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Why is the Irish Labour party such a failure ?

  • 21-02-2022 2:21pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 381 ✭✭ Ballycommon Mast


    SF are only one General election away from having their leader in the office of Taoiseach, The Irish Labour party is the oldest political party in the country yet they've never even been the main opposition party like SF are today. When you consider that the modern day version of SF had only 1 Dail seat 25 years ago and 5 seats 12 years ago, it really is pathetic that Labour who had an 80 year headstart blew it all.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 16,720 ✭✭✭✭ Donald Trump



    "Populist" has a meaning. Wikipedia is a starting point for anyone confused. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism


    For an even quicker overview, simple English wikipedia is here https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism



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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,531 ✭✭✭ WrenBoy


    'Frankfurt's Way or Labour's Way" ... that was the end for them



  • Registered Users Posts: 381 ✭✭ Ballycommon Mast


    Corbyn wasn't really the problem for the British labour party, they got a very good result in the 2017 general election under his leadership. It all went tits up for the British labour party when a second Brexit referendum became their policy.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,705 ✭✭✭ CrabRevolution


    The "Every political party is populist" is such a bogus and blatantly untrue argument. Anyone who uses it clearly doesn't know what populist means.

    If all politics is populism, why do they bother having 2 different words for it? And at that, 2 words that have 2 totally different meanings.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,332 ✭✭✭ rock22


    I think you sum it up very well,, Bannasidhe.

    But in addition, they got onto the same band wagon as FFG in spurning any advance from SF regarding coalition talks. They were clearly happier with talking to FF and FG . In that situation they reinforced their irrelevance because if they were not going to participate in a broadly left leaning government that what was the point of the Labour party. There was a time when Labour would have been agitating to lead such a broad coalition.

    Kelly didn't help pushing the water charges, even after the government fell. Any shift from general taxation to individual charges is a transfer of wealth from the less well off to the better well off but Labour either couldn't see that or refused to recognise it.



  • Registered Users Posts: 24,013 ✭✭✭✭ blanch152


    If you look at politics through the lens of achieving change, well Labour have achieved far more than any of the smaller parties. The only one to come close in those terms are the Greens. As for Sinn Fein, they have yet to achieve anything of note, other than stopping killing people.

    It is true that Labour lost the opportunity to permanently replace FF, but they have a long list of reform achieved in government, going back decades.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,203 ✭✭✭ jmcc


    Labour is very much the Irish Times/RTE dinner party now. It is not the party of the Dublin middle classes though. The Greens are essentially, as someone described them, "FG on bikes". There was an influx of the type of people who would have formerly joined Labour after Labour imploded int 2016 and they, in true Stickes/Labour fashion, tried to take over the Greens and replace Eamon Ryan but, much like Labour, failed. The Greens are very different from the continental Greens who tend to be more Left-wing and almost Communist. The Irish Greens are more Right-wing. The problem for Labour is that in its move to the Right, Labour became more extreme than FG. It is now competing for the same Right of centre votes as FF/FG/Greens. It has also been replaced at the trade union by SF. There isn't really a political niche for the party now and its TDs are simply elected on their own personal vote rather than on any ideologically Labour party vote.

    Regards...jmcc



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,272 ✭✭✭ landofthetree


    Why would "working class" people vote for them?

    They already pay no tax and get loads of welfare.

    SF will give you even more.

    Eg

    A couple on 45k with 2 kids pay no tax when you include the children allowance. What more will Lab do for you? **** all. Might as well vote SF or PBP.



  • Registered Users Posts: 19,081 ✭✭✭✭ El_Duderino 09


    I think they represent the interests of poorer people ( well, society at large including poor people) but they talk like middle class, educated people -because that's what they are. Isn't it interesting that they're most successful in leafy, South Dublin? People who are generally doing alright and are happy to vote for a party that will probably tax them a bit more to provide services for the less well off. And somehow both Labour and the South Dublin voters are seen as gobshytes rather than people who are happy to put their money where their mouth is for a better country.

    Maybe people think Labour should learn to ham up North side Dublin accents and forget their grammar and start exchanging th for d in their speech, but I doubt that would make their detractors happy either. I think they're authentic - and authenticity doesn't usually win elections.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 19,081 ✭✭✭✭ El_Duderino 09


    Yeah that's probably a fair assessment. They really should.have hammered home that this was their issue for decades send the other parties had a last minute conversion the weeks before the referendum when it was clear it was popular.



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