PickYourParty.ie

redspider

I just went to the www.pickyourparty.ie website, which attempts to some degree to align a voters wishes to a political party. Its interesting to have this mechanism but at the same time it must be caveated that it is by no means a complete science.

My preferences turned out to match those of Labour, Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein. On one issue it was touch and go in terms of agreement with the Green Party as well, so my views are represented by a real rainbow of parties.

And of course all this in a way goes to prove one of the tenets and bugbears that I have with the current so-called democratic system. And that is, that no way is it possible for any individual to have all their views represented accurately on all issues in a parliament by a single party or indeed local candidate where I vote for them once and they vote on a myriad of issues over the lifetime of a parliament, never mind just 7 simplistic ones that are given at the pickyourparty.ie website. This is what I have termed the democratic deficit but it may have been called something else by political science followers.

I think the political system needs to be changed to be more representive. The current system is not 100% dictatorial, but it is not 100% democratic either. We are not 'the plain and simple' people of Ireland as many politicians like to portray us - so its up to us, the people, to change the system!

Redspider

Nightwish

I did the test last night, and it aligned me with Labour, whom I was planning to vote for anyway.

stepbar

Did the test, Overall Fine Gael for me.

Zaph

Green Party for me. Can't argue with that.

I think the OP makes a fair point that it's hard to find a party that matches your views exactly, but how is Ireland any different from other countries in that regard? At least there's more realistic choice than the Americans or British have, and with PR you have a chance of voting for a number of parties/candidates who are closest to you.

-ego-

It says I'm a shinner

Gael

Wow I got a big mix!

Section 1: Fine Gael
Section 2: Labour
Section 3: Fine Gael
Section 4: Sinn Féin
Section 5: Green Party
Section 6: Green Party
Section 7: Sinn Féin

I'm confused!

marie_85

Out of the seven sections, 6 allined me with the Green Party. Sounds about right.

The_Minister

1. Fianna Fail
2. Sinn Fein (*Gulp*)
3. Labour
4. Progressive Democrats
5. Fine Gael
6. Sinn Fein (*Gag*)
7. Fine Gael/Progressive Democrats

Overall: Fine Gael.

I don't think that the teat is structured well, and I think some of the party positions are innaccurate, particularly on immigration and the environment.
It also got the PD position wrong on tax cuts. The PD idea is that tax cuts stimulate the economy, making more money, therefore obtaining a higher tax revenue.

The_Minister

The_Minister wrote:

I don't think that the teat is structured well

Why are it's boobs not big enough? (:D )

It's rubbish.
It had my position closes to SF on most issues and then went and recommended the pd's

Besides these kind of numbered/priority scale of 1-10 formats are very flawed,I think.They don't probe you well enough.

Got Labour, and I already knew that they were in the same ballpark as me so it seems to make sense...

Crap looking website, all the same!

LuckyLloyd

Was Sinn Feinn or Green Party on all issued individually - Green party overall. Was going to go 1 and 2 on the pair of them anyway so happy enough. Though I don't think it is anywhere near in depth enough to be particularly useful.

Dar

Taxes and spending: PDs
Social policy: Green
EU Enlargement: Labour
EU Stengthening: PDs
Environment: Labour
Immigration: Green
Northern Ireland: FF

Overall: PDs

Vorsprung

Got Labour and Greens, and PDs on a couple of things to do with the EU. Probably what I was going to be voting for anyway (apart from the PDs).

InFront

Taxes and Spending: Labour
Social Policy: Fine Gael
EU strengthening:Fine Gael
EU Enlargement: Labour
Environment: Sinn Fein
Immigration: Green Party
Northern Ireland: Fine Gael or PDs

These tests usually just tell you what you already could have worked out for yourself.

28064212

LuckyLloyd wrote:

Though I don't think it is anywhere near in depth enough to be particularly useful.

I disagree, I think the fact that it's so broad is better. There's a similar kind of thing at http://www.politicalcompass.org/questionnaire, but I think it's much too detailed. As the OP pointed out, no one party will agree with an individual completely. It's more important that their broader ideals and principles agree with yours. I actually found the pickyourparty one to be far more accurate then the politicalcompass one

DeepBlue

Bloody hell - apparently Sinn Fein best represent my interests :eek: .
I guess I'd better start reading up on their policies .

Then again their local candidate is cute .

Voipjunkie

Greens and Labour on everything and then suggested SF for me ?

Nordie

shinnies

jhegarty

Nordie wrote:

shinnies

me too....

Suppose I should say "brits out"....

mikemac

Fine Gael overall and and a few sections went to Labour
I'm happy with that as that's how I'll be voting:)

miju

Sinn Fein for me as well , was planning on voting no ! for em anyway so good to have that backed up somewhat

Bottle_of_Smoke

I got greens. I'm giving them my #1 but that's only because Patricia McKenna is their rep in DC. Got a few Labour prompts which was also accurate/ Didn't get any suggestions for Fianna Fail strangely enough.

biko

Irsp

mikemac

biko wrote:

Irsp

Forgive my ignorance, who are they?

Voipjunkie

micmclo wrote:

Forgive my ignorance, who are they?

Irish Republican Socialist Party

The political wing of the INLA(Irish National Liberation Army)


http://irsm.org/irsp/

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

gandalf

Labour and Greens for me. Fairly accurate so.

thebman

1. Greens
2. Labour
3. Sinn Fein

Don't agree with 3, otherwise its accurate.

Trotter

Ha.. Sinn Fein..

No way Jóse!

redspider

Interesting to see some of the results coming back and it working for some people.

The political compass whilst being more general only 'guesses' the four dimensions of a party (such as FF) whereas the research done for PickYourParty.ie is based more accurately on stated policy according to the researchers. Of course, its not 100% accurate so a 'best fit' party may be a choice among a couple or more.

