From top: Tanaiste Joan Burton and Taoiseach Enda Kenny during Christmas Carols at government buildings last week; Anne Marie McNally

As Labour actively distance themselves from Fine Gael ahead of a General Election the author warns: don’t get fooled again.

Anne-Marie McNally writes:

So Joan Burton’s mission for this week is to instil fear into the Irish electorate. “Go forth and terrify” she whispered to Labour minions earlier this week.

No, it’s not the terror we’ve come to expect from this FG/Lab Government – not the usual economic terror inflicted upon those on the margins of our society – the homeless, the children living in poverty, the lone parents, the women being forced to travel for reproductive choice, the older people with home help cuts and the loss of the phone allowance, the people who can’t afford private health insurance sitting in waiting rooms or lying on trolleys – no it’s not that mundane day to day terror, this is real bogeyman terror.

This is the prospect of an Enda-led Fine Gael getting its hands on the reins of power without Joan swinging out of his coat tails. Imagine. Enda let loose to go as right wing, wealth-favouring Christian Democrat as he wants on us.

It’s at this point that I stop and remind myself of the almost VERY same terror rhetoric deployed by Labour in the run-in to the 2011 General Election.

‘Don’t fall victim to a one party Fine Gael Government” howled Gilmore. “Imagine the austerity and complete lack of care for ordinary and vulnerable citizens” cried Joan. “Fine Gael need Labour to stave off an all-out attack on working class citizens” was the refrain of the campaign. People believed the hype.

Indeed for my MA Thesis I interviewed former Labour Party strategist Fergus Finlay and a current Labour TD and both agreed that the final opinion poll of the 2011 campaign which showed the possibility of a Fine Gael single party Government was the wake-up call for the electorate which caused them to listen to the Labour cries and thus return a coalition Government.

Yet despite that decision to elect Labour to ‘temper the worst excesses of a Fine Gael Government’ the electorate can legitimately ask “where have Labour been for the past 5 years?”

As the worst excesses of Fine Gael rained down- and continues to do so- upon those struggling in our society, where was Labour? Where were they as the child poverty rate doubled during their 5 year term? Where were they as cuts to lone parents – which Labour had clearly stated would not happen – happened?

Where were they when the damaging Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill was enacted? And where were they when Water Charges and so many other punitive measures were being rammed through the Dáil and being inflicted on struggling families?

Let me tell you where they were – they were there, right by Fine Gael’s side, cheering them on and supporting every move they made. If they weren’t as supportive of Fine Gael behind closed doors, as they’d now have us believe, that’s their own business because it certainly didn’t manifest itself as any protection for ordinary citizens.

Labour will point to the Marriage Equality Referendum and tell you that without them, it would never have come to fruition – and that may well be the case, and certainly I commend their work on that momentous piece of legislation – but even that became a Fine Gael success as Fine Gael Minister Frances Fitzgerald basked in the media glare of the win.

Labour may have been the tail but it certainly did not manage to wag the vicious dog no matter how much it spends the next few weeks telling you it did.

It is too late now for Joan to start attacking her buddy Enda and accusing him of being capable of perpetrating heinous acts on us ordinary citizens – he already has and you and your comrades raised the pom-poms and cheered as he went about it.

We’re so often told we have a two and a half party system here in Ireland and we bounce from tweedle-dum to tweedle-dee. There comes a time when you buck the trend and stop falling for the campaign rhetoric and outright lies that suit the establishment. Spain’s just had that time. Now it’s Ireland’s time

Anne-Marie McNally is a political and media strategist working with Catherine Murphy TD and will be a candidate for the Social Democrats in the forthcoming General Election. Follow Anne-Marie on Twitter: @amomcnally