Former Justice minister and Tánaiste, Michael McDowell (above)
Sticking his oar in or trolling the electorate?
Michael McDowell S.C., and blogger (for Paddy Power) writes:
If Labour are at 8% and Sinn Féin are at 15% on first preferences, the Left and protest vote may coalesce around Sinn Fein and other Left candidates in terms of second and later preferences.
There may, on current trends, be few transfers in practice from FG candidates (either by way of surpluses or eliminations). That might yield “Workers Party”-type electoral outcomes for Labour.
Will the Government’s latest “Scare the S**t Out of the Voters” strategy (I only use the language of an anonymous Government spokesman) work?
Does anyone really believe that a FG-FF coalition would be “riskier” or “worse” for the economy in terms of employment, interest rates. investor confidence or sustaining the “recovery” than a minority FG-Labour coalition with independent support?
Some might well say that they are reluctant to leave Sinn Féin as the largest opposition party.
On the other hand, leaving FF and SF together for a short period as the alternative Government to a shaky FG-Labour minority mish-mash might be just as scary in the long term.
Unless things suddenly change in the polls, we are in for a change of some sort in Government.
Enda will still be Taoiseach when the Dáil reconvenes. But I doubt whether he will scare the voters into handing him and Labour another chance.
Fight!
McDowell got rejected by the electorate some years ago, and it seems that he
is now only coming to terms with his political demise, his alarm at the rise of
Sinn Fein just only shows how he fails to understand that the electorate are the
boss, that’s demoracy…love them or hate them they are there, and those who support them will not go away but only increase and the same with AAA + the
rest
Just like back in 1916 when Eoin McNeill his ancestor failed to support the rising
even called if off, there is no way of calling off the outcome of this election, the
mistakes of the past are coming back haunt the likes of McDowell and his political
ilk…..perhaps a judical appointment might sooth the wounded political ego.
The political reality of Ireland 2016 is that a huge section of the electorate don’t
trust or even accept the main political grouping’s that had power and they are
going to support the underdog and looking at the talent this alternative oposition
has displayed maybe they are correct
McDowell is a smart guy no doubt about it and a decent fella I would guess. But he is centre-right ideologist and fears the left. Probably worried about a tax on fine wines and fois gras.
There are many options for Government. One is FF/SF/SocDems or Labour.
But FF/FG makes sense as a coalition and it will expose their sham opposition dance of the last 80 years. It will also serve to build a strong united left.
FF/FG? The crony parties with their links to developers, dodgy business people, brown-envelope-hander-overs et al? That’s the best we can do?
I think Tish’s point is that it’ll be a Pyrrhic victory for them. I can’t abide either of them, but if they form a government together it changes everything, it’ll completely expose the fact that we’ve been swapping between two cheeks of the same corrupt ass since independence.