The Grumpy Muppet (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} grumpymuppet) wrote,@ 2007-01-18 08:34:00 |
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Depressing
There seems to be a lot of hoo-hah in the papers lately about the possibility of The Labour party going into Government with Fianna Fail if their usual pact with Fine Gael fails to do the business for them.
I'm not sure where this comes from, given that the normal Labour Party line is that they would never even consider entering into a Coalition with FF under any circumstances. It would appear however that there are those who feel that closing the door on a Labour / FF coalition or even on a Labour / FF / PD coalition runs the risk of handing the balance of power to Sinn Fein.
This is all well and good, I don't think anyone, outside of their own hardcore support base wants to see Sinn Fein in Government. But coming as it does a week after John Deasy started mouthing off about his own party leadership, more or less making the party look like a disorganized undiciplined rabble, for the sake of jostling himself into a position to challenge for leadership after the election is lost.
With Brendan Howlin now coming out in favour of "Flexibility" and "Keeping Options Open" all over the papers, the prospect of a FG / Labour coalition can't be looking too good to all the voters who they will need to win away from FF before the next election. It's all a bit shambolic, really, any party whose primary focus is election to parliament needs to be able to present a united front to the media and to the populace.
Any democratic organization needs to be founded on one basic priniciple, and that is that once everyone has had a chance to make their points for and against any proposal, and once a full and open discussion has been held, and a popular vote taken, that all parties, both the for and against side of the argument must agree to abide by the decision of the vote and to act accordingly. (It's the kind of thinking which in the US discourages people from changing presidents while a war is on. Although in the most recent example, the populace was mis-led, the President ignored popular opinion and stifled one side of the debate, and so there is no obligation to return him to power).
One of the most common leftist symbols is the clenched fist, being symbolic of the strength that is obtained from combining 5 disparate fingers to a single purpose, each finger needs to independantly move into position to form the fist, and unless all five work together the whole thing is useless. The measure of any democrat then is how they respond when they lose a vote or an argument, and how well they tow a line they didn't vote for.
The failure of so called democratic parties to follow this most basic prinicple even internally does nothing to instill confidence in their ability to govern a nation. Getting your name in the paper seems to be a bit high on the priority list for some people.
As to the actual issue of a FF / Labour coalition, it would be better than a FF / PD coalition certainly, but the gains to be made are small and the long term electoral damage of that kind of a U-Turn are not to be under-estimated. As I've said before, I don't think the current parliamentary system works, and that the whole basis of government and society geneally is broken and can't be fixed by a change of Tweedle-Dum for Tweedle-Dee. The Labour Party and the Greens, are for me the lesser of several evils, but they will realistically always be minority parties, and will be about gaining concessions from the major parties rather than setting out real reform programmes or making any substantial and lasting changes, (any changes made under the last FG / Labour coalition have been effectively dismantled or eroded by the subsequent years of FF / PD government, so we have "Free" third level education, but "registration fees" have risen continuously, there are other examples).
There seems to be a lot of hoo-hah in the papers lately about the possibility of The Labour party going into Government with Fianna Fail if their usual pact with Fine Gael fails to do the business for them.
I'm not sure where this comes from, given that the normal Labour Party line is that they would never even consider entering into a Coalition with FF under any circumstances. It would appear however that there are those who feel that closing the door on a Labour / FF coalition or even on a Labour / FF / PD coalition runs the risk of handing the balance of power to Sinn Fein.
This is all well and good, I don't think anyone, outside of their own hardcore support base wants to see Sinn Fein in Government. But coming as it does a week after John Deasy started mouthing off about his own party leadership, more or less making the party look like a disorganized undiciplined rabble, for the sake of jostling himself into a position to challenge for leadership after the election is lost.
With Brendan Howlin now coming out in favour of "Flexibility" and "Keeping Options Open" all over the papers, the prospect of a FG / Labour coalition can't be looking too good to all the voters who they will need to win away from FF before the next election. It's all a bit shambolic, really, any party whose primary focus is election to parliament needs to be able to present a united front to the media and to the populace.
Any democratic organization needs to be founded on one basic priniciple, and that is that once everyone has had a chance to make their points for and against any proposal, and once a full and open discussion has been held, and a popular vote taken, that all parties, both the for and against side of the argument must agree to abide by the decision of the vote and to act accordingly. (It's the kind of thinking which in the US discourages people from changing presidents while a war is on. Although in the most recent example, the populace was mis-led, the President ignored popular opinion and stifled one side of the debate, and so there is no obligation to return him to power).
One of the most common leftist symbols is the clenched fist, being symbolic of the strength that is obtained from combining 5 disparate fingers to a single purpose, each finger needs to independantly move into position to form the fist, and unless all five work together the whole thing is useless. The measure of any democrat then is how they respond when they lose a vote or an argument, and how well they tow a line they didn't vote for.
The failure of so called democratic parties to follow this most basic prinicple even internally does nothing to instill confidence in their ability to govern a nation. Getting your name in the paper seems to be a bit high on the priority list for some people.
As to the actual issue of a FF / Labour coalition, it would be better than a FF / PD coalition certainly, but the gains to be made are small and the long term electoral damage of that kind of a U-Turn are not to be under-estimated. As I've said before, I don't think the current parliamentary system works, and that the whole basis of government and society geneally is broken and can't be fixed by a change of Tweedle-Dum for Tweedle-Dee. The Labour Party and the Greens, are for me the lesser of several evils, but they will realistically always be minority parties, and will be about gaining concessions from the major parties rather than setting out real reform programmes or making any substantial and lasting changes, (any changes made under the last FG / Labour coalition have been effectively dismantled or eroded by the subsequent years of FF / PD government, so we have "Free" third level education, but "registration fees" have risen continuously, there are other examples).
