Change election

Reading the latest tranche of information from the Irish Times election poll, this time about party leader popularity and the appetite of the electorate for change, it does strike that the latter is a very real phenomenon:

It shows that 38 per cent of voters agree “the Government has not made enough progress in important areas and it is time for a change”. A further 37 per cent agree “it is time for a radical change of direction for the country”, making 75 per cent of all voters in favour of some or radical change.
Just one-fifth of respondents (20 per cent) agree with the statement: “The Government has made progress in important areas and deserves to be allowed get on with the job of securing a better future.”

This, of course, is the ground many a party in opposition would seek to fight on. Indeed Pat Leahy on the IT podcast recently made the point that perhaps there was an appetite for change, but not too much. There are many problems with this – particularly from a left position. The sort of change envisaged by FF is, almost needless to say, no change at all, particularly after four years of confidence and supply.

But there’s the deeper point that in shutting out SF from access to government, as is quite explicitly the case, both FG and FF are to some degree blocking the possibility of change – not least when on preference for Taoiseach, Varadkar, Martin and McDonald are respectively at 24, 23 and 20 per cent.

Granted, there’s a danger for SF in playing that card too loudly – but there’s also the question as the ramifications of that come into focus what the attitude of the electorate might be to that dynamic and those who have supported it.