From top: Joan Burton and Eamon Gilmore during the 2011 General Election; Anne Marie McNally
If the best you can offer is ‘elect us to ensure the right-wing doesn’t get too carried away’ then you may as well be honest about your lack of political ideology
Anne Marie McNally writes
“What counts is what works” –Tony Blair 1998.
Irish politics has historically failed miserably to divide itself ideologically along traditional left/right lines. We’ve got some kind of blurry thing going on whereby despite protestations to the contrary, most traditional parties in this country are somewhat interchangeable.
In 2011 we witnessed a self-confessed left party enter coalition with a self-confessed right party with both apparently abandoning ideologies in favour of a more centrist pragmatic stance.
Roll on five years and we have Labour supposedly of the Left urging voters to transfer to Fine Gael on the Right.
I’m confused. So are most.
Eamon Gilmore in 2011 described the rationale for Labour cosying up to Fine Gael by saying that “the normal rules of politics changed when the IMF came in.”
Ok…so what’s the rationale in 2016?
I interviewed Eamon Gilmore for my thesis back in 2012 and he told me that they did not ‘have the luxury of ideologies’ as they were creating what he described as a National Government.
As part of the same interview process Labour TD Eric Byrne told me that he believed political ideologies were placed under the carpet for the 2011 General Election and would stay there until the Irish economy had been stabilised at which he point he said he ‘would be hopeful that Labour could revert to a true social democratic ideological stance.’
Here’s me being all confused again. Labour and Fine Gael would have you believe that the economy is in recovery now. If that’s the case then where are the signs of the ideology being taken out from under the carpet where it was shoved?
The people who defended Labour’s coalition decision in 2011 pointed to social democratic ideals such as Gilmore’s commitment to ‘Frankfurt’s way or Labour’s way’ and the commitment to fully funded free healthcare.
Yet neither has been delivered on and ultimately you cannot look beyond the words of the party leader at the time who was unequivocal in his belief that ideology was parked for #GE11.
Now I’m not judging Eamon Gilmore for that, in fact his honesty is to be commended and at least he understood that being straight about the pragmatic approach he was taking for his party was the best way to explain his marriage with the right-wing.
Now it’s 2016 and current labour leader Joan Burton has taken a different approach. She has decided that trying to maintain a vestige of democratic socialism whilst urging voters to elect a right-wing led Government is somehow not in any way disingenuous. It is.
If the best you can offer is ‘elect us to ensure the right-wing doesn’t get too carried away’ then you may as well be honest about your lack of political ideology. And that’s ok too.
In fairness, I’d much prefer to see a party who was proud to be honest about what its ambitions are rather than one who is trying to link onto a set of values that it long-since abandoned in the pursuit of power.
When you’ve a deputy leader of a party openly saying that power is a drug then you pretty much know you’ve got an ideological problem within the ranks!
In 2016 the electorate need, want and deserve honesty. If that position is to emulate Tony Blair and go with ‘what works’ for your party then own that and be honest enough to let your potential voters know that you are making a genuine and perfectly acceptable choice to be pragmatic rather than ideological.
I’m honestly not making a judgement here regarding how a party chooses to position itself for its own purposes. What I am saying is that for me it’s all pointless unless I’m doing it for reasons I believe in and not just political careerism.
I’ve had lots of pundits dismiss myself and some colleagues because we’re ‘ideologically driven’ – it’s thrown at us like a slur of sorts. Personally it’s one of the nicest compliments you can pay me.
Anne-Marie McNally is a political and media strategist working with Catherine Murphy TD and is a General Election candidate for the Social Democrats in the Dublin Mid-West constituency . Follow Anne-Marie on Twitter: @amomcnally
Alan Kelly in my opinion is generally a dislikeable guy, but wow what an own goal he scored with the I’m my own boss, power is like a drug & it suits me stuff. Maybe Kenny’s idiocy has rubbed off on him.
He’s an egotistical plank.
Ah now. We don’t know him really.
I think he’s just inexcusably thick, to be honest.
he is not stupid by any means. he’s a cold, calculated b@stard and not to be trusted.
What possible purpose can the multitude of own-goals serve so?
