Keeping Sinn Fein out of power

shayg1971

So just how should one vote if their main aim is to ensure that SF do not get a foothold in the government of this country?

rubberduckey

It would also be one of my goals in this election. Any advice.(Be nice)

darkman2

Gerry Adams wont have won many people over after his performance tonight. Whats all this 'rights' stuff about?

I think voting Fianna Fail and Labour may be best for keeping them out.

burnedfaceman

would vote FG/LAb/Green as all of these parties have stated they wont go into govt with SF. wouldnt trust FF as far as i could throw them and SF and FF share a common past. plus voting for the rainbow represents best oppurtunity to keep SF out of Govt

lezizi

Sinn Fein for Government, Gerry for Taoiseach!!!!!!!!

jhegarty

Unless the DUP are running I don't see a 100% safe party...

Tchocky

Vote for the rainbow - I love this election already

upmeath

jhegarty wrote:

Unless the DUP are running I don't see a 100% safe party...

You mean you don't see a single party not willing to enter government with SF? I think it's fair to say that (should the Labour and Green votes plummet) FG would rather stay in opposition than go into coalition with SF, and the PDs would most likely opt out of such a coalition with FF and SF (or will the PDs have any representatives?)

The_Minister

Vote Progressive Democrats.
They'd never touch Sinn Fein, and SF would hate you for it too. The two parties are real enemies.

EDIT: and Upmeath, the PDs were polling at the same level last election when they won eight seats, so they will have representatives.

28064212

Vote for Fine Gael or Labour. Kenny and Rabbitte have both said they will not go into coalition with SF under any circumstances. There's still a possibility that Fianna Fáil might if they didn't have any other choice

RalphCifaretto

darkman2 wrote:

Gerry Adams wont have won many people over after his performance tonight. Whats all this 'rights' stuff about?

SF are possibly the most effective party on this island at the moment. I think it's clear that their southern strategy remains slightly disjointed. However, when the northern assembly settles down, and more of their efforts are directed towards the south, I'm sure they will become a serious political force.

In the meantime it appears they have set their sights on the vacuum left by Labour's rightward drift. Adams performance was quite clearly aimed in that direction, we'll just have to wait and see if they are successful.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

brianthebard

Tchocky wrote:

Vote for the rainbow - I love this election already

Will you be home for it, or do you get a postal vote?

Also OP, what constituency are you based in?

E92

There are in fact two ways IMO. The first is to vote ALL the way down, except for SF. Give Fianna Fáil the very last of your preferences,because if they could break their "core value" of only being in power with an overall majority back in 1989 I think (it was either 87 or 89 I can't remember which one exactly) and they went in with the PDs instead, then they certainly can break the promise that they "would go in to opposition rather than go in with power with Sinn Fein" are making now.

The second way is the route I would recommend, vote for all of FG+Lab+Green, and no matter how well FF and/or SF do there will be no way possible for SF to be in power.

Jackz

jhegarty wrote:

Unless the DUP are running I don't see a 100% safe party...

Do you think that will ever happen? No really?

shayg1971

Meath East

yomchi

shayg1971 wrote:

So just how should one vote if their main aim is to ensure that SF do not get a foothold in the government of this country?

Vote for somebody else, kinda obvious.

brianthebard

shayg1971 wrote:

Meath East

http://www.mycandidate.ie/list.php?cid=35

A lot of candidates in a three seater, I don't recognise any of the names except O Buachalla, he was in NUI Maynooth when I was in first year. Are there any guaranteed seats do you know?

Corben Dallas

We'll see how many of the 'Never with Shinners' Political Parties change their views if the numbers don’t add up.

Also my main hope (for this election) is however gets back in they finally give the boot to the PD's and in particular Michael 'Mullah' McDowell. He is without doubt the worst Minister of Justice the country has ever had. I would go so far as to say that he is unfit to hold any Ministerial post.

He’s already put the knife into Bertie(The Party the PD's are in Coalition with) over the whole 'Berties house' deal (information leaked from documents concerning the Mahon Tribunal) it will come out that he was more than likely responsible for this.

