Ganley's Euro hopes fade but Joe Higgins enters reckoning (Irish Times polls)

nesf

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0530/1224247749147.html?digest=1

Interesting reading. Ganley looks screwed, Kathy Sinnott may make a comeback in South (boo!!), Joe Higgins might replace Mary Lou in the European Parliament (a good deal if you ask me) and Nessa Childers looks on track to take Fine Gael's seat in the East constituency.

Agent Smith

nesf wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0530/1224247749147.html?digest=1

Joe Higgins might replace Mary Lou in the European Parliament

Yeah, i could live with that i think.

sink

I too could live with Joe over and above Mary Lou, Patricia Mckenna and Caroline Simmons. At the moment i'm thinking of putting Eoin Ryan first followed by Joe Higgins just to keep those three out.

MrMatisse

It would bring E.U politics to a greater audience if joe higgins got elected, the rants hed go on would be pure box office.

Hitman Actual

Wow, Pat the Cope is a bloody vote magnet! I thought FF were screwed in the NW when Neachtan withdrew.

Great to see Ganley stalled on 9%. And it would be nice to see Mary Lou gone as well.

ionix5891

Hitman Actual wrote: »

Great to see Ganley stalled on 9%. And it would be nice to see Mary Lou gone as well.

its like xmas all over again

BlitzKrieg

when will we know the results, would we know by the the night of the 5th of june?

I know the nocturnal forum is going for drinks that night, but I wouldnt mind going for a european union forum drinks if the results were to be released.

Though if *some* people were to get wind of where Scafflow/Sink were in real life they would clearly try and car bomb them just for an easy time for the next referendum

ionix5891

im still rather disturbed by the fact that 1 in 10 here in west would vote for these "L" plate people

P. Breathnach

ionix5891 wrote: »

im still rather disturbed by the fact that 1 in 10 here in west would vote for these "L" plate people

9% is closer to 1 in 11. Still far more than I would like.

thebman

Hitman Actual wrote: »

Wow, Pat the Cope is a bloody vote magnet! I thought FF were screwed in the NW when Neachtan withdrew.

Used to work in fish industry according to FF website so that might explain why he is getting votes to go to Europe in Donegal.

Great to see Ganley stalled on 9%. And it would be nice to see Mary Lou gone as well.

I'd be surprised if Ganley got that percentage TBH. Libertas are a joke party as far as I'm concerned.

Mary Lou isn't that bad except I don't think she'd be pro-europe enough.

Funnily enough the same problem with Joe Higgins who is against the Lisbon treaty but a great entertainer it has to be said.

Moriarty

Even though I'm not sure if I agree with even one position of Joe Higgins', I'll be sticking him high up on my preferences. He's someone I can respect, someone who establishes their positions for unselfish motives and it's no harm at all having someone like that in parliament. We could do far worse, as some of the other names on the ballots around the country amply demonstrate.

nesf

Moriarty wrote: »

We could do far worse, as some of the other names on the ballots around the country amply demonstrate.

Indeed, even though his and my own politics are very divergent on most issues he's still a politician I'd have a lot of respect for. Trading Mary Lou for him as an MEP would a smart move by the electorate. She only managed something like 50% attendance last time around (versus the likes of Crowley who managed something more like 90%).

Scofflaw

thebman wrote: »

Used to work in fish industry according to FF website so that might explain why he is getting votes to go to Europe in Donegal.

Also, his family run the Templecrone Agricultural Co-operative Society ("the Cope", hence his nickname), which is a co-op retail chain up in Donegal.

Founded in 1906, it has a number of normal supermarkets as well as a full department store, a builders merchants and an agricultural division.

Something of a family record in job creation in the NW region, so.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Agent Smith

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

when will we know the results, would we know by the the night of the 5th of june?

I know the nocturnal forum is going for drinks that night, but I wouldnt mind going for a european union forum drinks if the results were to be released.