Neither left or right but how can people say that country destroyed by corruption & lies by the right for 100 years but any worse than giving a left party a chance like the social democrats.
Change is needed.
Oh, & I can’t disagree with any of that AM. Watch out for the FG aren’t right wing commentards on the way.
Why does Anne Marie have a column? When is BS going to get somebody who thinks the government is great?
Why would a liberal website have conservative articles? And let’s be honest, nobody thinks the government are great. Even the government know this.
Yep I agree Bobby. I was mimicking some of the usual weekly contributions to Anne-Marie’s column.
But FG aren’t really right-wing.
Except in some ill-thought-out way where they (like almost all of us) believe in capitalism (most of us equating it, I reckon, to team sports) but have never really stopped to consider why.
The Tories are different. They are really, genuinely, ideologically right-wing. And there is a strong personal commitment within their party to reorder government & society – even when this is genuinely unpopular. Cameron may not care but a huge proportion of his backbenchers do. It can be pretty horrifying & it leads to big swings in policy as governments change in the UK.
Anne-Marie McNally must have the election in the bag if she’s time to sit around and write articles for Broadsheet during the middle of an election campaign.
Maybe, just maybe, these articles are part of her election -….oh just forget it.
Because how many voters are there in Dublin Mid-West that could be swung by a weekly column on Broadsheet?
Maybe it doesn’t take very long? Fine Gael are right wing, & Labour are turncoats. Not rocket science, but nice to see somebody in the running agrees with you all the same.
* not agrees with you personally Jimmee.
Are you for real?
Well 3 of my campaign team came to me because of these columns so yeah I’m gonna think they’re pretty important for me.
Also…as a fairly decent multi-tasker it’s really not onerous to write a 600 odd word piece whilst doing other things. Don’t stress or anything but I’ve also got a daily column in a national newspaper. I’ll survive. Honestly. Don’t worry about me like! Cheers for the concern though…
Please come back here on 27th February and tell us how you get on.
weak response out of Jimmee .. so it went like this;
J: how did she find the time to do a small thing?
everyone else: it doesnt take long.
A-M McN: no. it doesnt take long. and its important.
J: waaaaaa i lost .. waaaaaaa .. ok ill try a smart answer (smart answer was not smart, but was irrelevant)
Yeah, how can she have time to sell herself and her party to potential voters during an election seas……oh.
Jimmee, you must be a politician yourself. . . as they all take an extraordinary amount of time to do anything, so Ms.McNally writing this, as a competent, intelligent, hard-working person, probably took her an hour or two, tops. But for the rest of the clowns would take months. eg. I saw a short video by your one, what’s her name, the FG one for Dublin Bay South who only talks about being a chemist and a mother. Well she put up a short video and captioned that it took her four months to do because she had a baby. and the video is really short and very basic. its a handy gig if you can get in politics. They only have to work less than half the year, a couple of hours a day, and even at that they miss loads of those days. lazy whooers the lot .. So just because Ms.McNally manages to make the most of her time and do a lot, doesnt mean shes only doing this article. She’s actually a grafter. So are all the Soc Dems, which is why im voting for them. none of the rest care about anything but themselves.
Jimmee, your 28 word comment may have taken you a good 15 minutes to construct, but most people can write an entire column in an hour or so of spare time.
That’s all you’ve got, Jimmy? Devastating, I’d say she’ll drop out straight away.
Needs more shoe tax
For babies too, because some women have baby feet.
We have right wing parties in Ireland? Could have fooled me. Who are they so I can vote for them.
We do, yeah. Our current government thought it would be a good idea to get the taxpayer to subsidise free labour for business owners, for instance. You must be new to the country. Welcome.
+ 1
Oh right. So we have a right wing government. Do right wing governments bring in property taxes? That’;s actually a left wing policy traditionally but not in upside down land Ireland where our left wing opposes property tax.
Were social welfare rates slashed? No they weren’t and there is no cut-off. We have generations of families on welfare. The left encourage this for some reason.
Do we have free medical care for huge amount of people this country? That’s not very right wing.
Do you know what right wing is? Because we don’t have it in this country.
“Oh right. So we have a right wing government.”
Yep.
