Social Democrats

griffin100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275581#Comment_120275581

Shortall was in a Health portfolio when in government and ran away after 18 months in the job. It's easy to snipe from the sidelines but as she found out when in a position of responsibility much harder to get stuff done.

If Gannon is elected as Leader then the party is doomed. He'll do for Soc Dems what Kelly did for Labor.

NewbridgeIR

Hopefully Linda Hayden will get the nod.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276068#Comment_120276068

That's glossing over a lot of the details of how her time in the Health department went down.

No doubt had she stayed quiet people would be accusing her of aiding and abetting corrupt practices.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275958#Comment_120275958

same demographic also view SF as to rough

And insuffiently woke, or can be persuaded that they are on certain issues by SF's rivals on the left.

https://www.independent.ie/news/sinn-fein-will-not-pander-to-the-dup-on-abortion-vote-in-north-td-says-40993123.html

There has been criticism of Sinn Féin’s actions in failing to oppose the bill, with Social Democrat TD Holly Cairns saying that its actions are “not the actions of a pro-choice party”.

Be prepared for piles more of this in the run-up to the election as the new SD leader, be it Cairns or someone else, competes with Bacik to highlight every little deviation from the woke gospel on the part of SF.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275482#Comment_120275482

15 in a 175 would only be keeping the same as now (13 in 160) basically; you would really want to get to 20 from a merger bounce.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276068#Comment_120276068

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276068#Comment_120276068

Shorthall is quite possibly the biggest waffler to ever sit in the Dail

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276068#Comment_120276068

Agree , the guy is Gormless

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276165#Comment_120276165

There’s a line somewhere between not staying quiet and not walking away from Government.

MegamanBoo

I think the country is crying out for a government that's left leaning economically, especially concerning housing and health.

Labour lost any credibility with their last stint in gov. They'd be doing us all a favour really by calling it a day.

Ff have abandoned their historical centre left position.

SF have some less than ideal associations, though imo no worse than Ffg cronyism and corruption.

I'd vote SD 1, SF 2 if they put out a half decent candidate in my constituency.

Water John

Hopefully HC gets the gig.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276611#Comment_120276611

FF has never been further left than they are now under Martin , every party in the Dail is centre left to far left economically

MegamanBoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276661#Comment_120276661

Really, I'm genuinely interested to know why you think that?

They chose to go into gov with Fg rather than SF.

They just throw money at developers for housing.

I've no idea what Donnelly's trying to do with health other than spout management speak.

Annasopra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275995#Comment_120275995

Never heard of him. Is he supposed to be prominent?

Annasopra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276620#Comment_120276620

If Holly Cairns has any sense she wouldnt take it on. FG want their seat back there and will annihilate her. Being party leader and in an election where your seat is in danger of bring lost is not a good mix.

Annasopra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276694#Comment_120276694

Donnellys whole political career has been speaking management gobbledegook. I never understood how people thought he was a good communicator.

kazamo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276611#Comment_120276611

If SF/SD etc formed the next government, would we notice much of a difference.

Opposition benches are full of grandstanders and rent a quote merchants but I don’t see any quick fixes in either housing or health. Having said that, FFG have their own fair share of wafflers and dodge the question experts too.

I despair when I see what we have representing us

subpar

The Social Democrats and Labour have a combined first preference vote in the region of 10%. That is the average vote that Labour achieved over its history. The SD's are mainly an off shoot of Labour and the 2 parties share many policy positions. A merger sooner or later would appear inevitable, perhaps with a name of the Social Democratic and Labour Party . This could possibly lead to a further merger with the S.D.L.P. up north. Could be very interesting in an all Ireland scenario.

farmingquestion

I first came across the Soc Dems I think in 2015 during the general election debates. Stephen Donnelly was representing them and I watched the debate with a friend. We both agreed Donnelly was one of the only ones speaking sense, talking about needing to reduce the cost of living instead of trying to increase incomes. I thought they were going places.

But when Donnelly left and the more time went on, they showed they the political party for students unions presidents.

They are extremely work and living in a fantasy land.

They also favour women above men. Go check their facebook and see if you can find any post from them wishing a happy International mens day. Then do the same for International Womens day. I think they also support the idea that a gender wage gap exists due to maltreatment of women. I remember them boasting about 60% of their candidates being women.

They embarrassed themselves by allowing Ellie Kisyombe to run for election. A proven liar and bogus asylum seeker and they backed her.

Which brings me onto Gary Gannon, who threatened to leave the party is she wasn't put forward for election. Gary is a councillor. All he does is focus on things in the north inner city that he'd probably make more headway as a councillor. Worst attendance record in the country too.

Holly Cairns is ok. She is popular online because she's woke. I find her an idealist and living in a fantasy land. I think she gets far too emotional rather than operating logically. The fact she was in bed with a Fianna Fail TD up until maybe a year or two ago also calls into question her character imo. How could you be in a relationship with someone who has fundamentally different values?

I really didn't like her first contribution as a TD in the height of the pandemic was to ask about maternity leave for elected officials. I think she was planning on having a baby with O'Sullivan would be my guess.

I remember in 2019 one of their candidates for local election spelled their own name wrong on their election posters, which just about sums them up.

Another big thing is that they were 0 covid supporters!

They're not a serious party and they're not going anywhere.

farmingquestion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276068#Comment_120276068

They'll elect a woman, they are pro woman, not pro equality.

For Forks Sake

In The Future, Everyone Will Be Soc Dems Leader For 15 Minutes

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276694#Comment_120276694

Martin has prioritised courting the WOKE liberal urban vote over the socially conservative traditional rural base of the party , on social issues, he could easily be in the Greens or Labour

economically he has consistently governed as a big government tax and spend politician of the centre left, FG have spent like drunken sailors as well but Martin has aimed to be even more of a public spending advocate

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276774#Comment_120276774

Absolutely, Donnelly is a walking talking power point presentation, he’s long been found out for the chancer he is

Covidhaveago

I doubt FG will blow her out of the water in CSW. FG not doing any better nationally than their result in 2020 and unclear so far that they have an outstanding candidate waiting in the wings.

Cairns was a surprise winner but has only increased her profile in the constituency since. Would also expect SF to perform even stronger than they did in 2020 which will be problematic for Cairns.

whatever happens, CSW will be interesting to watch in the next GE, particularly if there are big boundary changes. A far cry from the days of 2 FG/1FF or vice versa as was the case for many years!

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276934#Comment_120276934

She’ll probably hold her seat , South West Cork always has a left of field hippy demographic, she’s a real looker too and heaven knows their ain’t many of those in the Dail , she’s the anti Bacik in that regard

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275672#Comment_120275672

Lol, worst response to a post on Boards I've ever seen. What a tulip.

Galwayguy35

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276611#Comment_120276611

Well you can leave me out of that, I hate everything about the left.

Larbre34

We've never had a Government right-of-centre in this Country.

Why?

There are no right wing parties in Ireland. Every administration since the foundation of the State has been socialist. Even FG have spent most of their time in power increasing the welfare state, raising taxes and enlargening the public sector.

Bet that shocks you when you look at the numbers eh?

MegamanBoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120277289#Comment_120277289

We have a right wing government.

It's centre right which I'm guessing isn't right enough for you.

MegamanBoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120276907#Comment_120276907

Ffg know they have the rural conservative vote in the bag. They'll pay lip service to more 'woke' issues to pull in gullible younger voters.

I think to a certain extent these days they don't have a social position, beyond what their analysts tell them plays well on social media.

Whether they're big spenders or not is debatable, what isn't is how much goes to the private sector.

CorkRed93

bunch of dweebs on here spamming the word woke