Labour in second place? Hmmm… that might give the government pause for thought. But probably not. Anyhow, good to see some pain being shared around… February 12, 2009
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.trackback
True story. I was going past the Lincoln Inn, or whatever it now is, down beside Tara Street this evening and heard a guy on a mobile saying something about Fianna Fáil being in third place. I wondered then knowing that a new poll was out tomorrow whether… could it be… surely not.
But hey…
It shows Fianna Fáil support down 5% to 22%, behind Fine Gael, 32%,and Labour, up 10% to 24%.
Labour up 10%? Dear God. Something very interesting is happening here, but what precisely? It would suggest that a goodly portion of the FF vote has shifted to Labour. And what of the following:
Taoiseach Brian Cowen has the lowest satisfaction rating of all the party leaders, down 2% to 24%, while Labour’s Eamon Gilmore has the highest, up 6% to 44%.
Meanwhile:
Sinn Féin is up 1% to 9%, the Greens unchanged at 4%, and Independents and others down 4% to 9&.
Not bad news for Sinn Féin. Interesting news as regards the Independents, at least some of which vote has also transferred to Labour.
I’ve got to say there seems to me to be some credibility to the Green result. The RedC poll which had them at, IIRC, 8% seemed overblown. 4% seems about right, and might induce at least some small degree of consideration. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
To be part of one of the least loved administrations in this Republic’s history can hardly be a surprise to them, but I suspect it will be.
They’ll soldier on though.
But, really, Labour ahead of Fianna Fáil. Now that’s something. It may mean nothing, or at least only a little – FF remains a formidable vote gathering enterprise, but it might also suggest that the gloss has finally come off Fianna Fáil. And not before time.
We’ve heard a lot of guff about sharing the pain and about ‘tough decisions’ being taken, particularly from people who will do neither and in no way suffer the impacts of the latter. Here though is a testament to the reality of the policies and decisions taken by the government.
Be interesting to see if this is reflected in Dublin Central. I’d have thought a Labour jump of 10% and a PSF gain of one would be causing worries for Adams and co, especially after Lisbon.
I’m still in shock. Labour 24%! At least Gilmore might now have the courage to say he’s not interested in questions about whether he’s going into coalition with FG or FF, he wants to be Taoiseach himself.
As for Dublin Central, if that shift is reflected on the ground then it’s a Labour gain by a big margin….
And the support for the centre- right parties is now barely over 50%: (that’s if you don’t count the Greens)
Polls are fickle creatures at the best of times, as we found out to our disgust at the last general election. One would hope though that the brainwashed masses are finally beginning to wake up and smell the dungheap in which they find themselves and starting to apportion blame.
Re the final link…I don’t blame Lenihan for not reading every single page in the report – 700+ pages would take the speediest of us a fair old time – so I wouldn’t call for his resignation…that is if he actually does something about the supposed incompetents on his staff who failed to bring his attention to this.
On another tangent, I’d love to see Bruton, Gilmore etc walk across the Dáil, sit down beside the FF people and actually work together to get us out of this mess. Continue to lambast them when things are looking a bit better, but right now I can do enough criticism on my own and we need them actually doing something constructive.
Mono-partisanship, it’s the new ting…
labour must stay out to fg and ff are forced together. Time for the Labour party and movement hold there nevre
that’s “to hold their nerve”
A grumpy old man writes: Whatever you do, walk past the ‘Lincoln Inn’. Is there a better symbol of what’s gone wrong with the country than the transformation of that venerable sticky-carpeted boozer into a wooden-floored wide-windowed ‘cafe-bar’?
An entertaining tidbit from the article in the IT giving a sort of breakdown of the numbers:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0213/1233867934939.html?via=rel
“In age terms Labour is weakest among the youngest 18 to 24-year-old category. Support increases up the age groups and is strongest among those over 50. In class terms the party’s strongest support comes from the best-off AB voters and is weakest among the poorest DE voters.”
I’m a bit bewildered by some of the other numbers in that article though as it gives the party support figures in Dublin as:
Fianna Fail: 13%
Fine Gael: 23%
Labour: 22%
SF: 8%
Greens: 3%
That leaves an on the face of it quite remarkable 21% for independents/others.
Scratch that, the last bit is my mistake.
For reasons best known to itself, the IT decided to give core rather than adjusted figures for the regions. And I counted wrong. The actual figure 31% and it’s for independents/others and undecideds together. Which is a hell of a lot of people.
I didn’t realise that the Lincoln Inn had not only been utterly changed inside but had also been transfered to somewhere near Tara St.
Truly these are disturbing times.
Yeah, was going to comment on that one too, PT… Or maybe WBS is one of those speedwalkers so, from his perspective, Tara Station is just beside the Lincoln Inn.
And Crocodile, you’re not the only grumpy old man out there – in complete and curmudgeonly agreement with ye on the Celtic Tiger’s appaling influence on the quality of Dublin pubs.
I was just out of one of the remaining good ones, Seán Báite, when I wrote the comment – O’Brien’s of Leeson St.
It’s not just Dublin pubs. A huge percentage of the pubs in smaller towns around Ireland have had their interiors gutted and replaced with pine finish and flat screen TVs too. You will actually have great difficulty finding intact traditional pubs in places like Thurles or Clonakilty these days.
The single biggest problem for anyone who likes drinking in Dublin, apart from the price of Dublin, has been the interaction during the Celtic Tiger years between the cost of pub licenses and the cost of property. Both cost so much money that it made it completely impossible for small pubs and bars to open and created an enormous push towards creating huge bland drinking factories. Dublin still has some great old fashioned pubs, but pretty much anywhere that’s been opened or expanded or extensively remodelled in the last twenty years is a kip. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Maybe we should start a thread on ‘Best Boozers for Bolshies’.
Just heard Kathleen Lynch TD on Today FM praising Ray McSharry’s role in 1987 and arguing that history showed there was no alternative. Funny, don’t remember that being her view at the time. This morning she let Sam Smyth parrot the same old anti-public sector line and agreed that the time wasn’t right for a general election; Labour eh? Nobody better at pissing away an opportunity.