Last week the Irish Independent printed an opinion by Phillip Ryan. He charged Mary Lou McDonald with the title of ‘Ireland’s Donald Trump’ which prima facie is a confusing argument but I decided to persevere through such arguments and it made me think more broadly about the idea of Sinn Féin being a left-wing populist party. Has populism finally arrived in Ireland? Populism or elitism are nebulous terms, but in the modern usage they imply a party that presents easy …
Before we get too maudlin at the state of our own politics’ inability to deliver, here’s a useful broader view on how technocratic institutions are failing politics in general is leading to high signal/low impact populism: One reading of what led up to Brexit is that mainstream politics simply ran out of steam. Coalition government left even fewer options on the menu. Imprisoned by a system that didn’t appear to listen to them, what mattered most to a large group …
Alex Kane talks about the role of Omerta in Sinn Fein’s success. It’s a pejorative description (in common usage) which ties the party to the Tony Soprano end of politics. So, the reasoning goes, there is no hope of clarity on the McKay-Bryson affair because everyone will stand to and keep quiet. But there’s another side to success in politics, and that’s an anchor in a shared common purpose. It applies to most successful political parties, Sinn Fein and the DUP …
As Harry Magee says in the Irish Times Inside Politics email newsletter this morning, are we there yet? The answer is no, no government for the south. Last week was St Patricks holiday, and this week is Easter. The real horse trading will happen after that. Many believe a grand coalition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail is inevitable. In a time where the populist’s appeal raw emotion, an abundance of opinion and shortage of attention, a long if quiet pre-election delineation …
Would you Adam and Eve it?Peter Serafinowicz gives Donald Trump a cockney makeover.No words were changed. Posted by Slugger O'Toole on Friday, 29 January 2016 And here’s one person’s reasoning as to why populists like Trump always win… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
BREAKING LEFT: Zoe Williams argues that the novelty of current UK politics is not Corbyn , but the sheer fact of Labour’s divisions. It has become routine to suggest they should be attacking the Tory government. But she argues the Labour party will not be strong enough to attack anything until it finds a new identity.
The Front National will attain unprecedented support in the French departmental elections less than a month from today. Although the party, led by Marine Le Pen, received 17.9% and 24.86% of votes in recent presidential and European elections respectively, it has not yet replicated such results in local elections.
Over a week old, but still some of the best advice Enda Kenny will get anywhere in the public domain. The tailend of Tom Kelly’s column from the Irish News: Watching events unfold in Greece and the mass demonstrations of the far left in Madrid, nerves are becoming tetchy in Merrion Street. The Taoiseach is looking less Teflon like every day. He has always been the accidental Taoiseach albeit a lucky one but the forthcoming election will take more than …
World by Storm on the Greek situation… It genuinely is a situation where it is near impossible to forecast how matters pan out. Interesting to read the view of some yesterday that Syriza regards the current government as a very very temporary thing, almost a means of getting themselves into play at national level. It makes sense, but that only works, both on a political level and economic level both in Greece and more broadly in Europe, if there’s actual …
There’s an interesting dynamic going on in politics more broadly just now. Win or lose the Scottish Referendum, the Yes/SNP’s seemingly endless roadshow puts the emphasis on engagement with the Yes support is smart politics. Sean Trende analysing how Eric Cantor lost the Republican nomination for his home district gives precise reasons why incumbents who forget to attend to the business of ‘the Parish’ are in big trouble in these troubled times: Cantor seemed more focused on the second and …
Nice opener from Janan Ganesh in tomorrow’s FT, “The UK Independence party does not represent the start of a revolt but the culmination of it.” It’s an intriguing piece which calls to attention, amongst other things the retraction of the political class into “self-loathing” and fear of its own shadow: The measure of a politician’s worth is how much he is like “us” and not like “them”. Mr Farage’s real achievement is not electoral – his party has no MPs …
Professor Tim Bale makes an argument quoted by Harry Wallop in the Telegraph on the rise and rise of UKIP (despite some pretty grim gaffes): …they are articulating a wider feeling that politics has become disconnected from ordinary people. The key to understanding them is their populism rather than their policies. Ukip’s appeal is that they are outside that Westminster elite. Both European integration and the immigration we saw under the Labour government play into that feeling, because those are …
Interesting take from Denis Bradley on Friday on the current impasse. In it, he accurately describes the model as I suspect SF see it: While an unreformed DUP occupy one of the corners in the boxing ring, Sinn Fein are in no danger of being removed as their opponent in the other corner. Our history and our divided loyalties have tied us into an incessant battle of numbers – the majority living in fear of becoming the minority and the …
