One of the great arts of spin is to ensure the dominant question of the day is that which you alone have the perfect answer to. Sinn Fein’s artful capacities in this regard have been to the fore since the election verdict. The party has correctly claimed that this verdict was a desire for change […]
If you’re like me, you may have felt chills the first time you watched the 1999 movie “The Sixth Sense”. Without revealing the superb twist for those of you who have not watched it, the film revolves around six-year-old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osmont) whose mother thinks he is disturbed. Psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) […]
This article was published in the Burkean before the General Election, now with another possible GE on the horizon, we share it with our readers _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Finding it difficult to make sense of #GE2020? Going by the fact that on a good day, about one […]
Politics is supposed to be a simple enough activity. The basic idea is that various parties put forward ideas for how the country should be governed, the voters choose between the various offerings, and the people who get the largest number of seats in the parliament then have the power to form a Government that […]
In Ireland we like to name our coalition Governments – from 1994 to 1997, we famously had the “rainbow Government”, led by John Bruton. This week, Sinn Fein were talking about “a left coalition” comprising themselves and every other assorted left winger in Leinster House – sort of a Marxist pick-n’mix box of chocolates, where, […]
Sinn Féin members have been told that they need to maintain “maximum unity and cohesion” as they enter post-election talks aimed at forming a government. They have named a public negotiation team, but members have been told that others of the “core group” of the party are involved. The final election results present an interesting […]
And so, at last, the silliest day in Irish politics has dawned again. Across the country this afternoon, candidates and canvassers will be making a final push for votes. Partisans on the internet will be wearing out their keyboards, furiously tweeting out last minute arguments designed ostensibly to persuade others, but in reality, to keep […]
It was perhaps inevitable that Leo would do a Hillary and lash out at the rump of ‘deplorables’ who are muddying the electoral waters for him.
The response of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to Sinn Fein surging ahead in the polls show that the parties are too out of touch to actually stop Sinn Fein’s rise. According to polling Sinn Fein are now, at worst, tied with Fianna Fail as the most popular party in this country, and at current […]
A recent Irish Times/MRBI pre-election poll (20/1/20) has indicated that an overwhelming majority of Irish voters – no less than 75% – now want a change of government. Significantly, over one in three voters believe “it is time for a radical change of direction for the country.” Given the abysmal failures of judgment and leadership […]
We hear much about threats to democracy from ‘fake news’ and tech manipulation, but the veneer of free and fair elections seems very thin when one scratches under the surface of how our elected elite have already stacked this particular deck in their favour.
Picture the scene, if you will, five years from now, in the Dáil. Taoiseach Simon Harris is on his feet in the chamber, trying to defend his Government’s decision to end the rent freeze legislation introduced in 2019. For the past five years, rents have been frozen in place, giving, according to Harris, “valuable breathing […]