As Minister for Justice he has never shied away from using his position for political gain, up to and including releasing sensitive confidential documents (that only the Minister of Justice gets to see) into the public arena to further his own political ends.

The truly sad/shocking thing about this is that he is a trained barrister, has a better working knowledge of legal matters than the majority of TD's and would still release confidential information to the media even if doing this would mean that due process could no longer be served.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Voipjunkie

shayg1971 wrote:

So just how should one vote if their main aim is to ensure that SF do not get a foothold in the government of this country?

Mmm don't vote for them ?

Honestly must we have these excuses for a SF bashing thread every couple of days
could someone not sticky a SF bashing thread so people don't have to open one as soon as the last one moves off the first page.

Gobán Saor

burnedfaceman wrote:

wouldnt trust FF as far as i could throw them and SF and FF share a common past

Fianna Fail split from Sinn Fein in 1927. If that qualifies a common past where does that leave Fine Gael, who split from Sinn Fein in 1922/23.

SeanW

Like other posters here, my advice to the OP is very simple - just don't vote for them!

Fine Gael several months ago, flat out, balls-to-the-wall, point blank stated that they would not go into government with Sinn Fein. End of. And I believe them too, for a couple of reasons.

Fianna Fail has recently ruled it out too in a press conference about a week or two ago, but they've said a lot of things over the past 5 years ...

Voipjunkie

Gob&#225 wrote: »

Fianna Fail split from Sinn Fein in 1927. If that qualifies a common past where does that leave Fine Gael, who split from Sinn Fein in 1922/23.

Or the Labour party via the SFWP/WP/NA/DL route

or indeed the PDs who split from FF who split from SF

Bottle_of_Smoke

Im not a supporter of them but the answer is clearly vote for PDs #1.

I'm even less a supporter of Fine Gael but they'd also be safe enough.

I'm 90% sure Fianna Fail wouldn't go into power with them but ehhh . . .ya know.

joecoote

Funny, I didn't think Adams came over particularly well this evening. However, the need to create and comment on this thread leads me to believe that SF may pose a bigger electoral threat to the bigger parties than I thought.

burnedfaceman

Gob&#225 wrote: »

Fianna Fail split from Sinn Fein in 1927. If that qualifies a common past where does that leave Fine Gael, who split from Sinn Fein in 1922/23.

was talking about the fact that historically FF would have a closer relationship to original IRA before they put their revolvers away and got involved in constitutional politics. the stickies were involved in criminality in the republic up unto outbreak of troubles while C na nGaedhals IRA connection ended with dawn of independence. the fact that FF proclaims itself as the Republican party would also be a common trait shared with SF

galactus

Voipjunkie wrote:

Mmm don't vote for them ?

Honestly must we have these excuses for a SF bashing thread every couple of days
could someone not sticky a SF bashing thread so people don't have to open one as soon as the last one moves off the first page.

That's democratic: ban free-speech.

"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

Voipjunkie

galactus wrote:

That's democratic: ban free-speech.

"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

Read what I wrote

I asked for a sticky (ie a permanent thread) for SF bashing so people do not have to open a new one when the last one moves of the front page
Never said anything about banning anything

galactus

Voipjunkie wrote:

Read what I wrote

I asked for a sticky (ie a permanent thread) for SF bashing so people do not have to open a new one when the last one moves of the front page
Never said anything about banning anything

You seem to have a curious definition of free-speech my friend. Confining any anti-SF remarks (or any party) to one thread is hardly the stuff of democracy.

"As long as you say it....over there. All the time" - Voipjunkie's addendum to Voltaire...?

brianthebard

Voipjunkie wrote:

Or the Labour party via the SFWP/WP/NA/DL route

or indeed the PDs who split from FF who split from SF

The Labour party was formed by James Connolly, it never split from SF. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_%28Ireland%29

Also your attempts to show that all parties lead back to SF is rather silly, since surely it is obvious that the parties split from SF because they no longer shared the same view and desired to no longer share a common past?

guinnessdrinker

Brian, I think what Voipjunkie means is that some Labour party members came to Labour via the SFWP/WP/NA/DL route.

daveirl

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is_that_so

Not voting for them is always good but must we rehash ancient history yet again about who spawned whom? SF will not get enough seats this time round and judging by the hostile attitude to Adams last night and his own extremely poor performance, the likelihood of any other party going into government with them is remote. You can sleep easy OP.