“Do right wing governments bring in property taxes?”
This one did. What are you saying? Unless you engage in 100% right wing activity, you’re not right wing? That is laughably dumb.
“Were social welfare rates slashed?”
Were they raised? Nope. People on social welfare have less real spending power than they did before this government took power. That IS right wing.
“We have generations of families on welfare. The left encourage this for some reason.”
I should’ve known I was dealing with a slogan chanting zombie.
“Do we have free medical care for huge amount of people this country?”
Less than the Brits do. You going to tell me the Tories aren’t right wing you absolute donkey?
“That’s not very right wing.”
You know what is right wing? Zero hour contracts and expecting the tax payer to pay for free labour for businesses like Tesco. We have a right wing government. Try to deal with reality. Or don’t. Nobody will care either way.
Laughable post. Propert tax is a left wing policy, if our government was reall right wing it wouldn’t have introduced it. Get it?
Welfare payments are largely untouched and among the most generous in Europe. Is that right wing?
Welfare keeps people in poverty for generations, he left still don’t get this.
By the way do any of you know what our deficit is? Yu seem to think we could continue spending like its 2002. Delusional student politcs
You said you’d like to vote for a more right wing part in your first post. That might explain your next post.
For your info:
The following were brought to you by FG/ Labour:
* Fuel Allowance Scheme CUT from 32 to 26 weeks
* Fuel Allowance CUT by 25%
* Rent Allowance CUT
* Clothing & Footwear Allowance CUT
* Disability Allowance entitlement age RAISED to 18
* Disability Allowance rates CUT for over 18’s
* Carer’s Allowance CUT * Telephone Allowance AXED completely
* One Parent Family Benefit CUT for children over 7
* Child Benefit again and again…
* Illness benefit qualifying period RAISED to 6 days from 3
* Invalidity Pension CUT from €203.30 to €193.50
* Bereavement Grant AXED completely
* College Fees RAISED
* Unemployment benefit for under 25s CUT in half
* Medical cards taken off the sick, elderly and terminally ill
Don’t forget taking 20 quid a month off pensioners to pay their phone bills. How much money did that actually save?
Hi Fergus, do you have a source/link for all this info?
Not all in one place Rory, but the info is correct. It’s all easily validated via google.
I don’t think BS will allow more than one link per post. Here’s one to get you started:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1205/357065-burton-defends-allowance-cuts-in-budget/
http://www.moneyguideireland.com/winter-fuel-allowance-cut-by-e120-budget-2012.html
Another one:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0116/310999-rent/
Another: http://www.inclusionireland.ie/content/page/budget-2012
From welfare.ie:
Waiting Days
From 06 January 2014 a customer is not entitled to Illness Benefit for the first 6 days of any period of incapacity for work. (This increased from 3 days, following a change announced in Budget 2014).This means that a person does not get paid for the first 6 days that they are out sick. These are called “waiting days”. Sunday is not counted as a waiting day.
& there’s more from our left wing Government:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/budget-2013-social-protection-call-to-reverse-20-cut-to-respite-support-for-carers-216169.html
They’ve been so kind really:
http://www.thejournal.ie/lone-parent-payment-cut-2191561-Jul2015/
You probably have enough to be getting on with. Just google the rest.
Thanks for all that.
We had an Irish National party at the last election.
I suppose in the context of Ireland, Renua are about as far right as you go. And FG are Pretty far right.
But only because we don’t have anything that would qualify as right-wing in any informed international analysis.
“We have right wing parties in Ireland? Could have fooled me. Who are they so I can vote for them.”
Yeah Andrew..
Here’s Gene Kerrigan’s take on it –
https://www.broadsheet.ie/2015/04/02/the-invisible-right-wing/
He called it the invisible right wing
“But no one ever describes the political correspondents as right wing journalists – even though they clearly report, approvingly, almost entirely within the consensus of the right wing parties. So there’s an invisible right wing, that is so much part of life that we don’t even have a name for it, it’s just seen as the norm. Anything on the left is identified as being somehow from ‘the other’. It’s from the outside. I don’t think the media even recognises that what is seen as the centre is way over to the right.”
Thanks for the link Anne.
