D’OB is sound
Give us an extensive list of concrete examples beyond the faults I’ve already pointed out.
Simon Harris’s Gordon Brown/Bigoted Woman moment.
Brown wasn’t wrong. He just got overheard saying the truth in a situation where the truth isn’t supposed to be heard.
What Harris did was far worse.
I’d never seen this before. I think Brown handled the situation quite well. He wasn’t dismissive to the woman face to face and made time to address her concerns. Harris on the otherhand was dismissive, condescending and had an air of superiority. Harris would be more Tory whereas you can see some dignity with the way Brown treated her. You could only imagine what Harris said in private to his aides relative to the manner they both addressed the 2 ladies in question.
Harris has aids 
I notice he’s started to post up pictures of his kids since Friday. “My best canvassers” type stuff. Most politicians are very strict about keeping their young children out of the public eye but using them like this is one desperate tactic to convince the Nualas & Bredas he actually is a very nice man. Or perhaps I’m just too cynical & we should just admire the cute pictures for what they are.
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I reckon only Simon does.
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They appeared, or he did anyway, to be trying to use his own magic, on all these new candidates. He’s spread himself too thin entirely, and overestimated his popularity. Saying that, given all the departures, he probably felt he had no option. But the electorate were turning, and it’s hard to be as likable and adored as Enda and Leo were.
Imagine being an environmental party in the middle of an environmental crisis and getting your messaging so bad your vote collapsed.
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Or moving the dial so far all main parties are on board
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The impact of inter FF and FG transfers on this election is sort of an unknown. What could they expect there - 20 to 30 per cent?
FF should benefit as the most centrist of the big 3 centrist parties
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Hard to turn down the State car though….
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Labour will transfer well in this election. The way the green left space works is this:
Election 1: Green Left party X that has just been in government and let down by the incompetence of their senior partners gets all the blame for THAT and gets destroyed while the senior partners get away away relatively unscathed.
Election 2: Green Left party X’s vote continues to plumb the depths.
Election 3: Green Left Party X sees only a slight upturn in its first preference vote but starts to transfer well and boosts its seat count moderately off this.
Election 4: The Tide runs high.
Election 5 onwards: repeat from step 1.
In this example, Labour are at Election 3.
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Left and right class based politics are almost dead and buried.
In the 1997 election, which was an Election 1 in the above example for Labour, Labour were punished for THAT.
THAT being the introduction of free third level education, social partnership leading to public sector strikes being effectively a thing of the past, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the legalisation of divorce, punishing Fianna Fail for their Opus Dei cronyism, significant advances in the peace process and a significant upturn in the economy.
Labour were PUNISHED for THAT.
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For the ordinary TD who doesn’t get a ministerial post what are the advantages for getting into ‘power’?
Do you get more money?
It’s great that we can vote for him here in leafy Douglas.