From left: Mick Wallace, Clare Daly and Richard Boyd Barrett
Fine Gael TDs have been outshone by their high-wattage left wing counterparts.
Eamon Delaney, of right wing think tank The Hibernia Forum, writes:
Sometimes it seems that the only TDs who are actually taking the place seriously are the Independents and more especially the radical left TDs. This is why the TV cameras seem to be so often focused on those back rows, where they are stirring it up.
And the same left wing TDs seem to know that the real action is outside the Dail where they also make a bigger impact than their mainstream, colleagues. They certainly get media coverage disproportionate to their actual size.
This really struck me when I was on the Vincent Browne show recently on TV3. Clare Daly TD was on the show and her arrest and release that day for trespassing at Shannon airport dominated the discussion. But we also watched a long clip of her fellow socialist Paul Murphy, in the Dail, raising a separate issue, about public procurement.
Afterwards, I went home and watched RTE’s Oireachtas report (to unwind!) and the show was dominated by Paul Murphy (again), Ruth Coppinger and Richard Boyd Barrett.
And now that Paul Murphy has been sent for trial for false imprisonment (a punitive and rash move by the State, in my opinion) this will garner Murphy and his friends even more valuable publicity.
Just compare this deservedly high profile of the radical left with the lack of coverage, again deserved, for the rather nondescript, constituency-obsessed lobby-fodder of the larger parties and particularly of Fine Gael, who have failed to transform, or even shine in the Dail chamber.
Indeed, as you move leftwards, you usually get a more high profile, more articulate and effective TD – and that’s not something I like admitting. FG with its big intake in 2011 has been disappointingly quiet and without passion and ideas. One can exempt some of the more effective Cabinet members from this, incidentally, but even the backbench Five a Side, which advocated prudent public spending, gang were put to bed. Can they rediscover their voice?
Fianna Fail, with its reduced size, offers better fare, and the Labour party representatives are better again. But often the most effective energy and focus seems to be with the high-wattage left. Mick Wallace alone has shone a light on penalty points and questionable NAMA deals.
Of course, it helps (the media) that the radical left have strongly defined messaging, and often strongly defined, and colourfully dressed, personalities. This aids the media and sets up an appealing contrast for framing the discourse.
And there is a lesson here for the bigger parties. It means that however small the hard left might be, they now end up defining and polarising the political landscape. Our bigger parties are still too centrist and not differentiated enough. They think they can muddle through and not have to make the case for the non-left position. But they are wrong.
And part of this complacency is our unreformed and often lacklustre Dail which, despite these limits – or because of them – offers high profile opportunities for ambitious left wing deputies and independents to define the agenda. With an enlarged Sinn Fein and left wing presence next time out, this will be even more the case. It really is time that our non-left TDs got off the fence.
Fight!
In a lacklustre Dail, the radical left can get all the attention (HiberniaForum)
It’s easy to get column inches when you are being radical.
It’s less easy to be radical when you are actually in-office and consumed with the job and actually responsible for any repercussions.
Underplays the extreme importance of strong voices critiquing government actions and policies, highlighting repercussions the in-office prefer left unremarked-upon, given that the other path to actual power is to slavishly go along with the government. That it’s not ‘easy’ to implement radical reform is self-evident, and not a reason to cease that critique.
I agree with your points, the opposition are watchdogs and this is as it should be. It’s just that they will always have the comfort of throwing ideas around without having to back it up. This is true for anyone in opposition.
Not entirely true for everyone. When it comes to small parties and independents, even in power they will be constrained and obliged to compromise, only rarely being in a position of holding a balance of power. Larger parties like FF, FG and Labour- they have far more room to implement ideas voiced in Opposition when they finally get into power.
To add to that, of course that’s why small parties and independents have more leeway to say the unsayable and voice the radical – this is stuff others in opposition find themselves constrained from saying. It’s also why they’re worth listening to (not uncritically, obvs) because they may be saying what needs to be said.
That was very well articulated Nigel.
Nice one.
I would’ve been slightly more facetious in my response, but you seem to have your head glued on.
you catch more with sugar
Bo* *ocks Molloy
..and no repercussions when in office for dishonesty.
‘..consumed with the job and actually responsible for any repercussions.’
Yeah, like that one time all the corporations irresponsibly gambled and partied for a decade straight and when Capitalism had one of it’s built in hiccups, all the governments of the West bailed them out. Sure learned us a thing or two about responsibility alright.
We had to bail ourselves out: Scandinavian levels of social provision with American levels of taxation
Load of cack!
if they were too consumed with doing the job they were elected to do, why then did they break so many promises.
It’s a cop out to make lame excuses from broken election promises. Say it like it is… they’re too busy serving themselves first and protecting the status quo, because none of the main parties FF FG SF or L have any integrity or probity to speak of.
Time for change, strong indies like those mentioned and a support for a real alternative like the SocDems is the only real alternative this country has ever seen on offer…. it’s up to the electorate to take the offer…
…forgive the tangent, and have a cracking New Year y’all!
I totally support soc dems, an intelligent left :-)
Even less easy when you are a whipped jobber asleep at the wheel.
All the right wing blushirts are too busy with their snouts in the trough, gorging themselves on public funds while 1500 Irish children are homeless.