Civil war politics, tribalism counted more than that left /right ideology for a long time.
Still does among TDs stuck in the past.
They cut the old-age pension by a shilling, you know.
Civil war politics shows just how skillful British empire was in destroying the sense of nation in “absorbed” states. Sense of nation is closely tied up to cherishing public good. Caring for public good was literally starved out of Ireland.
But no excuse anymore.
‘Caring for public good was literally starved out of Ireland.’
There are a whole set of reasons (or potential explanations) for why there isn’t a clear, unambiguous left-right divide in Ireland the way that there were in some other European countries.
The idea that this is because ‘caring for the public good was starved out’ of us is about the most risible one.
The lack of a powerful industrial working class is a better explanation.
And the fact that there was a sort of Catholic distrust of free-market capitalism for a long time.
Dev trialled an austere protectionist, anti-materialism and a couple of decades of this (utter failure) discredited those sorts of policies in Ireland.
The meshing of popular Catholicism with Irish national identity after the act of union led to a distrust of politics associated with the ‘secular’, ‘godless’ left.
The civil war arguably was a battle between the pragmatic & idealistic wings of the independence movement. The success of the former (those who merely wanted to paint the postboxes green) set the tone for constitutional politics.
Politics and society are in constant flux. You can absolutely have political ideologies, but reality dictates that those ideologies be broad and flexible. I’m no fan of Joan Burton but I do believe there is a need to customise and taper those values where necessary, and that to take an entrenched stance is naive and puerile.
Political careerism is not a dirty thing and neither is the pursuit of political power. Every party if offered a chance to be part of government will have difficulty seeing the wood from the trees but will seize their opportunity fervently. It’s about balancing party ethos with the realism of modern day to day politics and it’s plethora of anomalies, keep your enemies close etc.
Politics shouldn’t be black and white, the world doesn’t work that way. You can have a manifesto and underpinning philosophies but you have to also be pragmatic, and if that means selling a bit of your soul for what you interpret as benefitting the long term good, then so be it. Political ideology works best when it is humble.
To completely abandon your policies like the Labour party have is to turn your back on the people who put you there, & you can expect to reap the consequences next election.
Obviously but it’s not surprising that someone who writes in vague and vacuous platitudes would try to excuse people having vague and vacuous policy positions.
You forgot vacillate. Gives your alliteration the magic 3!
Oh and, cool story bro!
Thanks pal.
God i hate anti-vacillators.
No doubt they will. But the prospect of government is very different to the reality of government. Policy can’t always be achieved. That’s not the same as abandonment. Its also very different being the people who put you there and being the people who ARE there. Polemics aren’t helpful.
Yes it’s very different being the people who put you there, and being the people who are there. A nice big fat pension to look forward to for one.
Oh & did I say abandoned their policies? I should have said they enforced the opposite of what they stood for pre election, which is more than slightly different.
…& if you’re saying Polemics aren’t helpful to Labour, then GOOD! Burton & Kelly are vile hateful candidates, & not until they are gone will Labour have a chance of returning from obscurity.
Polemics aren’t helpful. Jesus. Can’t get over that.
Polemics aren’t helpful. That’s like something a Guard would say.
“Polemics aren’t helpful.”
Again, he writes exclusively in vague and vacuous platitudes like that. I don’t know why you’re expecting anything remotely intelligent or insightful.
Jedward!
Ah. That’ll explain it.
Good post. Peter Senge’s “idealistic pragmatist”…”I’m much more interested in how we actually achieve the kind of changes that are needed rather than just talking about them.”
Benefitting the long term good of themselves – is that what you mean?
This is yet another really lovely waffly article by Anne Marie
long on political theorisings and musings and what you might call ‘inside the Beltway’ kind of jabber
surprisingly short on any detail on how meaningful reform could be delivered if AM gets elected in a minority party
I think it was intended to be a conversation about political ideology and not a plea to BS readers to vote for her. Her party delivered a manifesto recently, have a gander.
