Social Democrats

Annasopra · 05-01-2023 2:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120067175#Comment_120067175

No. I genuinely didnt know who you were talking about but that makes sense cause Linda Hayden was never a councillor.

banie01 · 05-01-2023 2:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120065814#Comment_120065814

I only realised yesterday that the victim at the centre of this one is a friend of my son's. This matter has been known about for months, and the manner in which Soc Dems have handled it doesn't do much to inspire confidence. Look cards on the table, I think they are a mediocre party who are all too often left scrambling for answers when hard questions are asked and action expected. How has this incident been handled, and, in particular, the length of time taken to be seen to take any form of action? Are indicative of the party's effort to put off accountability. Best wishes to the victim in this case and I hope that lessons are learnt.

AndrewJRenko · 05-01-2023 3:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120068823#Comment_120068823

How many more options do you want, given that we already have Labour, SDs, Greens (left-ish at least), PBP and more? What would a 'sensible left wing' party be offering that none of these already offer?

Dyr · 05-01-2023 3:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120068823#Comment_120068823

Saying that theres a market for a sensible left wing parties is a bit like saying that there's a market for Unicorns

For Forks Sake · 05-01-2023 3:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120067185#Comment_120067185

And that's pretty much it. Can't even decide on a leader let alone a substantive policy.

Silentcorner · 05-01-2023 3:39pm

It's a fairly damning indictment to say that since they lost Donnelly the party has seemingly regressed. I mean Donnelly is hopelessly incompetent.

cheese sandwich · 05-01-2023 4:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120068823#Comment_120068823

Not in Ireland there isn’t. All our left wing parties espouse various versions of magic money tree economics. The electorate doesn’t want to be told that there’s no such thing as a free lunch

nullzero · 05-01-2023 5:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120068895#Comment_120068895

She was a candidate for the social Democrats in the last general election, you're into hair splitting territory now and only saying this because another poster mentioned it earlier.

Odd that you didn't post that response until somebody else said it first, usual level of sh*thousery I've come to expect from certain quarters here.

Ultimately the social Democrats have had to members of their party involved in scandals in the last couple of years, one for posting racist nonsense on twitter and now another for allegations of grooming.

Yurt2 · 05-01-2023 5:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120069683#Comment_120069683

I know this thread is by-in-large a give the Soc Dems a kick fest, but the reality is, they are pretty much the only party where in their manifesto at election time it explicitly didn't recommend swinging tax cuts in an effort to preserve public services.

And that's quite the opposite of what you're stating about them.

05-01-2023 5:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120069878#Comment_120069878

You're into hair splitting territory now and only saying this because another poster mentioned it earlier.

In fairness it was you that started this with the incorrect information. Saying its splitting of hairs when its due to you being wrong is a bit rich to be honest. You made an error, took offense when queried on it and got snarky when your error was pointed out.

Maybe just hold up your hands and say you made an error and move on

nullzero · 05-01-2023 6:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120070005#Comment_120070005

The error being that I described an Soc Dem election candidate as a Councillor (a position they would have held had they not had to cut ties with the party for posting racist crap on twitter).

I've had previous interactions with the poster I last quoted and I believed their response to be "a bit rich" also as they were parroting something another poster pointed out in a childish fashion, in fact the tone of both their posts on this thread replying to me felt to me to have been made in bad faith.

Anyway, I'm happy to admit my mistake however minor I may feel it was it was an error. My sincere apologies to anyone who was upset or triggered by it and I wish said people a speedy recovery from the anguish I unintentionally caused them.

Annasopra · 05-01-2023 6:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120069878#Comment_120069878

What? I asked a question because I genuinely hadnt a clue what you were talking about.

nullzero · 05-01-2023 6:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120070084#Comment_120070084

Ok.

Take care.

Montage of Feck · 05-01-2023 7:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120069097#Comment_120069097

One that looks out for the interests of the working man and facilities a functioning welfare state. Probably way too much to be asking for I know.

Galwayguy35 · 05-01-2023 9:13pm

The SDs looking for votes from university educated liberal urban voters, they know they haven't a hope of getting anywhere in working class or rural areas.

If the 2 old queens called it a day and let someone else lead the party it might make a small difference but not much.

Bit surprised they didn't get anywhere in Galway city, I'd have thought they would be just the kind of candidate the townies would go for.

AndrewJRenko · 05-01-2023 9:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120070368#Comment_120070368

Could you be a bit more specific about what kind of policies you would expect, and what kind approach you would expect about participating in coalition governments as a minority party?