Oh just fupp off! Every comment you post is about the banks or the snouts in the trough. No substance. The journal awaits you.
ah diddums, looks like I upset a blushirt.
I agree.
You should keep it up. They’re only ever funny when they’re furious.
The crosser they get, the more aroused I get. Is that wrong?
Calling anyone who disagrees with you a “blueshirt” is another one of your pathetic nonsenses.
I find this amusing in light of some of the points made in Anne Marie’s article yesterday.
Which one is true?
I think the right’s performance is a reflection of the type of person who is attracted to right-wing policies: an on average lower IQ than their left leaning counterparts and motivated mainly by self-interest. Whereas the “hard left” is what it is too: progressive, invested in change, excited by the prospect of societal fairness, equality, etc.
Will said/typed.
Societal fairness, now thats a low IQ idea that ignores the basis of human psychology. Fairytale stuff.
However, the left wing provide an ideological basis that is sorely lacking in the right and centrist/populist parties (FG, FF, Lab + SF).
“Societal fairness, now thats a low IQ idea that ignores the basis of human psychology”
That is simply wrong. It’s the right wing obsession with self interest which is totally at odds with nature. All of our thoughts are basically just extrapolations of basic emotions which are themselves extrapolations of basic primal instincts. The point of our instincts is to simply keep us alive long enough to procreate and continue the existence of our species, and *that* is the base of it all; the continuation of the species. We all need and depend on each other to further the existence of our species. Left wing thinking recognises this. Right wing thinking holds us back. It’s essentially childishly selfish.
Humans are like chimpanzees not bonobos
LOL. Ok then, lad.
While left wing theory in practice has been a roaring success in every instance? No one has ever escaped the US in a tractor tyre.
Not overly familiar with the right wing thinkers that pooh-poohed mutual interest or the co-operative instinct. If anything they place a higher premium on bottom-up solutions, rather than the top-down diktats of the apparatchik.
Have you not read Mercille on a Monday? Poster boy for the dummies that the left attracts.
would you ever get your own fucking name, please
Equality of outcome? I remember all those Velvet Revolutions behind the Iron Curtain – Romania excepted – where the people cried out for for more socialism.
Considering the connections the Hibernia Forum has with Renua, perhaps Eamonn would like to ruminate on how often Lucinda pops up in the media considering the 1% support for her party.
It is the political wing of the Iona Institute, so has a lot of support from well placed fairytalers (catholics)
Plus she’s eh…’photogenic’.
-Am I allowed to say that?
Do you really think so? Suppose in comparison with other female politicians but in the wider sense nothing special.
In the “wider sense”, indeed.
Fair point
When elected representatives are encouraging citizens to break the law and damn the consequences then democracy is in a bad place.
Wallace is a charlatan and a tax dodger.
Murphy encouraged people not to pay their water rates then promptly paid his so he could sell his house.
These muppets help to make Ireland the international laughing stock that it currently is.
FG & FF have made the country a laughing stock & everyone knows this.
they did ya, I heard the rest of the world going on about us
Ireland is a tax haven and Wallace is why we’re a laughing stock? Hmm.
“When elected representatives are encouraging citizens to break the law and damn the consequences then democracy is in a bad place.”
That is laughably simplistic and just dumb. Catholics up the north were essentially banned from voting until 0 or so years ago. So they should have just accepted that and carried on cause it’s the law, yeah? Please.
+1
Surprised you didn’t just go for the full hysterical Godwin.
What’s more worrying, the fact you absorbed that spin so readily or the fact you are willing to spout it as an opinion you came up with.
Maybe labour should be more colourfully dressed as they suggest. Or have better personalities. Maybe just say you won’t pay the property tax, tear it up and then actually pay it.
Even though i think it was a mistake having Roisin Shortall as part of the party i will be voting Soc Dem next election. The main parties are corrupt, unqualified, jobs for the boys, that never keep their promises, while screwing those at the bottom to benefit those at the top. Yes Ireland is going through a state of recovery but the only people who have actually benefited from it are those at the top, wages haven’t increased, house prices are almost post crash, rents have sky rocketed we have still lost over 350,000 to emigration and are doing nothing to draw them back and the Medical system is the worst its ever been. We need independents and new parties to finally bring about the change this country need to catch up with the rest of the world.
Hear, hear!
And happy new year!
A politician’s election promise is on a par with ‘I love you long time’. Have we learned nothing from all those Vietnam movies?
Yep.
So vote again. Fingers crossed this times guys! Democracy is so empowering.
This view of politics is not based on the ideological reasons why one would enter into politics, i.e. to change or improve the system for the benefit of society as a whole but rather about how to play the media in the process of grabbing power for the sake of power alone. (and of course making fat greasy deals to further dismantle the civil State to line pockets of well-placed associates, proper dark, mé-féin fupp you mentality). These right-wing corporate funded washington-wannabe ‘think tanks’ are the biggest danger to a peaceful, well run Irish society. Scary.
A bigger danger to Ireland than the suborners of murder, racketeering and concealment of sex offenders taking seats in our parliament?
Who knew?
You seem to think the lefties are modern day heroes. I will bet you 50euro that paul Murphy will lose his seat. His motto, don’t pay the property tax, but I paid mine!!