I am just after watching the Fine Gael Ard Feis and I have to say I am amazed that they are going to go into government with Labour.
While much of Enda Kenny’s speech was about government waste there was 1 or 2 things that must be making every Labour TD grind their teeth and wish they were going in with Fianna Fail. Back in January 2005 Michael McDowell wanted to electronically tag low risk offenders instead of jailing them. People who have committed crimes but not serious one.( I am presuming Joy riding shop lifting etc) and the Joe Costello TD of the Labour party came out and said “I agree with the Irish Penal Reform Trust that tagging should not be used for offenders who would not normally receive a custodial sentence.” Now Fine Gael want to tag people out on bail. People who have not even been convicted. I cannot imagine many in Labour being practically happy about that at all. Indeed many of the liberal supporting members of the Labour party may well be appalled at this idea. And you know what they would not be wrong.
If this was Michael McDowell the Amnesty International Labour brigade would be on the streets with plenty of Herr McDowell posters. Yet it is not McDowell who is doing this it is Fine Gael the very party they are going to be putting in power. Fine Gael are truly aligning themselves as the conservative party of Ireland. Is Liberal Ireland willing to put them in power?
2 comments:
Dude, Labour is not necessarily a liberal party. It is a workers party in many respects, and in Ireland, lower middle class worker values are very socially conservative. Law and order is one of the policy areas in which this comes out. Abortion is the other.
The people in the highest income bracket vote Labour then Greens.(PD's are in the middle) So to say that they are voting as working class people I think is wrong. Indeed it is Fianna Fail that get the highest proportion of working class vote. So it should be them that is socially conservative.
A great many people vote Labour because they are seen as the liberals. Same to with the green party yet these are the parties to put Fine Gael in power.
Post a Comment