labour

Is a general election imminent in the south?

| Readers 8

The Sunday Business Post goes into some detail on the degree to which the Labour party seems to be getting ready for what looks like an historically high tide in the polls in the Republic. Even to the extent of running a conference on ‘winning the west’ where they have traditionally weak. More interesting is their Back Room column which speculates that in fact, the realists within Fianna Fail may already be calcutating that this could be the best moment …

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Cowen: “I believe the pursuit of the national interest and the common good must have priority”

| Readers 6

With Sinn Féin proposing some more taxes and borrowing here, it’s worth looking at what’s been happening there. On Saturday 9th October RTÉ noted Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s intial lukewarm response to Green Party leader John Gormley’s call for an all-party consensus on a four-year budget plan. Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said he would welcome a political consensus on the budgetary measures needed to get the economic situation under control. However, he said it was up to the Opposition parties to put …

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Enda caught in the middle between Eamon and Brian…

| Readers 5

Despite the poor showing in the polls, Fianna Fail have one secret, get-out-of-jail-free card they can play against both Labour (soaring ahead at 33% in the latest Ipso-MRBI poll) and Fine Gael (now level pegging at 24% with Fianna Fail). They’ve been in government for so long, they have acquired the knack of being plausible. Very much an underestimated quality in Irish politics. A normally talented performer in Dail, even Joan Burton was tempted to jump the shark with her …

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Leadership elections – the Labour way

| Readers 8

Strangely, the (Daily) Telegraph seem to be leading the way on converage post-Labour’s leadership election. First they had Ed Miliband’s article in Sunday’s paper, and this morning they printed a behind-the-scenes look at the choreography and emotions of the announcement and aftermath. Brother David was focussed on winning. After a quick discussion, one of the group was chosen to warn David to prepare himself for the worst. Would it not be wise, the aide suggested, for him to think about …

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At least 45 Labour MP/MEPs don’t seem to understand electoral systems

| Readers 8

Pete has an entry covering the outcome of the British Labour party leadership election result but I’m fascinated by senior members of that party who voted but decided to limit the full potential of their ballot. 45 Labour MP/MEPs declined to use their transferable vote option, many others didn’t use it in full. That may indicate absolute commitment to their preferred candidate, it also seems to indicate an element of political naivety. Those of us with an interest in Irish …

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General Election 2010 – Wales (1 of 2)

| Readers 81

OK, for a change, and due to an unprecedented lack of popular demand I thought I’d post about something I know something about…….
Scores on the Doors and a map from Wiki below:

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After Ireland’s reckless “if-I-have-it-I’ll-spend-it decade”…

| Readers 3

There seems to be a sustained counterattack on Irish Labour at the moment, usually framed as a question: ‘what would you do instead?’ That was the predominant line of questioning of Pat Rabbitte on Morning Ireland this am… Although you can see from Noel Whelan’s column on Saturday that whilst Labour may have many policy documents they may not add up to the sum of the parts… Rabbitte’s response was not to get tangled in the detail, but to argue …

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The Road To Sweden?

| Readers 58

Does the Scandinavian economic model disprove Hayek‘s assertion that planned economies lead to totalitarianism? Don Boudreax argues that far from being centrally planned the Swedish system is compatible with Hayek’s vision for a liberal economy and society. Hayek said that “the planning against which all our criticism is directed is solely the planning against competition – the planning which is to be substituted for competition.” So because Scandinavian countries emphatically do not plan in this way, Samuelson was mistaken to …

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Why – really – did Gordon Brown walk away from coalition?

| Readers 179

It is now nearly three weeks since the general election and something still keeps nagging away at me. Back on May the 10th and a few days after the election, the intensive Tory-LibDem talks which had been going full tilt, had run into difficulty. The Daily Telegraph was reflecting the deep anxiety that must have been sweeping through the Tory party that they had been ‘outflanked’ as the LibDems had now opened talks with Labour. To add to Tory unease, …

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Cameron’s bold bids to keep ahead of coalition sceptics

| Readers 1

Accidentally perhaps, the test paper for the success of the Lib Con coalition has just been set by the centre left commentator Will Hutton in the Observer. Why should a comment piece be so significant? Because Cameron has just announced the dramatic appointments of Hutton to head up a commission on public sector pay and maverick Labour MP Frank Field as poverty czar. This is triangulation with a vengeance and will cause much Conservative heartburn. Hutton’s test paper deals with another part …

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