The Labour Party in Government

[DCon]

Johnson's comment made reality in plural? Is Labour really trying to portray the current government as some kind of National Emergency/Unity Government?

Regards...jmcc

It's the only way they can try to keep the pretence that they are not just there to rubber stamp FG policy

Any "Labour" committments in the PfG are fantasy at this point. Labour do not want to walk, so rather than acknowledge the truth they will lie

[C. Flower]

Johnson's comment made reality in plural? Is Labour really trying to portray the current government as some kind of National Emergency/Unity Government?

Regards...jmcc

Certainly this is what Joan Burton has said. She has rowed in behind the view that Fine Gael cannot be held to the Programme for Government because of the economic emergency we are facing.

Roisin Shorthall has very reasonably pointed out that the emergency did not activate Reilly to do anything about Consultants' pay or the price of pharmaceuticals.

The Labour Party surely needs to tell the electorate if it has abandoned the Programme for Government, and to go back to Party membership to see if they want a National Government of the form that Burton backs ?

[Richardbouvet]

Sorry, who is Johnson?

[jmcc]

Sorry, who is Johnson?

This chap:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson

The relevant quotation is: "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

Regards...jmcc

[Slim Buddha]

Sorry, who is Johnson?

My guess is that the reference is to Lyndon Johnson who is reported to have said "Better to have them in the tent pissing out rather than outside the tent pissing in"

I may, of course, be completely wrong.

[Greengoddess]

Certainly this is what Joan Burton has said. She has rowed in behind the view that Fine Gael cannot be held to the Programme for Government because of the economic emergency we are facing.

Roisin Shorthall has very reasonably pointed out that the emergency did not activate Reilly to do anything about Consultants' pay or the price of pharmaceuticals.

The Labour Party surely needs to tell the electorate if it has abandoned the Programme for Government, and to go back to Party membership to see if they want a National Government of the form that Burton backs ?

Which is in here:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/an...s-3223574.html

[jmcc]

Could be a opening/positioning move by Burton. If it is then it is a clever one in that there's no overt threat to Gilmore but it damages him in terms of implied incompetence. (FG running rings around Labour and that Gilmore should have seen this coming).

Regards...jmcc

[Dr. FIVE]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...VKE8pw.twitter

[jmcc]

Labour choosing its battles carefully? This was going to be unwinnable given that the logical escalation would have been leaving government. Gilmore may now be a lame duck leader - the Brian Cowen of the Labour party though without the booze.

Regards...jmcc

[Baron von Biffo]

Labour choosing its battles carefully? This was going to be unwinnable given that the logical escalation would have been leaving government. Gilmore may now be a lame duck leader - the Brian Cowen of the Labour party though without the booze.

Regards...jmcc

+1 to the first bit. Not so sure of the second part.

[jmcc]

+1 to the first bit. Not so sure of the second part.

Cowen when faced with leading FF into a GE didn't. He nominated Martin so there was a complete collapse in authority at the top of FF. If Cowen was even the slightest bit familiar with Shakespeare's 'King Lear' he should have known the danger of such a move.

Cowen had lost the support of the grass roots, apparently, and even those in cabinet with him weren't particularly supportive. Gilmore's lost ministers (albeit juniors). Cowen managed to lose McGuinness because he appointed Coughlan to a ministry where she was completely out of her depth (and McGuinness was more competent. (an inversion of the Reilly/Shortall situation)). Right now, Gilmore needs to reestablish his leadership position and he has to do it this week. If he does not, then the other Labour politicians will feel free to go on solo runs.

Regards...jmcc

[Baron von Biffo]

Cowen when faced with leading FF into a GE didn't. He nominated Martin so there was a complete collapse in authority at the top of FF. If Cowen was even the slightest bit familiar with Shakespeare's 'King Lear' he should have known the danger of such a move.

