European and Local Elections – Count Thread – Day 2 May 26, 2019
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
So, the referendum on divorce was decisively passed with 82.07 per cent support – the IT notes that’s the widest margin of victory since the GFA/BA. But the counts continue. No startling observations so far – not a great day for the left, not a fabulous day for the larger parties either. The Taoiseach may be regretting not going to the polls at a general election a year or two back. A good day for the GP, but in a way I wonder is what we’re seeing a partial reversion to their old position where they were the catch-all party for some, leftish but not quite left, radicalish but not quite radical etc, etc. in the 2000s. After all they did have 6 TDs during that period fairly solidly throughout. Or is this a wave as there were ‘left’ waves before and SF waves and so on. Or is economic stability – despite desperate issues around housing and other areas – sufficient that the tide has ebbed for the left? And yet FF and FG can’t seal the deal. So much of what we see in the locals seems to be almost personality driven. Candidates who are well known tending to get elected – those not don’t and this across the political spectrum.
WP candidate eliminated in Palmerstown-Fonthill
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Anyone got a handle on how the WP is doing? I can’t find tallies for Ted Tynan’s area. NIC seemed very tight.
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NIC seems tight. Would need transfers to fall well for WP candidate to come through.
Haven’t seen anything from Cork.
The Examiner clearly isn’t paying anyone Sunday rates to update their tables.
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The Examiner has the first count from Tynan’s ward. He’s eighth in a ward with six seats. But a fair few candidates who will be eliminated should transfer well to him – inds, SolPbP and…. Sinn Féin :).
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Cork City Council twitter feed has Ted Tynan elected. The (C)WP lives!
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A tough couple of days for the WP.
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PBP in Gino Kenny’s own LEA eliminated.
(The PBP councillor in the neighbouring LEA where he grew up is still in and ahead of GP, I4C, LP and remaining SF candidate & will probably make the top 5 to keep a council seat in Kenny’s constituency.)
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Love this video of Noeleen Reilly getting elected. What a smile!
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This video even https://twitter.com/i/status/1132598103348056065
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North Inner City done and dusted. Éilis Ryan of WP loses seat. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7foShXXYAABZvP.jpg
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Who gained?
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Anto Flynn, Indo.
Homeless campaigner.
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Did he run in two constituencies?
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No.
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Grand, how left wing is he?
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That’s a pity, Eilis has been a good councillor.
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Might she have done better had she remained an Independent?
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Possibly. As an independent you can be more flexible and fuzzy and get more votes that way. When you join a party like the WP, you get out there and advocate for that party’s socialist politics. Which might be a turnoff for some people who would have voted for you as an independent.
I’ve seen a statement from Éilis Ryan post this result in which she firmly commits to sticking with the WP project. She appears to be very happy in the WP.
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Might she have done better had she remained Independent?
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She could have done much better if she didn’t have any politics, like half the people who ran in NIC.
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She still beat a lot of the, tho’ not the heavyweights, Burke and Ring. She may have spread herself too thing by doubling in the Euros as well.
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Pattern of distribution of PBP votes in Clondalkin
Five candidates get 80-100 each: two SF, GP and two left independents
Two candidates get circa 40: Lab and sitting FF
One candidate circa 30: FG
One candidate circa 10: new FF
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The GP’s Kavanagh has overtaken Lab’s Dowds.
Final seat probably between GP and Lab & probably hangs on how FF’s O’Donoghue’s votes divide – he is from same estate as Dowds
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This is Peadar Kavanagh of Pop-up Gaeltacht fame?
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Yes.
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Solidarity – Cllr Matthew Waine, Cllr Sandra Kavanagh, Cllr Eugene Coppinger (Fingal) Cllr Mick Murphy, South Dublin all confirmed losses.
Sandra Fay in Tallaght has won.
By my reckoning Solidarity will return four seats max they had 14 in 2014….Big losses for them in Dublin West, must be a real concern fro Ruth Coppinger.
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I’ve been worried for a while now about the impact of council losses. They will cause trouble for people, no question about it. SF, Solidarity, PBP, etc,
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Dublin West has to be a big worry for them now. They’ve been looking over their shoulder at Donnelly for a while who I think topped the poll in his ward. But now they’ve got a different Green threat to worry about. 3700+ votes is some haul in a local election.