+1
Perhaps digs
but it’s been delivered as part of a series clearly designed to raise awareness during a campaign
she probably hopes it will be re-tweeted
I’m torn, there’s a lot to admire here in her weekly musings, but let’s get serious too
I already read the campaign literature for the party but I want to know who will make the decisions if it comes down to going into government and swallowing a whole pile of right wing ideology from partners in order to get a working majority or even minority party
Ah Jung, I really love that your fandom brings you to my column every week
Fair play t’ya for the perseverance
I do like your column Anne Marie but it’s a bit like well …. getting what you want only up to a certain point … then your partner rolls over and goes to sleep
Lovely. You might need to work on your technique so…
And you also might need to work on yours, that was my point.
Even less convinced now due to unnecessary snarkiness.
“Even less convinced now”
Oh noes! Some fedora wearing, neck bearded shut in isn’t convinced about her. I’m sure this will give her sleepless nights wondering where she’s going wrong because like all right minded people, she’ll take the ramblings of some deluded nut job on the internet to heart.
“due to unnecessary snarkiness.”
This was literally your first sentence on the thread; “This is yet another really lovely waffly article by Anne Marie”
hahahaha. Sickener for ya. With your weird little ejaculation analogy.
@ caroline – I thought it might liven up a rather dull election campaign debate
anne-marie’s answer was pretty good though alright ;)
@ moyest – are you in receipt of medical attention ? can i call someone?
Nice Jung Man needs a a moment on Freuds couch.
Jaysus lad, put it away.
No, Jung, I’m grand. I did feel a bit queezy after reading your creepy posts about McNally but I’m alright now.
it’s funny how caroline was inspired to immediately think of ‘ejaculation’
my analogy wasn’t meant to be action-specific
satisfaction can come in many forms, caroline ;)
The satisfaction of seeing you get a hefty n0b-punch from Ammo is virtually unbeatable.
@ caroline
sorry for interrupting the cosy consensus here – I won’t speak again
Your world of warfare character probably needs feeding or something anyway, Jung.
Martyrisation on aisle 4 people!
You all know the drill. Don’t slip on his tears and make sure those tiny violins are in tune.
*warcraft. Dang.
It’s sad how little you folks appear to have to do with your time – you must feel extraordinarily unfulfilled – anyway carry on
like what thacher did to dennis every night of the miners strike?
was it something to do with a ‘blu’ shirt he was wearing?
Ah Jung…*sense the tone* …that’s not snarkiness that’s humour….Shall I ‘womansplain’ the joke?
PS:…That’s also an attempt at humour.
Forgive me my failings…
Now…it’s off on the canvass for me…
ah jung, dennis wore what maggie told him to, just like enda does what ever his overpaid “advisers” tell him.
so what – Dennis was told to wear a ‘blu’ shirt – is that it dav?
Anne – Marie – sorry I didn’t understand your message there – maybe you should write a column to explain it to me – good luck on the hustings
Best of luck Anne-Marie in your fight for change against the corrupt blushirts.
The SocDems are ‘ideologically driven’? really
the SocDem’s ideology is a very thin gruel
Cheap Car Insurance?!
Abolish Irish Water
No Repossessions
You could try, you know, reading something.
Ah, Eric Byrne. Didn’t manage much of note in the last government, but still managed to embarrass Dublin South Central with his smug quip. http://www.thejournal.ie/jonathan-obrien-eric-byrne-homelessness-dail-row-1892247-Jan2015/
Popped up again for the living wage campaign conveniently close to election time.
+1
I wrote to him over that, didn’t hear anything back.
SD will still be a slave to capitalism
A D4 intelligensia crowd who sit in Doheny and Nesbitts and spend more time discussing social justice issues than economic ones….
The left PD’s
D4?
Catherine Murphy is from Kildare.
Roisin Shorthall is from Drumcondra.
Stephen Donnelly is from Greystones.
Its really easy to be cynical and dismissive.
Its even easier to be a reverse snob about stuff.
But like, you can be a cynical dismissive snob about everybody.
At the end of the day, if you want change you need something to change.
If change is to be ridiculed and dismissed for some stupid snarky reason, then really the choice FF or FG.
Is there any inherent ideological difference between the SocDems and the Labour Party? Obviously they’re running on different platforms now, but that seems to have more to do with one being in government and the other not. If the roles were reversed I don’t get the sense the SocDems would be saying anything different to Labour.
