Wednesday, October 03, 2007
“nothing but empty political posturing”
The Irish Times reports on an attempt[subs req] by Fianna Fáil MEP, Brian Crowley, and Independent MEP Kathy Sinnott to amend proposals to re-allocate the number of seats in the European Parliament - or as Fine Gael MEP, Avril Doyle, put it “This is nothing but empty political posturing on what has become a foregone conclusion”. The voting in the European parliament’s constitutional affairs committee went 3 in favour, 18 against and 10 abstained, meaning that the Republic of Ireland will have 12 seats instead of the current 13. From that Irish Times report [subs again]
The Constituency Commission will report this month or next on how to revise the electoral boundaries in Ireland for the European election in 2009 to take account of the loss of one Irish MEP. It could decide to transform Dublin into a three-seat constituency, a move that would probably make it harder for smaller parties to get their candidates elected, or it could order a major constituency boundary revision.
Pete Baker @ 09:35 AM
Avril Doyle is right. If the EP agreed to this it would never get through Council anyway. Bertie Ahern knows that but at least now he can drop it.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 09:59 AMAre the provies set to lose their at one time most pristine of electoral assets?
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 10:08 AM“Are the provies set to lose their at one time most pristine of electoral assets?”
Hard to see how they’d avoid that, if Dublin loses a seat.
Maybe Eirigi will pick it up ;)
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 10:14 AMFunny thing is ken isn’t Mary Lou’s sister one of eirigi’s founders- though I think Ester Uzell would do more damage to SF if she ran rather than eirigi…
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 10:39 AMThe broad left is much too crowded and that can only get worse if Dublin is reduced to a three-seater. The Greens, Sinn Féin, Labour and a few independents (someone like Boyd Barrett) or semi-independents (Joe Higgins, perhaps, now that he’s seatless)could all be slugging it out in the next European election. What’s the odds on 2 FF and 1 FG?
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 11:22 AMI’d say they’d be fairly short Loc.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 11:27 AMEh? The Labour seat in Dublin looks pretty safe even in a three seater.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 11:29 AMFair point Frank- could also be FF, FG,& Lab in a 3 seater.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 11:34 AMMaybe Eirigi will pick it up ;)
About the same time as the DUP sweep 5 in Lower Falls.
Fair point Frank- could also be FF, FG,& Lab in a 3 seater.
Most likely, but don’t count the Shinners out in a mid-term, protest-vote, FF scandal ridden election.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 11:40 AMAs the quota goes up the FG seat looks the battle ground with FF and Lab being safer. The poor transfer attraction for FG from the parties below them - Socialist, Greens and SF - could mean one of the others takes their seat.
Wouldn’t entirely surprise me to see FF, Lab, SF with ML pipping Ryan at the post through Green and Socialist transfers.
Dublin is likely to be a three way battle for last place from my reading. Can’t see any hope of a Left Wing candidate winning it though.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 11:41 AM“About the same time as the DUP sweep 5 in Lower Falls.”
But don’t you know that most SF’s Dublin organisation, including the hardest working hard-working members, have shifted form SF to Eirigi? No? CTN mentions it in almost every post.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 11:44 AMFrank did Gay Mitchell not top the poll for FG last time?
Richard Boyd Barret with the anti-bin charge campaigners will damage ML- SF vote is already down 27,000 in Dublin within 3 years and RBB almost got elected in Dun Laoghrie against the trend in May.
Joe Higgins will be interesting as too the greens- it will kinda be a referendum on how they’ve performed in govt.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 11:46 AMCTN,
Right. I got Ryan confused.
It could be his seat along with MLs that is vulnerable.
Though my hypothesis on transfer problems still stands mainly for the reasons listed by Sammy above.
FG, Lab and then a FF/SF battle.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 11:49 AMWhy not back the whole country one seat ?Difficult to get a sense of constituency with so many constituents anyway.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 11:55 AMFrank-I think FF will win that one if no proof emerges on Bertie.
Ken- You brought eirigi into this thread not the other way around- I played down their potential in the ‘09 election- although your jab about the hard workers defecting may not annoy me- it does rub it into any of those poor DSF’ers reading- (if theres any left says you).
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 12:00 PMBack ? Should be “make” sorry.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 12:03 PMFG, Lab and then a FF/SF battle.
Assuming it’s a bad year for FF, then I agree. Remember that 2004 was an awful year for FF, but 2009 could well be as bad if not worse. In a good year for FF, the Blueshirts will be the vulnerable ones. I think there’s enough of a left-wing vote, and Labour are in such a plum position for transfers from all over, that they are safe pretty much no matter what in Dublin.
(Sammy Morse dooms Prionsias and Ivana’s political careers!)
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 12:05 PMNuff said guys- toodle pip!
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 12:53 PMOf course we’re only guessing that Boyd Barrett and Joe Higgins would even stand in an election. CTN’s point is a valid one, though. If they did stand they would be more credible candidates than the usual far-left no-hopers. There’s a great deal of admiration for Joe, and sympathy for him losing his Dáil seat. They wouldn’t win, but they can expect a reasonable vote.
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 12:59 PMIf you want do delete your site from our spam bases - just email us with domain of your site:
thank you!
Posted by on Oct 03, 2007 @ 07:53 PM“nothing but empty political posturing”
There’s been a lot of that going on recently, hasn’t there Margaret Ritchie?
Sectarian
Demonisation
Loyalist
PeoplePosted by on Oct 04, 2007 @ 04:04 PM