Don’t know what the story was with Tania Doyle in Ongar going Independent who managed to hold her seat. Seem to remember there was a kerfuffle back when Tania was selected to replace an ill Annette Hughes.
Maybe the threat of a carbon tax and a new no way we won’t pay might help. 🙄
Won’t make the day of reckoning with Taaffe any easier.
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Extraordinary how mafia politics is part of the appeal of the authoritarian nationalist to fascist spectrum.
According to exit polling the FPÖ vote in Austria has decreased by not collapsed.
I guess the voters admire the cute hoor / gangster padrone. It never did Berlusconi much harm. Nor Farago.
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@gw. but are not the alliance of ff and lab. the real cutehoors; and then creation of more cutehoors, with all different names; and the more there are, the more likely to turn labour.
and did the greens decide to pander to that, for their own fast gain.
looks that way to me.
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Turnout across the EU seems to be significantly higher.
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“At 5pm in France, turnout is up significantly at around 43 per cent, compared to 35p per cent in 2014 (see tweet below). In Sweden, the country’s electoral authority has noted record high turnout at 20.3 per cent. In Slovakia, which reported the lowest turnout of any member state in 2014 at just 13 per cent, it has risen to around 20 per cent.”
https://www.ft.com/content/ea2d07f2-1ae2-3ea2-921b-2f706342bf35
Looks like Ireland at 50 percent has one of the highest turnouts.
“One of the big disappointments of the last local and European elections in 2014 was a serious decline in the turnout to just under 52 per cent from almost 58 per cent five years earlier.A further drop would be a worrying sign of apathy or disillusionment which could have serious long-term consequences for our democracy.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/the-irish-times-view-on-the-local-elections-no-excuse-for-not-voting-1.3902157
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German turnout: 59%. That’s up from around 46% last time.
A good bit of that, I’m sure, will turn out to be younger voters – and that has benefited the Greens, according to the breakdown. And damaged the nationalist/fascist spectrum because their core vote is older. And male.
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OK. Official information on the Clondalkin count just went pear shaped.
At fourth count, South Dublin Co Council shows Dowds on 1049.
At fifth count, South Dublin Co Council shows Dowds on 1044.
They have not issued information on which count has the error and what the correct value(s) are.
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A response to a tweet has clarified. Earlier count was incorrect.
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German participation was well up at 59%. First projections: As expected SPD lost (under 16%) and so did CDU. AfD (only) on 10% and Green vote increased (to 22%!).
The projections Europe-wide are that the authoritarian nationalist to fascist spectrum have about 120 seats.
Die Linke only 5-6% which means we may loose a seat.
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Sorry to hear about Die Linke.
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Yes – we need to become a Green Left party IMO – to be there when the Greens go into government with the neolibs and disappoint their new voters. To present the post-Capitalist road to saving what we can of the climate.
However in the Bremen city-state elections die Linke increased the vote by about 3 points. There the Greens will have to choose between an alliance with the neolibs or a Green-Red-Red alliance with the SPD and die Linke.
By their choices ye shall know them.
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I long thought the Left Green approach has a bit of power in it
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But the GUE/NGL contingent is boosted by the Animal Protection Party, which is also socially well to the left.
There is currently no minimum vote hurdle in German Euro elections so plenty of small parties get represented.
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There seems to be no appetite for leaving the EU in the Netherlands. Together the two anti-immigrant, anti-EU parties look like getting about 15%.
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Turn out in most parts of the EU well up on last time, with quite a few countries projected to be well over 50%
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There’s been a downward trend in average EU turnout since 1979. The Brexit factor may be causing a reversal.
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Yes, the unlovely face of Brexshit certainly helped, but I think it was far more the need to counter the authoritarian nationalist to fascist spectrum overall, and to express that people want action on the Climate Emergency.
These aspects motivated first time voters and younger people particularly. I’d be interested to see the age breakdowns Europe-wide. And gender breakdown.
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Turnout in UK is about 38 percent, up a little from 5 yrs ago.
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The Polish turnout is up sharply. Which should damage (here’s hoping) the PISer cadre of the ANFS.
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The ANFS (authoritarian nationalist to fascist spectrum) looks like getting 115 seats, on current projections. I guess 25+ of these may well be Brexshit Party Ltd. employees, who may not be with us much longer.
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PBP retain a council seat in Gino Kenny’s constiuency
FF and two independents take the last three
Gogarty does not win a second seat.