Labour have promoted a power hungry psychopath to deputy leader and someone who thinks people shouldn’t protest unfair charges if they can afford smartphones. There is no reason, yet, to suspect that the SDs will also sell out.
Fair enough, there’s definitely more @rseholes in Labour alright. But everyone loved them in 2011. I’ll be giving the SocDems the benefit of the doubt this time but I’m not optimistic they’ll avoid being crushed by the weight of the institutional investors, big business etc etc who actually call the shots.
Well I’ve never seen a TD publicly fight corruption as vociferously as their leader. I’m optimistic and will be until I’m given a reason not to be.
that’s why I want to know which of their policies will be discarded if/when they do form a lefty-liberal coalition
based on the numbers it’s the most likely pairing I think – a few leftie Labours, a few labours, a bit of this, and a bit of that and then the FiGleaf lads
Yes and no.
Labour are nominally a social democratic party but with Union ties.
Social Democrats don’t have those ties.
But the rub, for me anyway, is that Labour don’t seem to allow the ideology to influence their activity.
Plus senior party members have been saying things that are in stark contrast to those ideologies for a while.
An increase in new car sales should not be a metric for recovery right now for any self respecting Social Democrat right now, for example.
Also, the Social democrats are compose of people.
People who are not the same people as the people in Labour.
They are different people.
As such they may very possibly see things differently and act differently.
“People who are not the same people as the people in Labour.”
It’s mind blowing how many people think ideas/political positions are basically sentient themselves.
The point about car sales… I think signs of a ‘booming’ economy were always considered to be a good thing in European Social Democracy, the whole point being that you juice up the economy to an extent that allows for the financing of a generous welfare state, the subsidising of some state owned industries where needed and strong workers’ rights. I wouldn’t be a huge fan of the ideology for this reason but it’s better than the neoliberal şitshow everyone seems to subscribe to now.
*rolls eyes at the ethics of using thesis interview material in electoral attack*
+1
+1 I usually enjoy Ann-Marie’s column, but that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Anne Maire McNally just a quick point on ideologies, i was at the a conference 2 weeks ago that Stephen Donnelly addressed and he said that school equality is not a big an issue as what the newspapers make it out to be and that his kids where fine in the local catholic school, so i am just wondering is that a party line for you Soc Dem’s and if so does that not mean you are pretty much holding on to the political ideologies of the past instead to being the progressive party that you all claim to be?
Not really convinced by this argument: the country need practical solutions to real problems. The whole ‘Right/Left’ thing anyway is a little dated: the world has become a very different place since the Cold War.
And surely not having a hard Right party here is a good thing?
Not having an extreme right wing party is a good thing.
Not having a left wing part would suit a lot of people who think that right wing parties offer practical solutions to real problems.
The practical solutions to real problems that we are seeing now really benefit only a relative few people, and slightly benefit quite a few people. However, they are of NO benefit to others who are being ignored, are not seeing any recovery, are in dire straights & have no voice. A party left of centre should be a voice for those people. Labour ditched them.
I love Dire Straits…
The left right thing predates the Cold war by about 150 years and is as valid now as it ever has been.
What are you blathering about?
Left-right politics.
It means egalitarianism vs hierarchism not captalism vs communisim.
Have you a more specific question?
No it doesn’t.
“The left right THING predates the cold war”
Jesus wept….
It started in the French Revolution of 1789. Google is a thing, you know. Although it’s funnier for everyone if you don’t use it and continue to embarrass yourself like that.
I’m not sure what you are getting at.
Left and Right are terms that refer back to the seating arrangements in the pre revolution French parliament.
Egalitarians sat on the left, Royalists sat on the right.
Is that what you are on about?
Digs is a troll-cop, & I don’t mean he polices trolls. He tells people they’re wrong without any explanation as to why he thinks they’re wrong. He probably does the same in his job, which is worrying.
I wouldn’t bother coming up with valid reasonable or even factual explanations for him. It’s a waste of effort.
You’d be pretty conflicted if New Zealand’s Anti-Troll Laws are brought in over here Digs.
You’re already conflicted. You probably slipped through the cracks.
