[lbo-talk] First results announced in Irish general election

Dissenting Wren dissentingwren at yahoo.com
Sat Feb 26 19:34:09 PST 2011


Hi Wendy - I'm trying to figure out these results without much background knowledge to provide context. Looking at the results, it certainly wasn't a breakthrough for the left (2.2%). But it also looks like a severe dent in the Fine Gael - Fianna Fail duopoly (the latter placing third in votes and fourh in seats). But disgust with these two didn't seem to go to the left but to Sinn Fein (9.9%), Labour (19.4%), and assorted Independents (12.3%). Put these three together and you have more votes than Fine Gael (42.2% vs. 36.1%) and almost as many seats (48 vs. 51). Not that putting them together makes any political sense - it seems like a significant rejectionist vote, but one from which the left benefitted only marginally and which lacks any kind of coherent project.

Is that your reading?

----- Original Message ---- From: Wendy Lyon <wendy.lyon at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Sat, February 26, 2011 8:55:34 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] First results announced in Irish general election

On 26 February 2011 17:53, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [WS:] So it looks like the voters' response to the financial meltdown
> is to put a neo-liberal socially conservative party in power.
> Depressing.

You're telling me.

On the plus side, it is the left's strongest-ever showing by far, and at least one constituency (these are multi-seaters) has gone entirely left. But it's not good enough to make a real change. Unfortunately when Labour began polling very strongly last year, instead of trying to build a broad left alliance with smaller parties and left independents it hitched its wagon to a right-wing party and spent most of its election campaign attacking the left. It ended up polling just strongly enough to (probably) put itself into government as a junior coalition partner, when six months ago it had a fair chance of being the senior partner.

On another plus side, this guy got in, which should at least provide some entertainment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_%27Ming%27_Flanagan ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



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