Meanwhile, in all the excitement… October 3, 2012
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.trackback
…some may have missed this… Two LP MEPs – Nessa Childers, and Phil Prendergast (and purely coincidentally ex-WUAG), have called for Minister Reilly to resign, as has Cllr. Cian O’Callaghan. Interesting.
BTW, interesting how the IT phrases it in regard to O’Callaghan:
…a Labour councillor from Fingal, near Dr Reilly’s north Dublin constituency, became the first to break ranks with his party and called for the Minister to resign.
That wouldn’t be Cian O’Callaghan, Cathaoirleach of Fingal County Council, or as it is otherwise known Mayor of Fingal. Well, actually it would.
EDIT: And as Damian O Broin notes, “Cian’s not the first/only councillor to call for his resignation – Joe Ryan (former mayor of Wexford) did so yesterday as well:”
Cian’s not the first/only councillor to call for his resignation – Joe Ryan (former mayor of Wexford) did so yesterday as well:
… and Cllr Dermot Looney (Tallaght) has called for his resignation as well:
If this continues it might well be significant. What the Labour leadership don’t realise is that FG need them in government just as much as Labour need FG. They won’t coalesce with SF and while the idea of them joining with FF sounds plausible, they’d always have one eye on their back if they did so. Labour are by far the most appealing coalition partner for FG which means that Gilmore et al could actually throw their weight around to a certain extent if they wanted to, pace McDowell who by doing so probably prolonged the electoral life of the PDs.
The suspicion would be, however, that the supine attitude of Burton, Gilmore and Howlin has less to do with questions of governmental stability than with the fact that they broadly agree with FG’s approach to the current crisis and don’t really have any social democratic principles to fall back on. They increasingly resemble people who’ve decided their former left wing ideals were foolish and have found themselves stranded in an ostensibly left wing party, even if it’s left wing by name only.
But if there is a groundswell of opinion in Labour that the party should be more than merely a combined mudguard and rubber stamp for FG it should be encouraged. Like it or not, an even marginally more social democratic Labour party will, for the time being, spare people the worst excesses of austerity. If this issue gets personalised around James Reilly, it doesn’t matter so long as it’s some form of rallying point.