Ciaran Cannon joins Fine Gael

thebigcheese22

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0324/breaking49.htm

Personally, I am delighted with this news. As a Labour member, when I heard he was in talks with Eamonn Gilmore, I was shocked and disgusted.

This man was supposed to revive the PD's and instead was the one who put it 6 feet under (which I am thankful for)

The last few lines are telling -

'The fourth PDs leader, who is based in Carrabane, Athenry, had been in talks with Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore. He also had a preliminary discussion with a Fianna Fáil representative.'

This man is a political whore IMO.

Dob74

thebigcheese22 wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0324/breaking49.htm

Personally, I am delighted with this news. As a Labour member, when I heard he was in talks with Eamonn Gilmore, I was shocked and disgusted.

This man was supposed to revive the PD's and instead was the one who put it 6 feet under (which I am thankful for)

The last few lines are telling -

'The fourth PDs leader, who is based in Carrabane, Athenry, had been in talks with Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore. He also had a preliminary discussion with a Fianna Fáil representative.'

This man is a political whore IMO.

Where did the money the PD's had go?
Did they own there headquarters?

If Cannon does for the FG, what he did for PD's, It will be the death of FG
I am sure Labour & FF are smiling.

P. Breathnach

thebigcheese22 wrote: »

... This man is a political whore IMO.

So he is fairly mainstream, then.

Permabear

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J.S. Pill

Maybe he's joined FG as Enda Kenny's body double - incompetent, uncharismatic, ginger, he could stand in Enda's seat in the Dail and nobody would know the difference.

Dr Galen

donegalfella wrote: »

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as much as I disagree with a decent amount of DF's politics I admire the way that he stands up for his beliefs etc, unlike Mr Cannon, who it appears had no real belief in the ideology of the PD's seeing as he began his CV flaunting session with Labour......like how far from the PD's could you get within Irish politics. Cannon may well be a competent politician for all I know....but the reality is that I cannot recall one memorable speech, view or quote from the man, says it all really :rolleyes:

deadhead13

donegalfella wrote: »

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Can you name one "genuine free-market liberal" Irish politician?

oscarBravo

J.S. Pill wrote: »

Maybe he's joined FG as Enda Kenny's body double - incompetent, uncharismatic, ginger, he could stand in Enda's seat in the Dail and nobody would know the difference.

What makes you say Enda Kenny is incompetent?

Time Magazine

oscarBravo wrote: »

What makes you say Enda Kenny is incompetent?

Or ginger?

J.S. Pill

The Economist wrote: »

Or ginger?

Hey I'm ginger myself so I can make all the ginger slurs I want!

Permabear

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oscarBravo

J.S. Pill wrote: »

Hey I'm ginger myself so I can make all the ginger slurs I want!

That doesn't explain the "incompetent" slur.

deadhead13

donegalfella wrote: »

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As a junior partner in a coalition government the notion that PD's "should have pushed for more or done more" ignores the nature of FF. FF have one objective to be in and remain in power. There just isn't popular support for your brand of economic liberalism in Ireland.

The PD's "lost their way ideologically" because they got caught up in the real business of politics - to be re-elected. Even a watered down liberal party was resoundingly rejected by the electorate.

Permabear

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Het-Field

As far ai I am concerned, Ciaran Cannon was placed in an untenable position. After 9 comatose months, Cannon was expected to resurge the flagging fortunes of a party which had see the loss of the Leader (Tanaiste/Min For Justice), Deputy Leader, Party President, and the founder's seat. Three Councellors had left by the time he was officially announced, and Noel Grealish had made no secret of his desire to move to FF (a move which has reputedly been put permanantly on ice). Subsequent to his election, another two COunty, and One Town Councellor quit the party, and the Lisbon Treaty Campaign had been anything but robust.

From early July, the McMorrow articles (Sunday Tribune), did huge public damage to any chance of a revival, and the leader was hugely discredited by his reputed amounts of time in Seanad Eireann. By mid August most of us who were heavily involved in the PDs knew that the end was nigh, and it was unequivocally discussed with me while I was at a seminar (representing the PDs) in Brussels. This of course came to pass in early September, when the Parlimentary Party made the decision. This decision was only made official in November 2008 in Mullingar.

Cannon had no honeymoon period as leader, as it was not available to him. The party was demoralised, and the members had given up the ghost. The only chance the PDs had to survive after the election was for a pre election contingency plan to be in place. That plan should have seen an agreement from McDowell to remain as "de facto leader", the placing of Tom Parlon in the role of General Secretary/Party President, the selection of Colm O Gorman and Tim O Malley (To maintain an Oireachtas presence in Limerick East) to the Senate, and an immediate guarantee from the likes of Fiona O Malley, Ciaran Cannon, Mae Sexton, Tom Morrissey to start the ground work for potential election to their Local Council in 2009. Equally, a potential ministerial reshuffel of Mary Harney may have been a good pr move for the party.

This would have given the PDs up to 6 mandated public reps, and another pool of local election candidates who could have been potential spokespeople for national maaters, while keeping an eye on their local area. Unfortunatly, as the PDs slept, McDowell, Parlon, O Gorman, and Tim O Malley either publicly departed or receeded into the background. In the end, we were left with a virtually unaffiliated Minister For Health, a backbencher who was anxious to move back to Fianna Fail, and two senators who had 7 years local expereince and 5 years Oireachtas experience between them. We lost sitting councellors, and potential returns to the concil were never approached in a robust manner.

The partyy was as good as dead in May 2007

getcover

Who joined FG?

Permabear

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deadhead13

donegalfella wrote: »

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The PDs had to be "radical or redundant". To remain radical, the party would have had to stayed in opposition. Getting into to bed with FF inevitably led to redundancy.

The PD's raison d'etre was O'Malley's hatred of Haughey. How many of the original 14 TDs were genuine advocates of social and economic reform is questionable. Polilictians are pragmatic. As a new party they needed to take up a position that was clearly distinctive than that of FF. They took on the cloak of Thatcher and Reagan.

It is all very well to have a bold and defiant manifesto, implementing it is another matter. While lower taxes on capitol, corporate and personal income cause an explosion in economic activity. FFs core voters did very well out of the result, so they were happy to go along. The PDs never seriously campaigned for liberal social or welfare reform. FF, the most populist of politicial parties, simply wouldn't have allowed such reforms to be in the programme for government. FF and the PDs knew such policies would not have widespread support among the electorate and would lose votes.

As much as I am sure you dislike FF and their statist ways, it must be remember the PDs kept FF in power for 14 years.

Permabear

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The_Minister

thebigcheese22 wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0324/breaking49.htm

Personally, I am delighted with this news. As a Labour member, when I heard he was in talks with Eamonn Gilmore, I was shocked and disgusted.

This man was supposed to revive the PD's and instead was the one who put it 6 feet under (which I am thankful for)

The last few lines are telling -

'The fourth PDs leader, who is based in Carrabane, Athenry, had been in talks with Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore. He also had a preliminary discussion with a Fianna Fáil representative.'

This man is a political whore IMO.

:rolleyes:Didn't seem to bother you when you took a councillor, and a raft of the membership. By my count, more ex-PDs have joined Labour since the vote to end the party, then have joined Fianna Fail.


As an ex-Progressive Democrat, I have no ill-will towards Cannon. He was articulate, knowledgeable and intelligent any time I heard him speak, and some of his ideas were profoundly liberal. I wish him well in his political career, and I don't put any blame for the demise of the party on him.

Realistically, I thought that Fine Gael was the best party for him to be in, but I think he could have made a home for himself in either Labour or Fianna Fail.