Slugger O'Toole

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Latest comments from Wan (see all)

Wan has commented 10 times (0 in the last month).

1. Comment on SF across Ireland
   on 9 May 2011 at 11:07 pm

   @Mark McGregor
   I think it was more to do with tactics than organisation. There was a bit of an informal pact between SF and the ULA. SF didn’t stand any candidates in constituencies that they had a low vote in but that also the ULA had a chance of winning, in order to not split the vote.

   e.g.

   Dublin North – No SF, Clare Daly got in
   Dunlaoghaire – No SF, Richard Boyd Barret got in
   Dublin North West – No SF, Joe Higgins got in
   Not sure about the rest but it looks like there’s a pattern there.

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2. Comment on Sinn Féin set to surge to unprecedented success
   on 2 February 2011 at 12:50 pm

   @Ulick
   I forgot there’s no incumbent FG standing in Cavan/Monaghan so Ó Caoláin could well top the poll.

   @Mack
   Heard the same things myself.

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3. Comment on Sinn Féin set to surge to unprecedented success
   on 2 February 2011 at 12:09 pm

   The comparison to Labour is imperfect in that SF aren’t transfer friendly in the same way that Labour are. None of SFs candidates are going to top the poll (except maybe Gerry) so they will be depending on transfers to get them over the line.
   58% of people say they would never vote for SF so they are looking for transfers from 29% of the population. Of that most would be Labour supporters whose candidates will poll better than SF and now are also running second candidates so I don’t think they will benefit from this outside of the border regions where Labour candidates are more likely to be eliminated first.

   Therefore: I don’t predict any big break for SF in Dublin which (I think) is where people are saying the 15 – 20 seats will come from.

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4. Comment on ‘Merger with Fianna Fail – Not on my watch’
   on 18 April 2010 at 7:51 pm

   @Alias
   Yes, but to a lesser extent. A political relationship is what you make of it and the two organisations are and were tiny, there was very little co-operation between the two.

   On Margarets speach, she was invited as SDLP leader and was always going to talk about “local” issues, starting to give out about NAMA and Anglo in detail would have been stepping on Gilmores toes.

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5. Comment on ‘Merger with Fianna Fail – Not on my watch’
   on 18 April 2010 at 7:03 am

   @ Michael Henry
   I don’t think you get the concept of the “sister party”. It means that the two parties are similar enough to each other for them to consider each other partners and not rivals. They therefore don’t compete with each other as voters would find the two interchangeable. So north and south of the border there is a suitable candidate for a Labour voter, merely under different titles. They, between them, compete for all seats in the 32 counties.

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6. Comment on ‘Merger with Fianna Fail – Not on my watch’
   on 18 April 2010 at 3:30 am

   @ michael Henry
   The SDLP are a sister party of Labour, they speak at each others conferences (I think Ruarí Quinn spoke at the SDLP conference) and they are part of the same grouping in the European Parliament. When the SDLP were founded Labour members were instructed to join it. It’s the reason that Labour don’t run candidates in the North.

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7. Comment on Trevor Sargent resigns from Irish Government
   on 24 February 2010 at 2:02 am

   @Dan Sullivan msg.1
   Definately a tit for tat. This happened in June 2008 and it only becomes a big scandal now… 20 months later? Dermot Ahern was the cabinet minister who stood up and defended O’Dea when the rest (Cowen, Coughlan etc.) just sat there. In an unrelated question, I wonder who has contacts inside the Dept. of Justice that could leak dirt on Trevor Sergant?

   http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0223/sargentt.html

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8. Comment on Casting bread upon the water
   on 28 January 2010 at 8:44 pm

   Collapsing the assembly and insuing election would give the DUP something concrete to base their strategy on. If they see the TUV and UUP gaining votes at their expense they would have to make a decision on wheather to be a “Devolution” party doing a bit of quid pro quo with nats and UU’s and not follow the “nix everything Sinn Féin want” strategy as a way to keep the hardliners on board or go the other way and return to being a “say NO” party and refuse to deal at all with any nationalists. Either way a choice has to be made because this is getting them nowhere. The TUV will always have the “we won’t do business with terrorists” shtick to beat them with and they look like they are destroying powersharing by being too confrontational to the more moderate voters.

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9. Comment on SWOTing the parties: Weaknesses of the DUP
   on 27 January 2010 at 8:06 pm

   *Irisgate – Posibility of backlash against due to financial misdeeds

   *Trying to be all things to all men – Trying to be a “devolution” party to appeal to the mainstream and still screwing over Sinn Féin at every opportunity to appeal to the more angry Unionists. Could lead to confusion of their message.

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10. Comment on Stormont Live Feed…
    on 11 January 2010 at 7:08 pm

    The volume control on the Stormont Live feed goes up to eleven! ROCK AND ROLL.

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