Nobody expected Jeremy Corbyn to win the leadership contest in 2015, I’m not sure even he expected it. Actually, nobody expected Jeremy Corbyn to even be part of the leadership contest in 2015 – he was put on the ballot, as history now tells us, to widen the discussion, to broaden the range of candidates on offer. Well that worked out well. It may however have served a purpose in the long run. “Once upon a time, there was a Parliamentary …
We had the Tories, now on to Labour as the party leader, Jeremy Corbyn sacks Hilary Benn from the Shadow Cabinet; Newspaper reports suggested Mr Benn had been encouraging shadow ministers to resign if Mr Corbyn ignored the result of the no confidence vote. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said Mr Corbyn “worked himself to the ground” during the four-month campaign. Senior Labour sources have also told the BBC that a significant number of shadow cabinet resignations were likely if Jeremy …
From the Irish Times; Ms Burton is to meet her parliamentary party tomorrow and The Irish Times understands she will confirm her resignation. It is understood deputy leader Alan Kelly and former minister of state Sean Sherlock plan to contest the party leadership. Former minister for public expenditure Brendan Howlin will not challenge for the position. It is understood Mr Howlin was only willing to seek the role if there was no contest. Labour’s constitution requires a leadership contest if …
Two 17 year olds took up arms that Easter Monday and waded into a revolution. Two youngsters who would not even have a vote today. Yet they knew what they wanted and believed.
The noise that has emanated from politicians – past and present – and pundits about what the next government might look like has been difficult to make sense of in recent days. Equally trenchant arguments have been made, on the one hand, that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will form a coalition and, on the other, that such a grand coalition is impossible. Some have advocated for a minority Fine Gael government, supported from the opposition benches by Fianna Fáil. …
Suzanne Collins is the Director of Operations and Campaigns for Women For Election. She writes for us about the success of female candidates in the 2016 General Election. In 1990, the newly elected Irish President Mary Robinson who was the first woman to be elected to the office, thanked her voters the ‘women of Ireland, Mná na Éireann, who instead of rocking the cradle rocked the system.’ The system may have been rocked but it another 26 years and a …
A tradition in Irish election broadcasts is the final thoughts of broadcaster, John Bowman. Since there will be a lot of speculation over the coming days, here is his final analysis of Election 2016; To say this election is unique goes without saying. It’s historic, it’s seismic, it’s awesome in its consequences and as the deluge subsides what does one see? Is the integrity of the quarrel between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael intact or will it melt? Is the …
The debate on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union has properly begun. In these early days of the debate David Cameron and Nicola Sturgeon have made an unusual partnership to try and add a Scottish question to the European one. The UUP is playing a game of public angst with the Scottish claims one of the issues they list for their dither as they frantically try to assess the direction of the wind. The ability of Northern Ireland …
Coalitions are the talk of the town at the moment in the Irish general election. It’s little wonder seeing as the current government is certain to lose the massive 53 seat majority that it won at the 2011 general election. According to Professor Michael Marsh’s poll of polls the current state of play in terms of seats is this; This pretty much means all bets are off in terms of forming a government as only Fianna Fail and Fine …
As most of our regular readers know, I typically get a group of people together to review the party election broadcasts from the various parties in Northern Ireland. However, with the twists and turns in the current Irish general election, I thought it would be interesting do something similar for the party election broadcasts in the South. In that spirit, I took myself down to Dublin to review each of the main parties election broadcasts Hugh O’Connell, Political Editor of …
There’s an election on in the South in case you hadn’t noticed. Whilst yes, the North plays a little role in determining the outcome of an Irish election and the interest from Northern Ireland has hardly been great, I thought that since we now have the manifestos of the main parties out there now, it would be interesting to see what plans each of them have for the North. You will be relieved to know that in all of the …
Today’s Independent is not happy reading for the Labour leader, Joan Burton. A poll in her Dublin West constituency finds her struggling to hold on to her seat with the election just two weeks away. The results are; Leo Varadkar (FG) and Paul Donnelly (SF) on 20% each. Jack Chambers is on 17% for Fianna Fáil and Ruth Coppinger is on 15% for the AAA. Joan Burton trails on 10%. Worth pointing out 14% of the electorate are still undecided …
Suzanne Collins is the Director of Campaigns and Operations for the organisation Women for Election. As candidate selections continue apace for the Assembly elections in May, potential members of the 32nd Dáil are already out of the traps. As TDs hightailed it out of Leinster House on Wednesday morning, RTÉ correspondents caught up with some of the now no-longer-technically-TDs. Seven (former) TDs were interviewed and they were all men. Finally, a woman got in front of a microphone. The next …
ROUND UP: As #GE16 gets underway we will be taking a look behind the scenes to keep you informed of the latest gossip from the front lines. If you have views or news from your constituency then email [email protected] and keep us posted. All the gossip doing the rounds on the ground from #GE16.
Enda Kenny will finally call the general election tomorrow, which is likely to be held in the last week of February 2016. In that spirit, I thought I would do up a piece for some folks not as familiar with Southern elections and things to generally look out for. 1.Look out for the canvassers- There was a famous story about the Fine Gael TD, Nora Owen who thought she had a decent chance of topping poll in Dublin North, until …
PUNDITS DEBUNKED: Whatever Oldham West means to UK Labour’s warring factions, it will worry UKIP. UK Politics reverts to Lab v Con. And perhaps Nigel Farage’s rather intemperate comments will worry them even more so. His genius heretofore has been to play down the extreme end of his views.
MAKE UP YOUR MIND: RedC/Paddy Power have a new poll out today on the state of the Irish parties as we go into an election year. Here are the baseline results
Is consensus politics choking the Irish system? Freelance journalist Feidhlim ó Broin makes the case Much has been written recently about the steady rise of Fine Gael in the polls, about the nascent economic recovery and the construction of a new, progressive, modern Republic. Indeed, Ireland’s political parties illustrate this new order. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Fein and the Labour Party agree on practically everything from European Policy, the need for a more liberal abortion regime, to crime and …
On Monday, I said that this would be Jeremy Corbyn’s worst week ever, and it has been, and next week will be worse again. That’s the pattern. It was a week defined by Chairman Mao’s little red book, Livingstone blaming Blair for the 7/7 terror attacks, McDonnell’s endorsement of the IRA’s “ballot, the bullet and the bomb” approach to Irish unification, Syria, a looming by-election, and, no surprise, internecine strife. As the week ended, it was clear, that as it …
CAMPAIGN TACTICS: Interesting poll out in the Irish Times today showing a continuing improvement in both Fine Gael and Sinn Fein’s vote. Whilst Fianna Fail remain steady at just around 19% and Labour are stuck at 7% .