I thought this was a fine and fair post Anne.
Outside of the day to day business of the Dáil, I think Labour’s biggest failing is in communicating where they have differentiated with FG. They have given the impression to most people, from what I can see, that they were just a compliant second fiddle.
But, I wrote to Labour on a few occasions on different topics, and what I got back was snotty answers of ‘we did this’ and ‘we did that’ but as I said to them at the time… well you need to get the finger out and tell people.
If they have fought FG on minimum wage and achieved the raise and are continuing now to fight for a ‘living wage’, they certainly didn’t communicate that to anyone in any substantial way…. until last week. And now it looks like it’s just something tagged on for the election.
Joan’s uppidy attitude to the general public doesn’t help either.
Ass Kisser Kelly is no more Labour left than my right one. He comes across as not even giving a s**t about working people. His attitude to apartment living and his complete and utter incompetence on reducing apartment sizes to the point that they cannot even conform to regulations is farcical on one level, but it also shows his palpable disdain for those who have to live in apartments – those who cannot afford a house or cannot afford to move out of the city. Don’t even get me started on his power tripping comments.
Poor communication, and the top two Labour leaders are out of touch… and sure, throw in the side show that was the nomination of Maria Cahill. It’s no wonder Labour appear rudderless and without an ideology… and I haven’t even got as far as the broken promises and in particular the continued cronyism and the zero accountability and transparency they promised.
I could go on and on….
Rant over…
I thought it was a great rant.
Ẁhy do the old parties bother with labels? They should be Party 1, Party 2, Party 3 etc.
But every new one keeps the name till in the Dail. If true to its core (!) principles when in power – party gets to keep original name till next election.
“Vote Party 1 No 1! Vote Party 3 No 2!”
“Vote Party 2 No 1! Give No 1 to …”
“Vote 1+2 coallition”!
Interesting to see the Soc Dems come out against a raise in the minimum wage… In favour of the wishy-washy ‘living wage’.
Relying on private business to solve the problem of the working poor doesn’t seem very left-wing to me.
Oh noes! One of their policies can’t be put in the ‘Left Wing’ box! This is a travesty. Of course, all us voters have to know whether something is right wing or left wing before we decide what we think about it…oh wait, only idiots do that.
Oh sit down before you sprain something, you child. You’re such a vicious fanboy you’ve lost all critical reasoning and try to police all posts on Anne-Marie’s columns like a lunatic stalker.
We COULD flesh out the reasoning behind adopting such a policy that seems a bit incongruous to the rest of their positions, OR you could shut down all attempted debate as usual with your slavish nonsense. I hugely respect Anne-Marie and the way she writes. What makes you think she needs the likes of you to ‘defend’ her with your poo-throwing tantrums?
Anyway, back to the actual issue. If I had to guess, the ‘living wage’ position is more of a Stephen Donnelly idea that came out of the ‘give and take’ of settling down on a manifesto.
Just goes to show that all politics is the art of compromise at some point.
Haha, at the fanboy comment. That took neck, it has to be said.
“We COULD flesh out the reasoning behind adopting such a policy”
Absolutely. Or we could debate whether or not its left wing. Like you did. Good lad.
“What makes you think she needs the likes of you to ‘defend’ her with your poo-throwing tantrums?”
What makes you think I’m defending her and not taking the pish out of deluded armchair analysts like yourself who tend to have highly fragile egos? I mean, look at your post! You’ve proper had a tantrum. It’s God damned hilarious.
Ah. The ‘LOL, I was actually just kidding/trolling” pretend excuse when called out on your poo. Well done.
Now that you’ve admitted to trolling, people can ignore you entirely from now on.
Good stuff.
“Now that you’ve admitted to trolling, people can ignore you entirely from now on.”
Didn’t you say I was pretending to troll in the previous *sentence*. Not the brightest, are you lad. I love it when you fragile types think you’re speaking for other people. You can ignore me if you like. I’ll continue to point out when you say really stupid things. You do it a lot.
Nail on the head. He’s insufferable and sounds like a 1st year arts student in some crappy establishment , probably UL.
Silly little boy alright
Should you not stop writing these opinion pieces until after polling day?