for lefties too stubborn to quit
(as noted by CMK) Stephen Donnelly parts ways with the Social Democrats
The Party Statement
I wonder where he will end up? He was previously linked with joining Fianna Fail or will he just stay as an Independent.
A big blow to the Social Democrats though.
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He’s leaving the Social Democrats but is committed to continue making a contribution ‘as a social democrat’. Maybe he’ll found the Real Social Democrats?
Heard Shortall on the radio just now. She says they are on a long road, writing a party constitution and so on – so apparently serious about establishing a party. National party conference in the autumn apparently.
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Shades of David Owen there — another middle-class professional convinced he was destined for political greatness yet who proved unable to function in any political party where all the members didn’t agree with him all of the time.
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Good call.
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Continuity social democrats
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Apple tax I reckon. He doesn’t want to frighten the horses.
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Yep, think so. They had him on the radio very soon after the commission judgement was announced and he was uncharacteristically inarticulate and vague.
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‘uncharacteristically inarticulate and vague.’
That’s the one thing I have noticed since the Apple decision was made. I listened to Michael Martin yesterday on RTE news at one yesterday and he was ‘uncharacteristically inarticulate and vague.’ Once a half decent or informed journalist puts a defender of Apple and its tax arrangements under pressure you can hear them starting to sweat.The establishment bluffed, spoofed, blustered their way out of the bank guarantee and its consequences. I think this one is going to be much harder for them. There is zero room for error on their part. Interesting times.
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wasn’t this always going to happen at some point? He didn’t belong in a party whose members — however naively — espouse a somewhat left-of-centre agenda. His list of causes in his statement could easily be framed to fit within Fine Gael. Responsible fiscal management? Reducing the costs of doing business?
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FF is the logical destination for him now what with Martin branding them as “centre-left”.
There’s also historically two FF seats in Wicklow and Donnelly can easily hold onto his own with their backing and his personal vote. FG already have two seats there.
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There’s a transcript of an interview with him over on Broadsheet: http://www.broadsheet.ie/2016/09/05/ill-be-going-into-conversations-with-a-very-open-mind/
He seems very dependent on the ‘workplace’ analogy – treating leaving the party as equivalent to leaving a job at Company A to go to Company B. “I’ve had a great time working here, it’s a great team, but now it’s time for me to move on” etc. Which bypasses the notion that principles may determine party choice. Looks a bit, well… careerist.
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Strange emphasis in that interview alright. And his answer is near enough impossible to understand. I have no greater sense why he left having read that than when I started. Curious.
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Might this open the possibility of the SDs finding allies to their left? I would have thought that Murphy, and to a lesser extent Shortall, might have more in common with Daly, Collins or Pringle for example than Donnelly would. I know voter wise, outside their already established vote, they’re fishing in the same pool as labour and the greens, but there’s a softer left vote outside the AAAetc they could go for.
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I think they do but then again Collins Daly Pringle Wallace and Broughan already have their vehicle
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We often mention this sort of thing, but Donnelly’s Drivetime interview with Mary Wilson was a model of modern political coverage. She wasn’t the least bit interested in what he believed in – only in personal differences he might have had with SD colleagues and whether he’d had approaches from FF or anyone else. You’d think she’d have asked whether he represented the right of the SDs and, say Shortall the left, but no. It’s all a form of higher gossip, nothing ideological to see here.
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Depressing isn’t it? Some questions one could ask is how a social democrat, self-described intends to pursue social democracy outside the social democrats? Not that that is impossible, just who are the SD forces he would link up with?
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