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The AfD’s vote share is significantly down from its general election numbers. If anything one would expect it to higher, given the perception of the EP election as a chance to register a protest vote. I think it’s a sign that, at least in Germany, the European Parliament is taken seriously as a political actor.
Good news.
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Where I am in the former GDR, they doubled their vote. This in the town that elected the first Black African member of the Bundestag. . .
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Yes that’s a doubled vote from the last Euro Election. Down from the last Federal election though.
European Elections 2014: 7%
Federal Elections 2017: 12.6%.
European Elections 2019: 11.0%
Not exactly an inexorable rise.
However there is a big problem remaining in parts of the former DDR.
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Joe’s friend Cllr Gilligan re-elected in Clondalkin.
SF hold a seat in Deputy Eoin Ó Broin’s base (and a second in another LEA in his Dáil constituency)
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Joe’s friend???
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IIRC you responded to him in a thread during the campaign for his condescension.
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Ah yes. I remember now.
Yes, it does no-one any harm to engage in online discussion with Joe. Overheard conversation is west? Dublin during the campaign: “Who are ye votin’ for?” “I was thinking of Gilligan maybe”. “Gilligan, who’s he?”. “Y’know, yer man who Joe pulled up on the CLR.” “Ah right yeah, I have ye now.”
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Brilliant! 🙂
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Greens and an Independent gain seats in Clondalkin at expense of Labour and PBP
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Sorry – my mistake – it looks like the ANFS will be at 115 to 120 seats *plus* the 25+ employees of Brexshit Party Ltd.
Delightful.
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Well – in France le Pen’s ANFS RN is two points ahead at 23% of ‘Hegelian world-spirit on horseback’ (Habermas’ words!?) Macron.
Left hard to discern with France Insoumise at 6.7%, same as the Socialist Party. Not good.
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With an estimated 50%+ turnout – higher than the last national assembly elections.
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PISers two or three points ahead of the pro-European coalition in Poland. And the Danish People’s Party likely to get just 2 seats out of 12.
More headwinds for the ANFS, which was supposed to drive all before it this election.
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It’s looking like the more federalist-leaning Green and ALDE block will have the balance of power in getting things through the European Parliament.
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Portuguese voting seems to have been 80% Left / ‘Centre-left’.
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Sorry – closer to 65%
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Ah, that’s a pain.
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Still fairly positive IMO 🙂
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Yes! Racist Iberian Turd party VOX down to 6.5% of the vote in the exit polls. That’ll put a dent in ANFS.
Madrid and possibly Barcelona remain in left hands.
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Lexiteer Danish People’s Movement Against the EU loose their only seat.
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Enhedslisten ran an independent list this time rather than being part of Folkebevægelsen mod EU, they’ve taken a seat, so status quo as far as left MEPs from Denmark.
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Just as the low turnout in UK locals gave the false impression of a libdem ‘surge’ (when in reality it was tory / lab voters staying at home), I wonder to what extend the 49% LE turnout inflates or deflates some Irish parties.
Green voters might be more motivated to vote in locals than most. Still impressive numbers for some of their candidates (Chu in particular, should be a runner for the Dail), but perhaps that Green surge will be trimmed somewhat by GE turnout?
Wonder if SF was underperforming also, given that 49% figure.
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Hm… what’s coming out of Brexitania suggests that YouGuv’s poll was closest, with the BLP getting around 10 seats, well behind the Lib Dems.
We’ll see.
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Hungary. Dear God, Hungary.
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Easy to fret over it, harder to understand why without reverting to platitudes. Harder still to figure out a way forward.
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Lega may get under 30%, which they will see as a disappointment.
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Berlin results: the parts of East Berlin with lots of high-rises: die Linke, the leafy western suburbs near Grunewald: CDU. The rest: Green.
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“With indications of turnout rising for the first time in 40 years, early estimates produced by the European Parliament suggest voters returned a more fragmented pro-EU majority, with traditional centre-ground parties losing seats to Greens and Liberals. Eurosceptic and far-right parties made modest gains but remained roughly a quarter of MEPs….
If the estimates are confirmed, it would spell the end of the centre-left and centre-right majority that has held sway in the parliament since 1979, giving way to a more divided pro-EU bloc that will include up to four parties….