FiscalAvenger

http://ograshinnfein.blogspot.com/2007/05/michael-oneill-welcome-home-from.html


A big welcome home from Sinn Fein for a cop killer who has been "imprisoned" in luxury for eight years.

Don't forget to mention it to the next SF campaigner on your doorstep.

Tar.Aldarion

This election does seem just to be one where I would vote against people rather than for anybody in particular. I don't actually see somebody worthy of a vote.

Delphi91

shayg1971 wrote:

So just how should one vote if their main aim is to ensure that SF do not get a foothold in the government of this country?

Vote for everyone else????

shayg1971

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Thanks Dave, that was indeed the intent when I opened the thread. Anyone who's final word is 'don't vote for them' is not showing much appreciation for the Multi-Seat Constituency / PR electoral system we have here. Nor indeed that there's a usual racing certainty that Irish Govt = Coalition Govt.

Sinn Fein Bashing? Where? This debate is about tactical voting to help ensure that a particular party who's social and nationalist ideology is at odds with my own does not get an opportunity to influence the direction of national govt. at the cabinate level for the next 4 or 5 years. Nothing more or less than that. That's not bashing, that's a free expression of opinion in the form of a (provcative question).

yomchi

Indeed but rest assured that you're single vote will not stop SF going into govt. But by all means have your say!

LuckyLloyd

As mentioned above - the fact that Sinn Feinn are causing such an outpour of the heebie jeebies on this board shows that the message is getting through and progress is being made. Nice one.

Zambia

LuckyLloyd wrote:

As mentioned above - the fact that Sinn Feinn are causing such an outpour of the heebie jeebies on this board shows that the message is getting through and progress is being made. Nice one.

I actually think discussing them just drives more people to look at them ...

Voipjunkie

brianthebard wrote:

The Labour party was formed by James Connolly, it never split from SF. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_%28Ireland%29

Also your attempts to show that all parties lead back to SF is rather silly, since surely it is obvious that the parties split from SF because they no longer shared the same view and desired to no longer share a common past?

The leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party are former members of SFWP/WP/NA/DL

That was my point to say FF are close to SF because they split from SF in 1927 is nonsense
The point of the post was that FG also has its origins in SF as does the PDs via FF and to a lesser extent FG

And the Leadership and many senior members of the Labour Party have links that don't go back 8 decades but to suggest that you cannot trust them or the PDs or FG is patently nonsense.

The_Minister

Proinchis DeRossa, anyone?;)

Voipjunkie

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

My point was that the SF bashing one gets repeated more often than others we have only just finished with the have SF reformed thread when up pops this and a thread on McDowells allegations against Adams which could just have easily been discussed in the threads on the debate.
The Sticky idea was meant as a joke.

If you want to discuss tactical voting then perhaps a thread on tactical voting would be better once you put SF in the title it degenerates quickly into pro and anti and the tactical issue which I agree is interesting is lost

daveirl

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Dublin1600

galactus wrote:

That's democratic: ban free-speech.

Fianna Fail introduced the banning of free speech in 1971, anybody remember Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act, "This rule was brought in by Fianna Fáil Minister for Posts & Telegraphs Gerry Collins in 1971 and strengthened by Labour's Conor Cruise O'Brien in 1977"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland#The_Troubles

shayg1971

Voipjunkie wrote:

If you want to discuss tactical voting then perhaps a thread on tactical voting would be better once you put SF in the title it degenerates quickly into pro and anti and the tactical issue which I agree is interesting is lost

Yup, I'll give you that.

SF are my own bogie-party for a variety of reasons, but you're right, a more general tactical voting discussion is academically more valid. Wonder if the thread would have heated up so quickly though, without throwing [insert bogie-party of your choice here] into the title?