Greens take what you can get!!!!!!

Andystoran

The Greens need to get into Goverment to build. 6 Seats wasnt ever going to be huge bargaining power. Lets just hope that the Fundametalists dont hold back the rest of the party today.
If they dont go into government they will regret it.
People that say they wont vote for the greens ever again are insignificant compared to the amount of people who will vote for the greens next time if they see through a full term. I think the greens have huge potential but they cant have it all this time so just swallow your pride and take what your 6 seats can get you!!!!

miju

my opinion is that the majority of the greens transfers came not from Fianna Fail but FG / Lab and the "alternative" voters. I personally voted for them under the perception of the alternative co-alition so if they agree to go in with FF they'll never get my vote ever again.

Apart from the fact they'l suffer the same fate as when he PDs & Lab went in with FF I think they'll need to think about whether completely abondoning all of their policies for the sake of a couple of mercs is such a wise choice

Saruman

The people who say "I will never vote for the greens again" are being stupid. They have to go into government with someone, they will never get in on their own in the near future so have to go with someone.
FG and FF are very much the same so i do not see why people think this way.

lucernarian

Andystoran wrote:

The Greens need to get into Goverment to build. 6 Seats wasnt ever going to be huge bargaining power. Lets just hope that the Fundametalists dont hold back the rest of the party today.
If they dont go into government they will regret it.
People that say they wont vote for the greens ever again are insignificant compared to the amount of people who will vote for the greens next time if they see through a full term. I think the greens have huge potential but they cant have it all this time so just swallow your pride and take what your 6 seats can get you!!!!

You've a good point there. The greens have their first taste of proper power now and they need to grasp the opportunity with both hands. They don't know when they can get an opportunity again.

Victor

miju wrote:

my opinion is that the majority of the greens transfers came not from Fianna Fail but FG / Lab and the "alternative" voters. I personally voted for them under the perception of the alternative co-alition so if they agree to go in with FF they'll never get my vote ever again.

Yes, FG & Labour asked their supporters to continue their preferences on to the Greens, but I think you might be over-reacting.

Separately, the Greens offered FG & Labour support at national level if FG & Labour supported the Greens at local level. They didn't.

Zaph

The Greens deliberately avoided any pre-election pacts so that they could properly assess all their options after the election. This is something they always maintained, so any FG or Labour voters passing on transfers were only doing so in the hope that they could boost the chances of a third party if they were close to forming a government themselves. Nothing wrong with that, but the option that has now presented itself is going into government with FF and the supporters of the other parties are feeling cheated. I really can't understand why.

My own opinion, as a Green voter but not a party member, is that it's better to be in government than out of it, regardless of who it's with. You can jump up and down and complain as much as you like on the opposition benches, but really the government can just ignore you for five years. Sure large concessions to the party manifesto will have been made, but TBH I think for smaller parties a manifesto is as much a wish list as anything. As long as they can make some sort of a meaningful impact on government policy in key areas over the next five years then it will have been worth it. My one big fear is that next election people will too closely associate them with FF and do to them what happened to the PDs this time.

miju

Saruman wrote:

The people who say "I will never vote for the greens again" are being stupid. They have to go into government with someone, they will never get in on their own in the near future so have to go with someone.
FG and FF are very much the same so i do not see why people think this way.

I know they've to go in with someone I'm not silly enough to think they will be a mojority party anytime soon. During the election they played the cards as part of the alternative coalition to the extent that Trevor Seargent stated he'd no be entering into power with FF. Greens got my vote based on that.

FG & FF also may be similiar but they are different parties one with a somewhat cleaner and more competent record and it aint FF. Anyways, another hour or so before we hear the result hopefully my faith in the Greens can be restored somewhat

MoominPapa

They're damned if they do and damned if they don't - so they might as well go in a get a couple of mercs. All small parties got stuffed or stood still and no reason to think any different next time. Six seats after 20 years is hardly setting the world on fire so they might as well be on the inside pissing out for a while and anyway if it lasts 5 years I'll eat my wooliest hat

LostinBlanch

MoominPapa wrote:

They're damned if they do and damned if they don't

You're right there. They've been totally outplayed by FF. Go into negotiations and they have left themselves with just two options.
1. Leadership say yes and Delegates say yes. They get to go in as FF's mudflap with some crap about looking at cleaning up politics. Next election they lose a lot of transfers from Fg & Lab.
2. Leadership say yes, Delegates say no. They're outside without a pot to piss in, and still in danger of losing transfers from FG, Lab.

They should have not have gone into negotiations just to come out with the paltry "dealmakers" :rolleyes: they have.

Not even any action on Tara and the M3. [To anyone that doesn't travel the road. There are two major traffic holdups between Navan and Dublin. The first Dunshaughlin, should have been bypassed by now as the people who want Tara preserved asked for in the first place. The other major one is at Fairyhouse, and is caused by the motorway construction itself. :rolleyes: That's before people hit the queues waiting to get onto the M50.]

Anyway back on topic

As a green voter I'm very disillusioned with this "deal". If I was a delegate I'd be voting no.