Rightwing Eurosceptics also looked set to make some important gains, notably in France and Italy…
Eurosceptic, anti-establishment and hard-right parties were also expected to top polls in the UK, Italy, Poland, and Hungary. Nigel Farage’s Brexit party was in contention to be the biggest single national party in the parliament, potentially beating both Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and Matteo Salvini’s rightwing League. …
The traditional centre-ground pan-EU parties lost ground to the Liberals, who are expected to rise from 67 to more than 100 seats, while the Greens increased from 50 to 71, boosted by their performance in Germany….
The Socialists looked set to top the poll in Spain, in a boost for Pedro Sanchez, the prime minister. There were also unexpectedly strong showings in Italy and the Netherlands, where the centre-left had been battered in recent years….
Turnout was estimated to be close to 50 per cent across the EU, the highest rate since 1994. It bucks a 40-year downward trend that had often been cited as evidence of the parliament’s failing to connect with its electorate. In 2014, 42.6 per cent of the electorate took part.”
https://www.ft.com/content/9733a232-7fe1-11e9-b592-5fe435b57a3b
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I think Poland and even Hungary can be counted as ‘not as bad as expected’. Perhaps the tide is turning at least in Poland.
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Ted Tynan retains his seat in Cork, preventing a total wipe out of the WP.
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“there was as much as a 13.5% swing from Labour to Lib Dem, easily enough to put the Lib Dems into second place nationally. The Conservative vote is down 11 points.
The second region to declare was the East of England, which has elected three MEPs from The Brexit Party, two Lib Dem MEPs, one Green Party MEP and one Conservative MEP.
In London, the Lib Dems won the biggest share, gaining three MEPs, Labour have two, The Brexit Party have two and the Green Party has one. The Conservatives came fifth.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48417228?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c7zzdg3pmgpt/european-elections-2019&link_location=live-reporting-story
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my posts seem to have stopped coming through – but the milkshake double barreled kid got 2% and sloped off home.
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Hahah brilliant news 2% !!!
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“my posts seem to have stopped coming through”
I had a look in the ‘pending’ and ‘spam’ folders and there only thing there was a few days old (and is now released).
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Looks like the RTE/TG4 exit poll was a bit off the mark. Especially for the Greens. Actual 5.7% in the locals as against 9% in the exit poll. MOE was 2.
Cuffe coming in at 17.5 down from 23 in the exit poll. MOE was 4.
Also Ming’s vote seems to be underestimated by the exit poll.
Rare for the exit poll to be so wrong. Any thoughts on why? Bad methodology? Would people lie about voting green even though they actually voted FF/FG as a kind of guilt thing about the environment?
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Thats interesting – I don’t know – it’s an odd divergence – and the locals too – the GP vote is v good but not stellar
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And FF doing better than suggested by the exit poll I think. Shy FF voters before voting; ashamed FF voters after!
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Yeah, also a lot of “shy NO” voters in the referendum. The exit poll underestimated NO by over 5 per cent.
RTE have gone very quiet on it and Dobson was incredibly defensive yesterday. He kept repeating health warning, margin of error and so on. But the poll was off by well in excess of the MOE. As far as I recall, this is pretty unprecedented and worth investigating. I suspect there was some sloppy methodology more than just shy voters.
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Definitely – let’s put it this way, the RedC/SBP poll earlier in the month was closer in some ways.
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Probably should know better than to watch RTÉ’s coverage, but Brian Dobson and Pat Cox piled in on Patricia McKenna in absolute techocratic horror when she brought up the issue of the potential difference running a 3-seat or 4-seat count makes (raised in comments here as well). The extent to which they couldn’t allow that point to be made is extraordinarily telling.
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Funny to hear how many tonnes of paper went into the giant ballot papers, considering how important the environment has become in this election. Are those e-voting machines still in storage?? In all seriousness, my recollection was that they were too fast and too efficient for the traditionalist political class. I think they’ll be back, but not soon.
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Not a good move. Nearly every electronic voting system that has been audited has been found to have gaping security holes, AFAIK.
I keep recommending Ireland’s highly transparent and IMO fair but local system and count culture as a shining example.
So it’s slow – but it’s transparent.
Paper can always be recycled.
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How many environmentally unfriendly kilos of coltan, tin and gold woukd be used to make voting machines? How much carbon is emitted smelting and processing the ores to produce the usable minerals in the devices?
[Sent from my Fairphone – http://www.fairphone.com]
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And if we’re in to whataboutery, did anyone notice all the plastic water bottles being used to drink water from by the staff and others at the count centres? It’s a disgrace so it is.
