Rabbitte won't rule out FF Coalition

...on TV3's The Political Party.

Questioned repeatedly as to whether he would go into coalition with FF, he simply repeated that his preferred option was FG. I guess he is engaging in the reality that the electorate might very well only allow for this option after the election.

constitutionus

heard something similar on RTE radio at the weekend. cant say im surprised, i learned the hard way you cant trust labour. they talk the talk but come the crunch they'll stab you in the back. and they wonder why they cant capatilise on the incompetency of this government:rolleyes:

Think FF should have learned the same lesson when Dick Spring crossed the Dail floor in 1994...

Unpossible

Can someone tell me why such an alliance would happen? Is FF expecting the PDs to lose a lot of seats or something?


Im not being a wise*ss, Im just not up to date on the Irish polls/parties

Stimpyone

McDowell is right the labour party are now a "dead duck". In my opinion Rabbitte's not up to the job.

Macy

Was he not on the News at One saying he wouldn't lead Labour into coalition with FF?

Funniest thing is the PD's wetting themselves - all the spinning of a FF/Labour coalition just shows that no party wants to be in power with them. Labour are shoe ins for Government at this stage, only question is whether it is Rabbitte or Howlin as Tanaiste.

flogen

Rabbitte got into his position by swearing himself against a FF/Lab coalition and he's been buddying up to FG so much lately that it would be very hard for him to back away from that smoothly.

His lack of an answer is probably an attempt to appease the Labour grassroots who are uncomforable about the "Mullingar Accord" and are becoming increasingly vocal about that fact.

While the polls are hard to use as gauges of PD support, a FF/Lab coalition has been the most logical answer according to most of this years poll results... if it does happen, I'd wager that it won't be with Rabbitte at the helm (although I wonder if he'd try to stick it out and flip his opinion upside down on Bertie & Co.)

constitutionus

Macy wrote:

Was he not on the News at One saying he wouldn't lead Labour into coalition with FF?

Funniest thing is the PD's wetting themselves - all the spinning of a FF/Labour coalition just shows that no party wants to be in power with them. Labour are shoe ins for Government at this stage, only question is whether it is Rabbitte or Howlin as Tanaiste.

yup. my prediction on this is the next gov will be a FF/LAB one. pat will step down "for the good of the party. he cant break his word about going into power with FF but the people have spoken" and promptly will be given the minister for finance position as a reward. have to laugh at macdowels protestations that labour is courting FF , seems to be the other way around to me. must suck big time to have your fellow government party prostituting itself to almost every other party like the village whore:D

flogen

constitutionus wrote:

yup. my prediction on this is the next gov will be a FF/LAB one. pat will step down "for the good of the party. he cant break his word about going into power with FF but the people have spoken" and promptly will be given the minister for finance position as a reward. have to laugh at macdowels protestations that labour is courting FF , seems to be the other way around to me. must suck big time to have your fellow government party prostituting itself to almost every other party like the village whore:D

Going by the last FF Ard Fheis they were more berating Labour than courting them; if anything they're courting the Greens who have the potential to be the deal breakers next year (and who may receive a nice boost on the wave of environmental issues coming to the fore this year, not to mention the fact that they've widened their appeal and organised themselves in a more serious political manner now)

Macy

flogen wrote:

Going by the last FF Ard Fheis they were more berating Labour than courting them

Berating Labour or Rabbitte?

constitutionus

yet we have backbenchers saying how good a fit with labour would be and how they dont really feel comfortable with the PD policies foisted upon them. factor in all the arse licking of brendan howlin and you got what looks suspiciously like a labour love in. when you consider the greens said they'd only go into power with FF if certain ministers get the sack it looks like aherns best route back to power is labour.

as to the ard feis i put that down to the childish nature of political parties, basically punching the girl they fancy in the school yard. or much more likely a push to get pat removed, if memory serves they slagged him not the party. its pretty obvious FF are wooing lab

flogen

@Macy; both.

@constitutionus; I mentioned it on IrishElection.com and the response was pretty fairly argued; there was nothing childish about this, it was cold and calculated.
Just like FG trying to destroy the PDs to take their votes, damage done to Labour will probably benefit FF. If you go by political leaning, people who vote for Labour would often have FF as a 2nd preference or vice versa (not sure how common that is in reality though).
Of course FF will give Labour a call if the numbers make sense next year (I'm one of those who believes they'll go to SF too to make up the numbers if they have to), but until then they'll happily scrap it out and try and snatch each others thunder.

Slightly OT, but what's interesting is that the PDs will go into full squabble mode with FF in the new year to set themselves apart from the senior party, drum up an independent manifesto and even make themselves more potential suitors to other parties should the unlikely happen... FF will do the same, going for the populous vote with more society-friendly policies... When it comes to the unholy marriage of the FG/Lab pact, however, they'll be working on how great they are together, and judging by a lot of the recent joint initiatives, Labour won't have nearly as much say in policy formation with FG as the PDs do with FF.
All in all I think Rabbitte has already failed on his campaign slogan of getting people who think Labour to vote Labour, because they're not offering Labour policies any more.

constitutionus

constitutionus wrote:

its pretty obvious FF are wooing lab

Ummmm,you can take it as read that by far and away the most popular option within FF is a Coalition with the PDs again. The PDs, at least with Harney, worked well with FF. After that, it's much of a muchness, but any coalition with Rabbitte pulling strings would be as popular as scurvy. I can't say I have heard FF 'wooing' Labour at any time, because they know anything with Rabbitte and they might as well start counting down the days to the walk out...

constitutionus

Deleted User wrote:

Ummmm,you can take it as read that by far and away the most popular option within FF is a Coalition with the PDs again. The PDs, at least with Harney, worked well with FF. After that, it's much of a muchness, but any coalition with Rabbitte pulling strings would be as popular as scurvy. I can't say I have heard FF 'wooing' Labour at any time, because they know anything with Rabbitte and they might as well start counting down the days to the walk out...

but this is where the numbers game kicks in. the PDs have no chance in hell of mainting their seats let alone increase them so theyre on the way out of power next year and that leaves FF with two choices , the greens or labour. seeing as the greens will actually expect FF to implement their policies,some of which are at great variance to FF, the smart moneys on labour. wheather pat is still there as leader or not is the only real question (as im typing this some labour member was just on newstalk news talkin about how "going in with FF hasnt been ruled out" so someones talking to someone)

personally i want FF out, but like i said earlier im not surprised the two are cozying up to each other