Cowen had lost the support of the grass roots, apparently, and even those in cabinet with him weren't particularly supportive. He's lost ministers (albeit juniors). Cowen managed to lose McGuinness because he appointed Coughlan to a ministry where she was completely out of her depth (and McGuinness was more competent. (an inversion of the Reilly/Shortall situation)). Right now, Gilmore needs to establish his leadership position and he has to do it this week. If he does not, then the other Labour politicians will feel free to go on solo runs.

Regards...jmcc

The great difference is that Cowen was reviled by the public whereas most people are indifferent to Gilmore

[jmcc]

The great difference is that Cowen was reviled by the public whereas most people are indifferent to Gilmore

Yes but few if any know these people and their perceptions are based on media performance and profiles. Revulsion is an emotional response but indifference is politically lethal in that nobody would worry if Gilmore stays in position or goes. For a political leader to be the nearest thing to irrelevant is very dangerous for any party. If people don't take the leader of a party seriously, then it is only a short time before they stop taking the rest of the party seriously. That's why Gilmore has to reestablish his authority within Labour.

Regards...jmcc

[DCon]

Fintan O'Toolesums it all up perfectly

The Government has now adopted its own variant: WWFFD?

For Fine Gael, the formula makes complete sense. It has replaced Fianna Fáil as the chief operator of The Machine, the system of clientelist politics that has held power since the 19th century. It can stay in office for a very long time by becoming as adept and unashamed in its manipulation of the levers of power as the party it looked on for so long with all the envy of a shy, spotty youth watching the slick rogue getting all the girls. The jilted lad would console himself by raging that the rogue was a bad character. But secretly he dreamed of being the rogue himself.

This is a perfectly rational political strategy for Fine Gael. There is, after all, a real sense in which Fianna Fáil is still in power – the entire framework of economic policy is that created by Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan. If you’re going to inflict the pain that this implies, you might as well get the perks. And in the longer term, becoming Fianna Fáil is a clever survival strategy.

There’s a big market for pure clientelist politics in Ireland – The Machine will always deliver a rake of votes to those who work it with sufficient vigour and shamelessness. If it becomes The Machine, Fine Gael will stay in power long beyond the next election – perhaps long enough to subsume Fianna Fáil itself. Imagine the joy of that – the slick rogue begging to be the sidekick of the shy, spotty fella.

There will be some awkwardness along the way. Clientelism is not big with Dublin middle-class voters, which is why Leo and Lucinda are uncomfortable.

Becoming The Machine also means that you don’t have to worry about the *****-show of the banking disaster, mass unemployment, emigration and growing inequality. The Machine runs on the small stuff of personal and local patronage. It is entirely indifferent to national misery – indeed, the more miserably dependent people are, the more they think they need The Machine. The beauty of it all, indeed, is that you don’t even need national sovereignty – the local is all, Home Rule is fine.

This creates a fundamental imbalance. Fine Gael can take the hit of imposing unjust and unpopular policies, because it can compensate for those losses by becoming the new lords of The Machine. But Labour has no such compensation – it just takes the hit. Its one chance, therefore, was to stop Fine Gael morphing into Fianna Fáil, to retain for the administration a narrative of selfless endeavour and rigorous pursuit of the public good.

But along came a glorious opportunity. Róisín Shortall’s conflict with James Reilly dramatised in the clearest possible way the difference between machine politics and good governance based on clear principles and objective evidence. Labour had the enormous good fortune to be overwhelmingly on the right side, not just of an argument, but of a whole approach to public life. It had the chance to stop the emergence of Fine Fáil as the new dominant force in Irish politics.

And Eamon Gilmore knew exactly what to do – he threw all of his weight behind clientelism. He cleared the path for Fine Gael to drive The Machine forward – across the dead body of his own party.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...324727315.html

[Greengoddess]

Fintans article is almost unbearable to read. There is another equally difficult one on CDR. The question is asked as to why they seem to be indifferent to the destruction of the Party. If I had known .......
In relation to Fintan's thesis, one of the FF people last year said to me" FG will be as bad in two years as we were after 25" . Are we enabling that I wonder .