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Wow – I seem to have touched a nerve there!
But look, whether we like it or not, a growing number of people are persuaded that we have just eleven years to avert irreversible climate catastrophe. When faced with the prospect of the collapse of the world ecosystem, matters like health, housing, the redistribution of wealth and, yes, even election count hobby-horsing all go on the back-burner.
As alluded to elsewhere, I think there’s scope for a radical ecologist movement to function alongside the coalitionists, but – and again, whether you buy it or not – climate change is probably going to overshadow class politics more and more in coming years.
As for the voting machines, just you wait and see!
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I’m torn, I kind of hope the voting machines don’t appear. Mentioned before, the current issue Scientific American notes how open to hacking they are.
That said I agree with you entirely – there is a blindness to the issues you point to. And people are exercised by them and yes they will overshadow class politics at times. Also agree there’s a need to pressure the GP from a left/green perspective. Don’t know how that can work but it’s essential.
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Rockroots, the 2030 NTHE (near term human extinction movement) is something I’ve been watching with horror for about 10 years. It’s VERY freaky to watch this godawful suicide cult turn into a mainstream ‘progressive’ movement. When fast crash failed to materialise from peak oil, a staggering number of peakers toddled off to join the latest apocalypic movement. Story too long to narrate much here.
TLDR: Child of Guy McPherson, a biologist with zero climate credentials, a man who cherry picks atrocious science to paint the picture that by Jan 1 2030 the world just goes pop. His #2 is a man called Malcolm Light, a former oil man who wants massive geo-engineering, nuclear power, etc., to “save the planet”. Hmm.
When my peak oil movie ‘There’s No Tomorrow’ launched in 2012, the Post Carbon Institute guys I was working with couldn’t get the press to touch it with a barge pole because the title was ‘too depressing’. My movie was a direct attack on growth-capitalism, so no suprise what the real reason behind the radio silence was. The fact TNT wasn’t advocating human extinction, and was a far less doomerish message than the ER people are storming to now, makes me VERY suspicious. 99% the ‘Extinction Rebellion” is a corporate bait and switch (as exposed by the website wrongkindofgreen.com
Greens are now benefiting from this mass movement, which was peripheral only a couple of years ago, now everyone’s jumping on the “extinction bandwagon”.
Pisses me off for personal reasons, but also makes me very suspicious. When I see a movement getting this much traction in corporate media, annoying teenage girls being allowed to speak at Davos, you know something’s up. What’s up is that TPTB have found a way to make money off of this, and will sell the marks greenwashed capitalism (solar panels, windmills, products to buy, etc).
And the Green parties, Ireland included, will be more than happy to piggy back this garbage. Expect the Irish Greens to do VERY well at the GE if this keeps up, FG & Lab should be pissing themselves.
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There are crazies everywhere though and there’s the danger in mapping them onto very basic and entirely robust scientific consensus that there is a planetary crisis that has to be addressed. One doesn’t have to think that this entails the extinction fo the human race in the near term, I don’t, you don’t, to feel that it does need addressing.
I don’t think having some exposure to the Irish GPs that they’re using this concept of a near term human extinction at all.
As to kids getting energised, I think it very necessary to not allow subjective aspects to impact on the reality that their basic case is again robust. All too often I’m hearing on the left criticism of this echoes of the Spiked stuff and that worries me. Thunberg et al (I’m presuming that is who you think is annoying) are not looking for more than the Paris Agreement to be fulfilled which doesn’t seem either alarmist or unreasonable. in fact I’d think it no harm to have these issues raised a lot higher in public consciousness. Of course there’s a danger that there’ll be greenwashing, but if the alternative is business as usual given we know and the science tells us where that leads to then that’s a risk I’d be willing to take.
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All that said the NTHE stuff is sort of like a flip side to 70s and 80s deep green ‘thinking’ which was equally alarmist and useless and anti human. I can’t help but think the impossibilism of the NTHE crew is indeed as you say unconsciously or in some case consciously directed to corporate ends.
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The centre has held, but its composition has altered.
