Thought we had one of these already but appears not.
Latest Irish Times MRBI poll out this morning and the rise of Sinn Féin continues unabated.
FG top on 32
SF on 24
FF 17
Ind 15
Lab 10
GP 2
Labour’s fall is even more dramatic than Sinn Féin’s gains but they don’t seem to be learning from it at all. They picked up votes because they marketed themselves as a left wing alternative to the status quo but have delivered nothing in that area and have been very public in their support of current economic policy. Seems evident to me that they negotiated a poor programme for government but they need to react to that now instead if just towing the line and losing all relevance.
While I accept your point about Labour’s issues being self-inflicted, I think fundamentally we’ve got a situation where some of the Irish people don’t really want to face up to the situation we’re in. SF are on the rise because they’ve cynically exploited this, much as FG/LAB exploited it in advance of the last election. The reality though is that our options are extremely limited and largely dictated by the troika. The rise in the SF vote is based on a portion of the Irish electorate thinking that the easy answers that SF offer are in any way achievable, which they are not in my opinion.
What about polls for the EU Fiscal Stability Treaty (or whatever it’s called)? Was there one of those over the weekend in any of the newspapers?
Also, are there any non-politician celebrity types endorsing a vote for one way or the other? If I can find somebody I like telling me to vote a certain way then I’ll probably go with them as it’ll save me the bother of researching what it’s all about.
Anytime any group on the left make any argument though tb it seems as though they are accused of being unrealistic. While troika are hugely significant there is far more that can be done to bring about greater sense of equality. Labour don’t even seem interested in that and are instead more eager to please Germany. They have done virtually nothing on the bank debt. While most parties always make promises they can’t keep Labour’s pre election talk of ‘Labour’s Way or Frankfurt’s Way’ was just unbelievably cynical. Attacking SF is their prime strategy now it seems.
Roughly 58 to 42 in favour. David McWilliams will be voting no. Norah Casey will be voting yes. Vincent Browne will be voting no. Matt Cooper will be voting yes.
[quote=“Fagan ODowd, post: 687068”]I expect Ray Darcy to step up to the plate on this
[/quote]
I’m a great admirer of Damien Dempsey and used to regularly watch him play live when I used to be interested in music.
Damien is advocating a ‘No’ vote and I can’t fault his analogy / logic:
If you lost all your money gambling then you wouldn’t expect the general public to pay your bills for you. So the banks and property developers who gambled and lost shouldn’t expect us to cover their tabs either.
I agree that Labour massively over-egged their rhetoric coming into the last election and have been clearly put in their box regarding all their tough talk. We’re never going to act unilaterally on the debt issue and frankly the ECB and EU have us by the balls and see no particular reason why they should concede on this issue.
SF’s rhetoric is a similar siren call of making the bond-holders pay and that austerity isn’t working mixed in with some old-school populism. Ultimately though, unless we risk going it alone, nothing will change without the nod from Brussels and Frankfurt.
It’s interesting to note SF’s attitude in the North where they dance to London’s tune and say they have too because that’s where the money is coming from. Not much talk up there of abolishing council tax, water tax etc. etc. They’re as cynical as the rest and are only using this crisis to ideally become the main left-wing party in the South.
Ultimately, this is working, because they’re the only mainstream party that hasn’t been in government in the last 5 years and as such, their hollow promises haven’t been found out yet
McWillias the guy who advised Lenihan that the bank guarantee was a good idea? Why do people give a shit what this attention seeking self publicist thinks?