Additionally, when you a voting, you may need to vote tactically if you want one type of government on offer or another, depending on a constituency you are in.

choices, choices .....

Redspider

nesf

Labour even though they didn't actually win in any category.

Flawed beyond belief tbh, I'd really like to know how they define the scale since on some parties are at 2.4 or something similar. I found it very hard to translate my views into answers to the questions.

28064212

nesf wrote:

...on some parties are at 2.4 or something similar

So? Some parties have extreme views. As for information on how they decided where each party stood, they give a pretty good account of it on the main page, as well as some follow-up links

The_Minister

I question most of where they have placed the actual parties. Absolutely useless.

EDIT: Oh, and, if you don't answer any questions (Ie. leave it in the centre), you are apparently in FG. Now, we all know thats wrong.

nesf

28064212 wrote:

So? Some parties have extreme views. As for information on how they decided where each party stood, they give a pretty good account of it on the main page, as well as some follow-up links

I know that but I'm thinking more along the lines of it's only going to be accurate if the way I translate my views is the same as the way they'd translate my views. It's the failing of numerical based systems on this kind of thing, it introduces a lot of measurement error.

King.Penguin

I found it strange that abortion and homosexuality were basically group together. I'd be very liberal with regard to homosexuality but much more conservative towards abortion. Which party would be closest to that view?

I got aligned with the Greens but most of my answers corresponded with Fine Gael. Probably putting Environment down as most important factor tipped the scales.

Dirk Gently

King.Penguin wrote:

I found it strange that abortion and homosexuality were basically group together. I'd be very liberal with regard to homosexuality but much more conservative towards abortion. Which party would be closest to that view?.

Good question, The two are usually grouped together because most parties would be liberal towards both or else have conservative views on both. I suppose vote labour or left of labour on homosexuality and FG on abortion. Result = nothing will happen anyway. Most parties will be afraid to legislate on these issues anyway for fear of a backlash. Off the top of my head I can't think of any party who are both anti abortion and also in favour of greater gay rights.

Agent Smith

The party closest to your choice is: Fine Gael

atho i'm closest to SF when it comes to social policy according to this, unusual tbh

Dirk Gently

King.Penguin wrote:

I'd be very liberal with regard to homosexuality

agent smith wrote:

The party closest to your choice is: Fine Gael

really

In fairness to the penguin I don't think it's as black and white as agent smith makes out.

Agent Smith

no, what i ment is it said that my party would be fine gael

PH01

So far I've gone back and forth and still I haven't got FF. I got ALL of the other parties on this but no FF.

Has this survey been rigged or what do you have to select to get FF?

joolsveer

I got Fine Gael. Is noone an FFer?

Cardinal

Of course not. How can anyone's opinion align with a party without any?

FTA69

Greens for me. My arse.

28064212

PH01 wrote:

So far I've gone back and forth and still I haven't got FF. I got ALL of the other parties on this but no FF.

Has this survey been rigged or what do you have to select to get FF?

Don't start with that conspiracy sh*t. They tell you exactly how they calculate it on the results page:

Based ONLY on average value of your position on the 3 most important issues the party closest to you is...

It's simple to get Fianna Fáil, just look at the breakdown of the answers

Time Magazine

I was afraid that might happen. Fianna Fáil based on my three most important issues. In the other questions it was 3 FG, 2 Green, 1 Lab, 1 FF.

Stephen

It gave me Labour, with FG, Greens and SF (:eek:) in the other questions. Fairly spot on I think besides SF.

Nothingcompares

It's obvious that SF represents or claim to represnent a lot of things people are interested in. but due to their bad reputation, nobody would consider being associated or represented by them.

all the ppl that got sf as their party, what did you put down for northern ireland? Very important?

FF, Green, FG, PD, Labour, Labour, PD

So basically, i don't agree with sinn fein, which i already knew

westhammer

I got Greens, but SF for most of the issues! Ill be voting FG and Labour though

redspider

Here are the values for discussion purposes ....

Issue 1 Taxes and Spending (20= Cutting Spending to Cut Taxes)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 13.8
Fine Gael 12.5
Labour Party 6.6
Progressive Democrats 17.4
Green Party 5.8
Sinn Féin 4.9

Issue 2 Social Policy (20= Liberal Policies on Abortion and Homosexuality)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 14.8
Fine Gael 11.5
Labour Party 6
Progressive Democrats 7
Green Party 5.6
Sinn Féin 9.6

Issue 3 EU Enlargement (20= Opposed)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 7
Fine Gael 5.2
Labour Party 5.6
Progressive Democrats 6.4
Green Party 9.8
Sinn Féin 12

Issue 4 EU Strenghtening (20= Opposed to more powerful EU)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 12.7
Fine Gael 8.3
Labour Party 10.2
Progressive Democrats 13.2
Green Party 17.1
Sinn Féin 17

Issue 5 Environment (20= Economic growth at cost of Environment)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 16
Fine Gael 13.8
Labour Party 9.5
Progressive Democrats 15.5
Green Party 2.3
Sinn Féin 10.1

Issue 6 Immigration (20= In favour of policies to help immigrants return to their countries)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 14.7
Fine Gael 12.9
Labour Party 6.7
Progressive Democrats 14.1
Green Party 5.8
Sinn Féin 8.6

Issue 7 Northern Ireland (20= In favour of UK presence in NI)
Party Party's Position
Fianna Fáil 6.4
Fine Gael 11
Labour Party 9.1
Progressive Democrats 11
Green Party 8.7
Sinn Féin 1.5

rainbow kirby

I got Green Party overall, was planning to vote Labour/Greens anyway.