“The results could leave Parliament’s two main parties, the European People’s Party and the Socialists & Democrats, without a majority for the first time since 1979, opening the way for complicated talks to form a working coalition. The Greens and the ALDE free-market liberals are jockeying to become decisive in the body.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/europes-voters-elect-new-parliament-as-nationalism-mounts/2019/05/26/03dc3bbc-7f6d-11e9-b1f3-b233fe5811ef_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5d5c6231fff8
But the extreme right surge continues, especially in Franc, Italy and Hungary
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https://independentleft.ie/election-results-artane-whitehall-and-donaghmede/
Thoughts from an Independent Left perspective on the results at Artane-Whitehall and Donaghmede.
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Good stuff Conor. I’m from Kilbarrack originally. Good to see the red flag still flying out there.
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Cabra-Glasnevin shared equally among parties:One each for Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Fein, Greens, SD’s and one Independent. Main points:
-Mary Fitzpatrick obviously much more popular than I thought for FF, while Hannah Lemass way less.
-FG got one in, bettering 2014’s result, so I’m sure they’re delighted.
-Labour’s Cllr Aine Clancy lost out to colleague Marie Sherlock at the death by 6 votes (recount ongoing). Running three candidates was stupid.
-SF way down. Elected three Cllrs in this area last time, now only one without quota, the other way down the order. Can’t rightly explain it.
-Green election of Neasa Hourigan a bit of a shock, but a welcome one.
-Not sure Gary Gannon did any campaigning here, but he was elected easily enough,. Bodes well for GE?
-Cieren Perry (Ind) elected without too much fuss, but way down on poll-topping show in 2014. Again not sure why.
A lot of also rans down the ballot, mostly left candidates. A swing to the centre seems to have taken place.
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“- Labour’s Cllr Aine Clancy lost out to colleague Marie Sherlock at the death by 6 votes (recount ongoing). Running three candidates was stupid.”
Yep, running three candidates was stupid. Unless you are Joe Costello and you want to scupper the chance of any rival for the GE nomination. My read is that Sherlock was his worry and he manoevered to scupper her chances but just failed. Shenanigans coming at their GE convention I’d say.
“-SF way down. Elected three Cllrs in this area last time, now only one without quota, the other way down the order. Can’t rightly explain it.”
No they did not! It was a completely different constituency the last time. It was Cabra Finglas. They elected three councillors, one Cabra-based, two Finglas-based. The local election before that was pretty much the current Cabra Glasnevin constituency and they elected one councillor that time also – same chap as this time and he got in easier this time than that time.
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And finally NFB – great to have another voice from Cabra Glasnevin on the CLR. It’s a constituency with a multiplicity of viewpoints of course. For example, some people might see the election of a Green as a welcome development but others may not :).
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Well that explains Sinn Fein’s troubles, here at least.
For Labour I just assumed one of the three couldn’t be dissuaded from running. Declan Meenagh got nowhere in 2014 but ran again, doing a lot better this time but still not really challenging. I noticed his leaflet didn’t mention the other two Labour candidates at all, and wondered if it was something of a semi-rogue candidacy.
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Yeah. Tbh I don’t know what went on internally. They each seemed to run totally separate campaigns. Vote for me, end of.
In fairness to Meenagh, in one of the later counts the three of them were on 1000+ votes with iirc about 30 or 40 votes between each one – Clancy ahead of Sherlock by 30 or 40 who was ahead of Meenagh by the same. So he can say he was as entitled as the other two and he nearly made it.
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DCC Twitter says Sherlock elected. Six votes again after recount(s). Distribution of Meenagh’s votes (less than 50% in total going to his Labour running mates) says a lot about the lack of cohesion in the Labour camp.
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I believe the natural family of the Greens is with Fine Gael. But that the Greens must be the perpetual better land management; and in regard to stock, to always hold sway.
btw this country should be fined for so much grass, when cattle need woodland too.
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” The DUP explicitly sought a mandate to reject the Irish backstop, and as far as they are concerned, they got it….
But the result the EU will pay attention to is the clear majority – some 57 per cent – for parties who support the backstop. It’s for that reason that, despite the vagaries of tonight’s result, the dimensions of the question as Brussels sees it hasn’t changed”
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/05/politics-northern-ireland-changing-backstop-wont
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Claire Fox MEP. Fucking hell. I thought I had seen the last of the RCP 25 years ago
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I know agree completely – ffs these are mad times. Btw just on rcp and spiked it is amazing how wedded they are to freedom of speech except that they don’t like – their antagonism to remainders or soft Brexit or even May Brexit or Thunberg is something to see.
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