Loafing Oaf · 05-01-2023 9:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120069880#Comment_120069880

swinging tax cuts

the kind favoured by the bould Frank in his late Republican phase

Sleepy · 06-01-2023 4:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120067185#Comment_120067185

The main thing for me atm is that they're not lead by Ivana Bacik. How anyone capable of being elected to Dail Eireann could row in behind a misandrist with a track record of misrepresenting her electoral mandate is beyond me... it's a shame because I like our local Labour candidate a lot but can't give her a meaningful preference until Labour are rid of Bacik.

Ideally, tbh, the SDs and Labour will re-merge at some point in the future. They're both chasing the same socialist-leaning urban vote and I'd imagine transfers between the two parties are very high anyway.

Foxtrol · 06-01-2023 4:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120074417#Comment_120074417

Thus has always been the way of the alphabet soup left - they spend their time either coalescing or splitting as for the former they realise they can never hit a critical mass separately but once together the latter kicks pretty quickly and they then split as certain members either, 1) have delusions of grandeur and want to lead but can't win an internal election, 2) can't deal with only agreeing with the party on 99% of the issues, 3) can't deal with having to make hard choices while in power.

God help us trying to keep track of the different left groups and independents if there was ever a coalition of the left that got into power - there would be TDs dropping like flies after every decision.

AndrewJRenko · 06-01-2023 5:25pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120074417#Comment_120074417

And that's why the centre parties will continue to hold power. Well done.

thegame983 · 06-01-2023 5:30pm

Can't believe i used to vote for these clowns.

Sleepy · 06-01-2023 5:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120074817#Comment_120074817

If you feel comfortable voting for someone who regards you as a second class citizen and whose track record shows they can't be trusted, you go right ahead. The SDs have had high preferences from me in every election they've run a candidate in a constituency that I'm voting in. Labour did in the past and likely will again when they change their leadership. As long as Bacik is calling the shots, however, they'll merely be used as a buffer between candidates I like and those I wouldn't trust to change a lightbulb without burning the house down.

I'm probably the demographic that both Lab and the SDs are after (or should be): I'm pretty far to the left of FG; I despise FF for their corruption, populism and cute hoor view of the world; consider SF to be imbeciles and would see PBP and the other far left parties as hopelessly naïve (I probably share a lot of ground with them in terms of what an "ideal society" would look like but I'm realistic enough to know that isn't achievable in a small, open, island economy on the periphery of Europe in a globalist world). Luckily we don't really any right wing party of any size to be worried about.

Honestly, however, I think like most of the country (judging from electoral performance at least) I'm not all that worried about us having centrist parties in power. Most of us have to vote by holding our noses, choosing our least favourite candidate and working up the ballot paper from there and, if you compare us to our neighbours, let's face it, we're not doing too badly. Yes, we have a housing crisis: so too does most of the developed world. Sure, social mobility could be a lot better, but it's far better here than in the UK: living on the dole ain't easy but it's at least possible in the short to medium term, access to education is pretty decent and there's virtually full employment.

We've elected a few corrupt officials who've lined their pockets at our expense but we've yet to have a Boris Johnson, Liz Truss or Donald Trump make any real ground electorally. Mary Lou is a hypocritical idiot imo but I do, at least, think that she genuinely believes she and her party could do better for the people than the current government.

AndrewJRenko · 06-01-2023 7:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120074901#Comment_120074901

So a centrist pretending that they would have voted for left wing people, if only they’d have moved to the centre.

Hotblack Desiato · 07-01-2023 3:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120067185#Comment_120067185

No Alan Kelly

Luxembourgo · 07-01-2023 8:16am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120069880#Comment_120069880

They also show zero interest in actually being in government, or making actual decision.

Their support of zero covid shows the amount of critical thinking going on in that party.

Which is a shame. I really like our local SocDem, but when they have no interest in governing its hard.

Gary Gannon was a breath of fresh air a few years ago, but he's just become another identikit left politician shouting from the sidelines with zero actual ideas.

Sleepy · 09-01-2023 11:20am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120075484#Comment_120075484

I'd be well left of centre on most political issues and my issue with Labour atm isn't one of them being too far left, it's about them having a sexist, untrustworthy leader. The Social Democrats have had my vote in the last two elections (well, it transferred to them on one as I gave 1st preference to a local candidate I knew had no hope but who I wanted to see get his deposit back).

PBP and the other far left parties often have a nice vision for a utopian society but they're too fragmented to be able to effectively work together in government and, frankly, many of their ideas would destroy the Irish economy as they'd need to be enacted globally in order to work (e.g. while I'm all for massively increasing corporation and wealth taxes, doing so in a vacuum simply makes Ireland less competitive on the global stage and leads to capital flight - such moves need to be carried out at least EU wide to reduce their downside imho).