Another Election? To be sure, to be sure!

Only in Ireland would it happen that parties that win an election tell you that they don’t want to go into government.  One wonders what the men and women of 1916 would think ? In 1916 Irish men couldn’t elect their own government. Irish women of course were not allowed vote until 1918 and when they voted they spoke with a clear voice. 

100 years on those who lay claim most to the heritage of 1916 are first to tell the electorate the day after we’ve voted that they’re more interested in their parties and protecting their political position than the country they claim to love.  Today the centenary has become an embarrassing reminder of how the vision of the proclamation has been discarded in favour of political expediency and short term political advantage.

I’d an inkling what was about to happen yesterday at the count.  During a long conversation with a candidate whose posters called for transparency in government he told me he was opposed to his party entering government and that it was Fianna Fail and Fine Gaels job to govern.  The Social Democrats never told the electorate that on the doorsteps when they were collecting an impressive vote of over 2,000. 

You see this wasn’t a snap election, it’s been flagged for years.  Opinions have been well formed Suggestions now that we should have another in the next few months and that somehow there will be a different result with one party getting an overall majority are unrealistic.  This is the result whether we like it or not.  Fine Gael and Labour lost 50 seats.  An opinion poll showed 60% want a change of government.  In anyone’s language that means those who won have to form the government.  That’s how a democracy works.  It is time to give the people the change they want.

Anything else is farce and will rapidly wind up the electorate the wrong way.  The mistakes that undermined Labour in the last government were made before they entered office.  History is now repeating itself in the case of Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, AAA and Social Democrats.

When you organise under the banner of Right to  Change you either keep that promise and deliver change or you let down people.  All these parties shared policies on water charges and property tax before the election. Why now are they finding even the thought of forming a government impossible? 

If 100 years ago a Scottish Socialist who didn't speak Irish could see common ground with a conservative Gaelgoir school teacher in developing a fledgling state, what's the real problem now

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Against the tide

One Summer’s evening in 1916, William Martin Murphy was sipping from a drink as he looked out over the 18^th hole of a South Dublin golf course.  Weeks before had seen the execution of James Connolly and the destruction of Liberty Hall by a gunboat. The ITGWU funds were down to about £8,000 and membership was in decline.  James Larkin was in exile in the US and the bosses had beaten the union in the lock out.  He could afford to smile as he remarked to one of his buddies; “Well that’s the last we’ll hear from the Labour Party”.

Nothing in politics is inevitable.  5 years ago the conventional wisdom was that Fianna Fail were heading for the knackers yard.  If you drove from Wexford to the border you could pass through just 3 constituencies where FF had Dail representatives. Make no mistake about it.  Today’s drubbing is not the end of Labour. An end of an era, yes but not the end of a party.  Labour retains the number of seats after a hammering that the Greens had when they entered office.

There appears to have been 2 elections.  One for government but another for opposition.  I’m amazed that so many on the left are not interested in forming a government despite a mandate.  What was the point in asking people to vote for you and telling people you’d represent them before an election and after the election turn around and say to the 2 main parties, work away? 

Be careful for what you wish for.  A grand coalition with grand ego’s?  No thanks!  There are 3 blocs. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Right to Change.  It’s clear that people don’t want either Labour or Fine Gael in office.  That’s the result of today’s verdict from the polls.  Enda Kenny will not hang in as Fine Gael party leader and Taosieach for too long more.  Fine Gael may justifiably replace him with Frances Fitzgerald and commence negotiations with Fianna Fail.  Michéal Martin has his own issues.  One wing of FF wants to embrace SF while the other wing prefers FG.  Frances Fitzgerald might be a more awkward and unpredictable customer for FF than Enda Kenny.  Gerry Adams will continue to dominate SF.  FF and FG backed themselves into corners on coalition.  Right to Change may horse trade with some independents and the trots to build up a bloc of TD’s that is greater than FF.   

I suspect that if the Dail refuses to elect a Taoiseach and the President is asked to dissolve and call elections that he will refuse unless it is clear that another election will produce a decisive result.  We’re heading for either a constitutional crisis or a democratic vacuum.  In that context which house of the Oireachtas has the greatest credibility?   

So where to now for Labour? The party may well be bloodied not beyond repair.  It’s back to the drawing boards and just as 100 years ago the Labour movement had to knuckle down and rebuild on the landscape it found itself on, so too will todays party.  Time to surprise the chattering classes in their golf clubs!

Head and shoulders above the protesters

I’ve always regarded President Higgins highly.  He’s a very able and articulate man who is passionate about the people of our state.  He’s being deliberately targeted by anti water charge protesters.  It’s very unfair to him, those who organise events, our citizens and our state.  The personal abuse of him and his wife Sabina is completely unacceptable.

The reason why Higgins is being targeted is because it was wrongly believed by supporters of the Right to Water, Sinn Fein and Socialist Workers Party that the President should not sign into law the legislation to introduce new lower water charges in December.

In fact the President refers the legislation only after consulting with the Council of State to the Supreme Court.  When the Supreme Court makes a decision that decision cannot be challenged again.  In other word the President can be ordered to sign the bill and no citizen can ever challenge it if the court finds in favour of the government.  If the Court finds against the bill it can be sent back to the Oireachtás where it can be partly amended and the bill then passed and it has to be signed.

Politicians know how the Supreme Court works, Paul Murphy has a law degree.  Here’s a suggestion, would Paul have not been better employed using his legal skills to challenge the act through the courts, if he thinks he has a case?  You see at the back of many minds there is the view that R2W, SF, SWP Socialist Party egos are driving a publicity campaign that is not about water but about the next election and winding up the electorate.  If the president had referred the bill one wonders what the campaigns response would have been to judges making the decision on this case?

It is appalling that the Presidency which is above politics is being dragged into a political dispute. This controversy could if it continues harm the office of president, one Irish political office which still has an enormous international prestige.

There is an onus on people organising campaigns to take responsibility for everything that happens.  That is not happening in all cases.  You cannot go some of the way with people you bring on the streets and when things take a turn, say, “well that’s got nothing to do with me”. The petrol bombing of a TD’s office, the telephoning of threats to the constituency office of Alan Kelly, the abuse of Labour councillor Martina Genockey during the local election campaign and of course the targeting of Joan Burton in Jobstown.  There just some of the high profile cases, all of us know that there are many others.

Recent comments by local Wexford People Before Profit councillor that Wexford councillors would be advised to listen to her mandate and allow protests within the council building by her supporters, because if they don’t she won’t otherwise be responsible for what will happen typifies the part threat,  part gutless abdication of responsibility that has become typical of a campaign that is more about publicity than fact.  

I’ve organised and taken part in more than my own fair share of protests.  Any protest should have an objective.  I can’t see what the objective is in Thursday’s protest in Dublin nor indeed the point in posting youtube footage that so damages their own campaign.   The R2W campaign should do the decent thing and apologise for what went on to the President, his wife, Colaiste Eoin and the community it serves.

For a man of small stature, President Higgins stands miles well above his detractors.