I don’t think that’s the problem with Labour… February 28, 2016
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
…or at least not the only one. As reported from the scene of Alan Kelly’s… ahem… victory:
Across the hall, an elderly Labour party activist reflected ruefully on a bad campaign he said was primarily the result of some bad decisions by the party itself. “They should have picked Alan as leader two years ago. They should never have gone in with Fine Gael in 2011. And Ruairí Quinn should not have let in Democratic Left,” said the lifelong activist, who asked not to be named. He also blamed Phil Hogan for his Irish Water debacle and pointed to the election date as a problem. “Hardly any outgoing Government has won an election in February,” he remarked.
You would say that though, wouldn’t you?
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Was talking to an acquaintance at the count yesterday who is pretty high up in the party and his thoughts were that the parliamentary party had concentrated power in a few TDs and away from the wider base to the point where there are minimal new faces and a lot of the older faces are gone.
Also said that these TDs had become besotted with power and thought they were starring in their own version of the West Wing and SpAd culture had overtaken any inner party democracy.
Sounds to me like DLers continuing to DL!
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Very interesting insight on your friends part.
Problem(well one of many) with DL was there was precious little party around the TDs in my experience before abandoning them about two years in.
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Just on the LP isn’t this weirdly revealing in some way:
“In Kerry, Arthur Spring has arrived at the count centre and said: “I am never going to walk away from politics entirely.”
“Looking at the gravitas of the situation – by gravitas I mean the weight that pulls you down – that we found the country in five years ago, we dealt with it as best we could.”
Not sure he understands what gravitas means.”
I like that last line from the IT. It’s absolutely true but it also points up some aspect of the current LP that is very strange.
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The situation the Labour Party finds itself in at the end of the 2016 election lies in the fact that for at least the last 50 years it has lost touch with its roots. Maybe the huge defeat could be an opportunity for Labour to reflect, something political parties are notoriously reluctant to do. Otherwise it’s future in peril. Always doing whatever you’ve always done simply won’t work in a country with no economic or political sovereignty. What’s required for the Labour Party is a new vision informed by its roots.
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Alan Kelly on RTÉ Radio on Sunday said something about the Labour Party and re-examining its purpose, vision, what it stands for, etc.
Maybe he was serious.
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Others I could believe, but not him.
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Needs more SpAds?
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The architect of Labour’s downfall is still in place.
Brendan Howlin led the negotiations on the formation of the government in 2011, ending them so late that the draft programme for government was available to delegates only in the early hours of the morning of the special delegate conference.
And then he took the job as super-junior at the Department of Finance with the job of making cuts (not tax reform, mark, but spending cuts).
(In light of his poll-topping this weekend, it it ironic that the one TD with the party at the end who had voted against going into government lost her seat: Joanna Tuffy.)
It will take a long time for Labour to change with him around.
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