Yeah all they need to do really is dovetail it into the housing issue blah blah blah.
They’d already have gone that way if it wasn’t for the last election where all things to all men populism worked.
Any party separating from the herd on his issue face a serious backlash one way or another. PBP aren’t a serious party so can shout as much as they want. Mary needs another immigrant to kill someone or for Leo to reiterate his stance of slowing down intake.
Eddie Hobbs had a very brief period as a populist hero in 2005 when he had the show Rip Off Republic in which he played a pound shop preacher promoting rage against supermarkets and the GUBMINT (specifically the “Groceries Order”).
He mistakenly thought people would remember that in 2016 and embrace him again as a populist hero. But the vast majority of people just stuck with the view of him as a whiney gobshite they’d had since 2005, and mentally dismissed him and thought no more of it.
A campaign trail is showbusiness, especially if you have a showbusiness personality. I really think McGregor would fancy it. You could imagine him pounding the streets of Crumlin, and East Wall, or Drogheda, or Cork, or Galway, with threatening looking followers and paparazzi. Tucker Carlson might pound the streets of Dublin with him. Far right INTERNET personalities would flock to Ireland to watch this political circus in action. A political equivalent of Don King Promotions. You can imagine him promoting unknown far right gobshites in the same way he promotes his fights, or Katie Taylor, or his whiskey or his stout, or the onion rings at the Black Forge Inn.
“My stable of candidates. My people. I am the true representation of the working class, of the people (maniacal laugh).”
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I disagree. I think there’d be a massive first mover bump to someone who presented what seemed like sensible restrictions on immigration.
edit
I saw it mate. Did they put the finger on you that quick?
I think so. But there’d still be a lot of blowback in the media and other parties though.
He’s like a right little maneen in that rig out, he looks like a young Kevin McStay.
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Labour or SDs maybe… But SF in particular would face a huge backlash simply because it’s SF. While I’m critical of Mary not having a set criteria/policy for the party, she’d be silly to blink now. Maybe if she goes about it another way… An integration policy rather than an admission policy 
Mary Lou has made quite the faux pas with that tweet. Very negative general reaction to it. What was she thinking?
Gone are the Danny Morrison days of PR management.
You might expect the “we never thought they’d get elected” loose cannons of conspiracy theorists in the parliamentary party or idiot, dog whistling councillors to go off message.
Not the leader.
She’s always been the chief attack dog in the party, but I always doubted she’d be the one that leads SF into government without FFG, but it looks like I’ll be wrong on this one. They are playing an incredibly risky game currently on policy positions, but they’ve ridiculously talented strategists behind them, better than FF or FG I would argue, but weaker candidates. They’ll do and say whatever it takes to get over that finish line, even if their intentions once they reach the goal will be different, and I suspect this squeaky bum phase between now and the election after next, has a great potential to alienate their traditional base. The base know what they want to do, what they’re going to do, but feel a little queasy in the winning of percentage points, in getting there.
Doherty’s role is a great surprise to those who’ve known him since his teens. Nobody in that camp saw this in his future.
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I disagree. Their candidates are stronger on average than ffg id say. Definitely more able to debate. They also have a hugely progressive profile to their candidates. More women, younger people. Id think the strategy team thought their shite was marmalade up until a year or 2 ago. Just waiting on the numbers, squeezing out competition left and centre. Now they have to make actual policy choices knowing they might lose votes. We’ll see what their strategists are made of soon.
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SF as we knew it died when Mary took over.
It’s just a populist party now - it offers nothing. I’d say Mary wakes up and sticks her head out the window to see what way the wind is blowing and that decides how she attacks the day… It’s a shame as we are in need of a true left party in Ireland. What we have is a few head de balls in PBP and middle class woke types in SDs. Working class politics is dead and another reason why you’re seeing lawlessness on the streets.
SF “strategists” are the most overrated people in politics.
For their primary strategy, they are poor. They are well organised but that doesn’t mean their strategy is sound.
In fairness, they are selling toxicity so it isn’t that easy.
Selling toxicity is the easiest thing to do in politics at the moment.
They basically profit off division in NI to get themselves 30%.
Down here it is “last man standing” stuff that again may muster them 30%.
The latter will ultimately damage the UI goal, which is what the strategy should be all about.
You only need to look at the cash for ash thing to see how wafer thin they are on serious business.
Go on. Please give us more details on this.
It’s probably the time himself and Matt Carty were arrested as teens in Dublin