for them.

Thank god for emigration.

[Oakvale]

THE ONLY PARTY THAT STANDS UP FOR THE COMMON MAN AGAINST THE FLUORIDE PEDDLER COWBOYS

[Tetro Kornbluth]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

Speaking of which btw 'Others/Independents' now leads in the polls (Sadly, it is within the MoE).

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[Filuwaúrdjan]

lol

[Oakvale]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

Speaking of which btw 'Others/Independents' now leads in the polls (Sadly, it is within the MoE).

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In practice this would just mean the Entrepreneur Party or whatever leads the polls unfortunately.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

At least you're spared having to vote for them.

You have my deepest (and entirely genuine) sympathies.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

Speaking of which btw 'Others/Independents' now leads in the polls (Sadly, it is within the MoE).

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In practice this would just mean the Entrepreneur Party or whatever leads the polls unfortunately.

Oh, I know that. It's just rather amusing - at this rate perhaps not even FG/FF will have a majority of Dáil seats.

We are just waiting for our Silvio Berlusconi.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Btw, the regional breakdowns in this poll are interesting (page 7)

Dublin
FG 21
LAB 12
FF 17
SF 17
OTH 33

Rest of Lenister
FG 31
LAB 10
FF 26
SF 15
OTH 18

Munster
FG 21
LAB 5
FF 31
SF 12
OTH 31

Connacht/Ulster
FG 22
LAB 6
FF 19
SF 26
OTH 27

There is little disparity among age groups except curiously much lower rates of voting for Independents/Other among 18-34 years old.

[ObserverIE]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

Speaking of which btw 'Others/Independents' now leads in the polls (Sadly, it is within the MoE).

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"Others" include the Cabbages Greens at 2% and Comrade Joe Militant's Irish franchise the Socialists at 1%.

[minionofmidas]

The next Irish election is going to be fun. I can hardly wait.

[TTS1996]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

Speaking of which btw 'Others/Independents' now (Sadly, it is within the MoE).

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"Others" include the Cabbages Greens at 2% and Comrade Joe Militant's Irish franchise the Socialists at 1%.

Does that mean the other 23% are voting Healy-Rae junior? God help you.

[ObserverIE]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

Speaking of which btw 'Others/Independents' now (Sadly, it is within the MoE).

You must be logged in to read this quote.

"Others" include the Cabbages Greens at 2% and Comrade Joe Militant's Irish franchise the Socialists at 1%.

Does that mean the other 23% are voting Healy-Rae junior? God help you.

I refer you to another previous post on this thread (he said shamelessly):

Wish they'd separate out those others.

The only other parties qua parties amongst the "others" are the Socialist Party and the other components of the faction-ridden and fisiparous "United" Left Alliance. The only figures that I've seen in polls have been 1% or so for the SP.

Even apart from the "ugh" factor towards the four main parties that I mentioned above, most independents by their nature are only standing in one constituency and cover the entire political spectrum. The more prominent ones vary from populist economic-right (Ross), competent centrist (Donnelly), left-libertarian (Flanagan, Wallace), orthodox left social democrats (Murphy), populist left republicans (Pringle) to populist Trotskyists (Daly, Collins). And those are the ones with a coherent ideology; you also have the Mattie McGraths, Michael Healy-Raes and Michael Lowrys. In addition, you have the dissident Labour TDs who have lost the whip and who might not be readmitted to the Titanic Labour Party in time for the election, the most prominent of whom are Róisín Shortall and Colm Keaveney.

In short, trying to disaggregate "others" is a hopeless task.

[minionofmidas]

Does that mean the other 23% are voting Healy-Rae junior?

He's adorable!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Do we have a NI thread? Couldn't find one after a very quick search, so...

Eddie McGrady (SDLP MP for South Down 1987-2010) has died.

[Boris]

Do we have a NI thread? Couldn't find one after a very quick search, so...

Eddie McGrady (SDLP MP for South Down 1987-2010) has died.

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=66006.150

[Јas]

The utter awfulness of Ireland's political parties is currently a thing of wonder.

And indeed the people agree.
Going beyond the figures for voting intentions, the satisfaction ratings are more blunt.

From this weekend's Sindo/Millward Brown poll...

Satisfaction Ratings
Govt 21-73 (Net: -52)

Kenny (FG) 25-67 (-42)
Gilmore (L) 16-72 (-56)
Martin (FF) 30-55 (-25)
Adams (SF) 23-59 (-36)

[Јas]

The former Chairman of the Labour Party, Colm Keaveney (who left the parliamentary party voting against the last budget) has joined Fianna Fáil.

I can't recall the last time a sitting TD changed party, rather than simply continue to sit as an independent. (Maybe when Democratic Left folded into Labour in 1999? But even that's not really comparable.)

Current State of the Parties below (E&OE).

Dáil Éireann

Fine Gael	69
Fine Gael (without whip)	5	(NaughtenRA, TimminsRA, Walsh, FlanaganRA, CreightonRA)
Labour	34
Labour (without whip)	2	(Brougham, Shortall)
Fianna Fáil	20
Sinn Féin	13
Sinn Féin (without whip)	1	(Tóibín+)
United Left	2
People Before Profit	1
Socialist	1
WUAG*	1
Independents	17
Ceann Comhairle (Speaker)	1

^* WUAG = Workers and Unemployed Action Group
^RA Members of the Reform Alliance (along with Peter Matthews [i-Dublin South] who has resigned from Fine Gael).
⁺ Tóibín's loss of the whip will lapse in January, by virtue of internal disciplinary hearing decision.

[minionofmidas]

He couldn't find a real party to join?

[Хahar 🤔]

Jumping on the Fianna Fáil train at this point is certainly something.

[ObserverIE]

Jumping on the Fianna Fáil train at this point is certainly something.

It still has something resembling a party machine (certainly outside Dublin it's usually the only organised non-Fine Gael force) and as a label, it is now arguably less toxic than Labour once you go beyond Chatterati Country. Not so much because its reputation has improved as because Labour's has nosedived.

[ObserverIE]

The former Chairman of the Labour Party, Colm Keaveney (who left the parliamentary party voting against the last budget) has joined Fianna Fáil.

I can't recall the last time a sitting TD changed party, rather than simply continue to sit as an independent. (Maybe when Democratic Left folded into Labour in 1999? But even that's not really comparable.)

Last direct defection was probably Martin Cullen in 1994 (PDs to FF), although you could make an argument for Liam Twomey (Ind -> FG) in 2004.

Ciarán Cannon - in the same constituency as Keaveney - did go from being the last accidental leader of the PDs to being a FG junior minister in a relatively short space of time though.

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I can't imagine Mathews feeling any more comfortable in the medium to long term in the Reform Alliance than he was in Fine Gael. Someone who is looking for "long-term redistribution of wealth to make society more equal" is unlikely to be a happy bunny in Lucinda's Tea Party.

[ObserverIE]

He couldn't find a real party to join?

The alternatives are:

• The Eat The Poor Party
• The Eat The Poor Party Doesn't Go Far Enough In Eating The Poor Party
• The We've Stopped Killing People Party, and

• The Four People, Five Factions Party

At that point The Bunch Of Chancers Who Busted The Country Party almost looks good. Almost.