They want lower taxes and better public services?
Votáil The Magic Party!
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Eoin O’Brion literally defined SF as a populist party. FF have been populist going back to the Jack Lynch era budget and beyond. FG purported to be a fiscally responsible party but abandoned that over the last 6 years or so, throwing out fivers and tenners to people that hate them and would never vote for them.
In the social media age you kind of have to be populist as if you’re not offering it and everyone else is you are goosed. Paddy loves a bribe
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The point I am making is on how much of their vote is tied to their specific promises and populist stuff.
Both are largely getting around their core votes. If I had to guess, both lost some votes in some areas due to some specific migration issues but gained some from the likes of the Greens.
There is a big reason why every party including PbP did not want to make the economy an issue. The narrative was “we have the best economy ever but…”.
I think both FF and FG engage in populism but I don’t think it is successful for them these days.
For FF it used to be a big part of their vote, under Bertie in particular.
Flesh that one out there.
That’s some laugh given ff were in power that fucked the finances and fg deployed a lot of neoliberal policies that fucked the average person to get us out of austerity.
We looked after the bond holders, saddled ourselves with multi generation debt. We invited in vulture funds and took a stance initially that the market will save housing and in nama we sold off tonnes of assets.
Making out ffg are white knights when crucial health and community services were all cut to satisfy the above 
.
Their policies have created a divided Ireland on multiple different levels.
Plenty gained and pulled the ladder up but you’re some prick trying to paint the avid ffg-ers as the heroes in this story
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He said they were a populist party
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I think this is it.
A society is only is good as the information lansdcape it inhabits. Ireland is one of the better information landscapes in the world, but it’s getting worse, and is not immune from the international trends of “waaaaaaaa I’m angry I want everything and I want it now and I want to blame THEM for not having it right now, get THEM out!”.
Social media is as controlled as anywhere else. It’s controlled through noise. We now see that. And beyond the obvious stuff like a Nazi buying Twitter to turn it into a Nazi propaganda site, it’s controlled in ways that are very difficult to describe and people still don’t believe happen.
Social media is inherently biased towards right wing populism and hate speech and the sad truth is any degree of left populism will be absolutely murdered in this information landscape. Whereas right wing populism - such as, eh, support for genocide, finds fertile ground because it isn’t in any way challenging the economic status quo and its message is very simple - “THEY are bad people, they need to be wiped out”.
The more milquetoast right wing populism encompasses a total fear of challenging corporations in any way. “Can’t do that, can’t put that 0.1% tax on financial trades, everything will collapse!”
That’s your opinion, it’s nothing to do with reality.
The point I making is that they are the two most trusted on the economy.
65% said in the exit poll that their personal financial position (including cost of living) had improved in the last year. If you take FG, people’s trust in them to manage the economy is higher than what they get in votes (showing other issues hurt them).
Reality is that the opposition did not make the economy an issue and why would they? FG tried it in 2016 and 2020 and it didn’t work for them. Since 2011 it hasn’t been an issue that dominated. The “bike shed” is the height of it.
But it does remain an issue for many and where do you think the votes go on it?
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All the parties manifestos were called out and plenty of the gov policies have been called out so I think you’re only hearing what you want to hear there.
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Glas (like others), turns into a fiscal hawk when looking at FG. It’s amusing.
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They’re the only two who’ve had the economy 
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Some of the FG promises were stupid and I think they lost votes because of it. The notion that they didn’t get criticism for it though is incorrect.
Irrelevant.
People try to paint it as “alright Jacks” but why would someone in their 40s working in a MNC with a family and a house vote for parties who engage in rhetoric against the economy we have?
In fairness, this is why SF have gone from being anti EU and anti FDI to meeting Silicon Valley.
But it doesn’t mean they are going to be trusted on it. In particular, if your issue is the economy number 1, would a party that at the same time is saying they’ll raise your taxes at €100k and tank houses prices to convince you? You can get chummy with Salesforce but it doesn’t mean you are convincing the voter.
Not just picking on SF (at least Doherty breaks through on issues like insurance), but the SDs and Labour basically have nothing to say on the economy. Labour have Ged Nash who excites no one and the SDs had Catherine Murphy, who spent her energy on trying the next Siteserv scandal.
These voters don’t get the headlines at the moment but they are there.
It seems strange to me, I don’t know why the coverage isn’t continuing outside of the news bulletins.
It’s also odd that Claire Byrne earlier seemed to have different RTE correspondents on her show, do they really need separate people to do a few minutes on TV and radio?
The thing is that there is nobody else to vote for if the economy is the issue that matters to you most. The bike shed stuff was hilarious as it was a late in the day attempt by the opposition to become fiscal hawks. Sorry but I don’t believe for a second that Holly Cairns can run the economy better than Pascal Donohue. I say Holly Cairns not to pick on her but who do the Soc Dems have to talk on the economy?
Once upon a time you had a Joan Burton as the second opposition spokesperson on finance, not to mention your Michael Noonans or Ruari Quinns who had done the job once upon a time!
To your point, I actually think there’s people who stay home when the economy is an important issue for them.
I didn’t say they didn’t get criticism, they rightly did. They weren’t called populist though. And they somehow retain the sheen of “fiscally conservative” and good on the economy. My only point was that the three largest parties are equally “populist”.
It’s not irrelevant. Your point was about voter trust on the economy but Only two parties have had the economy ever. Distrust of others is built on nothing concrete…
nearly 60% of over 65s voted ffg. I’d say if you drew that back to over 50s the numbers would stack up.
The I’m alright jacks who are welded to party alligence come hell or high water is hardly a true measurement of anything.
There’s an ingrained bias towards ffg in the press and among the demographic that votes more. Establisment lackeys.
I’m not becrying the economy tho there’s tonnes wrong with the direction we’ve taken. But you held ffg up as some kind of fiscal saviours … and then started waffling about voter trust.
Top, top predicting and local knowledge.
Even if I didn’t know Holly Cairns was pregnant and would not be campaigning.
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