Kell surprise… you want people who dont think like you to be cancelled… who’d have thunk it 
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That’s the problem with you thicks.
Hi guys, its Christmas, can we lay off with the personal attacks.
They’re all extremely middle-class tho and their policies reflect that. Culture wars and lefty sentiment. Would they erode enough of FFGs support in the middle to truly become big enough?
If Labour didnt abandon their socialist/ working class outlook then maybe.
Some how i think the problem is all yours.
I think the SDs may not be mature enough to do this and may more be about the party
Like they said they would only go into Government if 5 of their core policies were implemented
Like is getting 1 policy not better than being in opposition and getting none
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The biggest difference between that little group and the big three parties is populism. It seems the Irish electorate doesn’t reward prudent government. The big three parties are populist parties that ultimately will choose buying votes when faced with hard choices. FG wants to cut taxes and erode the tax base and hand out “one off” supports on repeat while investing nothing in the future, they’ll always look after their own voters ahead of the wider population. FF are FF and want to buy votes through giveaway budgets and will always revert to doing so. SF purport to be left wing but similar to the other big two just want to buy votes by doing things that conflict with their stated left wing disposition and, like getting rid of USC, property tax and carbon tax. Labour was the third party there for a long time and on the edge of being an equal to the big two and I’d say it was more or less the same. The Greens were not a populist party, achieved some really positive things and took the flak that came with some of it, and got wiped out.
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What we need is a no nonsense party.
We could all vote for no nonsense.
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I think they could take votes from all three big parties - particularly if their policies were credible and they had a reasonable path to gov
They’re at what 23 seats now - not that much of a jump to mid thirties with lots of constituencies without a Lab/SD/Gr rep.
Get there and suddenly a range of potential gov options open up.
The country is broadly centre-left in political outlook - I def think there’s a place for it
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Some truth in that but one persons populism is another persons preferred policy
Getting them to come together is another story…
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One of the key features for voters in their middle age is taxation.
Tell a couple with a salary of 150k plus in the household theyre at risk of higher tax with a left focused government and they’ll vote FF and FG all day long. They want a stable economy, good healthcare and to be safe.
SF dont appeal though others might.
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FF and FG have populism but the avoiding “hard choices” stuff isn’t correct.
You look at their scores on the economy and it is clear they are trusted more. People might dislike austerity but there is a large chunk of voters who do value attempts to get the public finances in order. I also think that stretches into independents. Close to 10% of voters didn’t vote FF or FG number 1 but want a government from them. There’s luxury item independent voters who feel comfortable enough to vote elsewhere for their narrow interests whilst knowing the “bigger picture” is safe. Quite a few of those voters would imo come back if the going got tough.
Ultimately the softness in voters as a proportion of their vote is clearly highest with SF and the SDs. The Greens are back to a core vote. Labour have a degree of populism but have also a stronger core.
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Its time for FF and FG to merge.
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Them merging wouldn’t be in anyway helpful for you lot.
That is exactly true. But when establishment parties do it, it’s grand. The FG manifesto was grossly irresponsible, and the last budget was a classic FF buy votes giveaway budget, but only SF get called populist.
I largely agree with this though I think the shade of populism varies between the big three parties and certainly varies by individual. FF have traditionally been a sort of Irish Peronism lite sort of populism. SF are a sort of Viktor Orban style populism with a bit of Fidel Castro chic thrown in. FG are a sort of I’m Alright Jack those poor people are ne’er do wells and we don’t like them sort of populism. But overall the populism of the big three is pretty mild compared to international standards, and pretty ineffective.
I’ve always said the parties in the green left space are too honest and decent for their own good. They try to explain, and explaining is losing, as they say. And in a way their voters are too demanding. But they’re too demanding for the right reasons. They’re demanding because they actually care.
Whereas the majority of the public doesn’t really want good government, they want a choreographed version of “reality”, they want bluffers that appear confident, they want magic, immediate solutions, which don’t exist, and they want to moan that everything is terrible. The parties in the green left space are always a convenient scapegoat for these people.
That’s why FF and FG will be desperate to lure in Labour or the Soc Dems. It gets dangerous next time for FF and FG if they don’t have the mudguard.
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Why would they. They’d be back to 20
Per cent between them soon enough
You’re talking about public perception, not reality.
The Republicans are “trusted more” on the economy in the US. But that doesn’t reflect the reality that Republicans have historically been shit for the US economy and Democrats far better.
It’s perception. Branding. Advertising.
The other thing Id say is that outside of the immigration discussions, SF are going to struggle to make big gains in rural Ireland where people arent protesting en masse.
Rural Ireland will struggle to conect with and therefore vote for some of their candidates as I see it. They should still pick up a core vote in towns though.