Though if *some* people were to get wind of where Scafflow/Sink were in real life they would clearly try and car bomb them just for an easy time for the next referendum

Polls for "Super Friday" (Local,European, bye-elections) close at 10pm on the night of the June 5th.

The Count (for dublin) Starts Saturday Morning on the 6th of June. If memory Serves me correct, from 2004, we should have the exit poll at 6am on Saturday, and results come trickeling in from around mid-day

BlitzKrieg

hmmm, takes the joy out of it.

How about a celebration drink if libertas gets 0 seats.

we could get even have different tiers depending how it turns out:

3 seats for libertas: no beers, instead I'll start application for nationalisation in Canada.

2 seats for libertas: No beers but online jeering at the one candidate who couldnt hyperbole as much as his/her fellow party members

1 seat for libertas: Beers to wish Ganley good luck sitting all alone in parliament for the next five years.

0 seats for libertas: Celebration Beers

0 seats for libertas and Kathy Sinnott out of parliament: Hookers and Coke for all.


well that will be my personal scale.

P. Breathnach

nesf wrote: »

Indeed, even though his and my own politics are very divergent on most issues he's still a politician I'd have a lot of respect for.

I respect his sincerity and integrity, and enjoy some of his carefully-crafted jests. But I have no liking for his political views, which I consider naive and potentially very divisive.

Trading Mary Lou for him as an MEP would a smart move by the electorate. ...

I think we are very deeply in the mire of least-worst.

kevteljeur

It's not a great state of affairs, when we're making choices based on 'least-worst' for our voting choices. I'm not sure how that could be resolved though.

Do we need a new party to vote for?



.

spank_inferno

Its most surprising to see Nessa Childers doing so well in Leinster.

despite the blanket election poster coverage does anyone know anything about this woman?
I've never heard or seen her speak to the media. Whenever I've seen her she's been in the shadow of Gilmore or whatever local councillor may be in that area they are campaigning in.

It seems that once she's not FF thats sufficient.

ixtlan

spank_inferno wrote: »

Its most surprising to see Nessa Childers doing so well in Leinster.

despite the blanket election poster coverage does anyone know anything about this woman?
I've never heard or seen her speak to the media.

Heard her on the radio a few days ago. Sounded quite reasonable. In particular I was impressed at her honesty that she was not an "expert" on agriculture and the CAP. Unfortunately she was of course savaged by the other candidates on this point, which I considered somewhat unfair. Yes, the CAP is important, but I'm sure she can get a grip on it. Personally I don't consider it the most important attribute of a condidate that they should be a farmer.

Also of interest... she was originally a Labour councillor, left to join the greens and become a Green councillor, retired from politics for personal reasons, then later wanted to go back into politics and was invited by Labour to return to them.

ix.

nesf

ixtlan wrote: »

Heard her on the radio a few days ago. Sounded quite reasonable. In particular I was impressed at her honesty that she was not an "expert" on agriculture and the CAP. Unfortunately she was of course savaged by the other candidates on this point, which I considered somewhat unfair. Yes, the CAP is important, but I'm sure she can get a grip on it. Personally I don't consider it the most important attribute of a condidate that they should be a farmer.

Well bluntly the finer details of something like CAP are exactly why MEPs get an allowance to pay for research staff. It's utterly unreasonable to expect people standing for European elections to be fully versed in EU policy if they haven't previously held the seat.

View

ixtlan wrote: »

Yes, the CAP is important, but I'm sure she can get a grip on it.

I suspect it won't take her too long to figure out the politics of CAP. I'd say it goes something like:
a) "The proposed cut-backs are so severe they won't leave a farmer in the country - they must be opposed at all costs"
b) "The Grants for X, Y and Z aren't adaquate and need to be increased by 20% immediately, otherwise argiculture will be so badly hit it'll make the Famine seem like a picnic"

Anyone else got some doom-and-gloom statements to add to the above?